Daybook 01-17-11

Outside My Window... white snow, dead corn stalks, trees....looks very cold and gloomy. That's it, I'm staying inside today.

I Am Listening To... the dryer and the furnace. The fan motor for the furnace is on it's last legs. A new one has been ordered, but until it is installed the furnace is very loud.

I Am Wearing... black t-shirt, camo lounging pants, green fleece sweater, brown slippers. I'm practicing for hunting season.

I Am Grateful For... my faith.

I Am Reading... The 17 Day Diet. 'Nuff said.

I Am Creating... continuing to work on my liturgical/family life perpetual calendar.

Towards a Real Education... finishing up Term 2 this week, and we've got some fun things planned, like decorating clipboards and painting some canvas frames I found!

To Live the Liturgy... lots of Saints to discuss this week, St. Antony, St. Margaret, St. Agnes

I Am Hoping and Praying... for some very personal intentions.

From the Kitchen... I bought some whole chickens, already seasoned and in oven bags for roasting. I put mine in the crock pot. It smells good, we'll see how it tastes.

One of my Favorite Things... being with my kids.

A Few Plans for the rest of the Week... ice-fishing (I'll take pictures)

Thrifty Thursday

Okay, here's the Back Story (the BS, remember?)...

I believe it was the-summer-of-the-dresser, and we were in town one day with my future in-laws. As we drove past a storage building for the cement company, I noticed a sign in front of the door which read "Men's Garage Sail." That is not a typo, it was really spelled incorrectly.

We had to stop.

Inside were various items needed for a man cave, like thingamajigs and whachamacallits. There was a table in the back covered with hand tools ~ hammers, pliers, screwdrivers. The sign taped to the table said, "tabel $5." Seriously. I approached the saleslady to ask about the sign. She cut me off and said, "no, it's not for the items on the table, it's for the table itself."

SOLD!

My husband and his parents thought I was nuts.

It was missing a few drawers, but I knew it would be an easy fix. After a bit of pleading on my part, we loaded the table on their truck.

We swapped out the old legs because I wanted to make it counter height, as I planned on using it like a kitchen island. Along with making new drawers, my FIL also reinforced the new legs with framework (I call it the I bar). I stained it to match the rest of the woodwork in the house, and used the same knobs as the rest of the cabinets.

This is one of my favorite pieces, and we get many, many, many compliments on our kitchen island/table.

Daybook 01-10-11

Outside My Window...cold, cold, cold. I don't think I'll be changing this line for several months.

I Am Listening To... my son playing Wii. My husband snoring. The dryer tumbling.

I Am Wearing... workout clothes. Really.

I Am Grateful For... today

I Am Reading... still savoring Home Comforts.

I Am Creating... still working on the liturgical/family life perpetual calendar. March and April are almost finished.

Towards a Real Education... almost finished with Term 2!

To Live the Liturgy... Ordinary time, a nice quiet week for us.

I Am Hoping and Praying... for an increase in my faith.

From the Kitchen... chicken in mushroom gravy, crockpot style.

One of my Favorite Things... staying home.

A Few Plans for the rest of the Week... meetings, wrestling, dance, HS Coop....

Thrifty Thursday

I decided to start spotlighting my thrift store treasures and garage sale finds. I don't get to shop them much in the winter, so right now I'll focus on previous treasures. Yes, I always find a treasure or two. And some even have a background story.

Here is one of my first purchases, and probably the favorite.

The Background Story

(I thought about using the initials BS in the future, but wasn't sure if you'd believe the stories!)

Seven years ago my husband noticed a garage sale ad in the local paper and drove over there. He was a day early because he didn't actually look at the dates. My husband is very friendly, talkative, and outgoing, and spoke with the woman for close to an hour before heading home. During their conversation he volunteered our services, and promised we would be at their farm the next morning at 6 am to help carry furniture out of their house and barn.

At the time we had been dating about a year and it was going to be the first weekend in months that I wasn't working. I'm not a late sleeper but I was really looking forward to not getting up early in the morning. And I lived a lot farther from this garage sale than he did!

We both showed up at their house at 6 am. No one was outside. We knocked on the door a few times and eventually woke them up. Their power had gone out during the lightening storm the night before so their alarm never rang. The men went out to the barn and she and I chatted over coffee, then got to work drying off tables and setting up for the sale.

As the men were carrying out furniture and farm tools, I saw this dresser. It was painted a hideous blue, but I knew I wanted it, and asked her the price. She was surprised, because she didn't care for it, but told me it would be free since we were helping them. I gave her some money anyway, because we weren't helping them in order to get free furniture.





You can still see the old blue paint if you look closely at the grain of the wood around some of the details. It took me three weeks to remove the paint and thoroughly clean the dresser, but it was worth every minute. It is in our living room, with the TV and VCR on top and all the movies and Wii games in the drawers.

Daybook 01-03-11 Lords A-Leaping!

Yes, it's the Tenth Day of Christmas!

Outside My Window...it is still dark and clear and cold. Will this ever end??

I Am Listening To... silence. Strike that. I am now hearing ice falling off the house.

I Am Wearing... my jammies as I'm ready to step into the shower.

I Am Grateful For... working toilets. Finally.

I Am Reading... still reading Home Comforts. I'm reading this one slowly, contemplating all the ideas and choosing which to try and incorporate. This will be a long process.

I Am Creating... a new desk liturgical/family life perpetual calendar. I've kicked the idea around for awhile. I'd love feedback, so if you are interested in seeing it leave a comment and I'll send you a pdf of January.

Towards a Real Education... Back to school!

To Live the Liturgy... finish celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas, Most Holy name of Jesus, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, Epiphany!

I Am Hoping and Praying... for friends who lost their baby this past week, and for other friends experiencing pregnancy after losing a baby; my step-father's knee surgery is today and I'm praying everything goes well.

From the Kitchen... would you believe we still have leftovers from WATT day? The roads were terrible so only my In-Laws were able to drive over, and they ended up in the ditch about 1/4 mile south of our driveway.

One of my Favorite Things... Mass.

A Few Plans for the rest of the Week... Dentist visits, wrestling, dance...