Diary of 5--February Post

I am seeing...my daughter playing her Wii game

I am hearing...my daughter crashing into things on her Wii Game (looks like a pattern here, doesn't it?

I am smelling...damp air

I tasted...peanut butter pretzels 

I am feeling...warm in spite of the coolness of the air--I am under a blanket.


I have linked up with Diary of 5 here--so can you!

From Last Weekend's Brad Paisley concert!

Pretty on Pinterest--Winter

Welcome to Pretty on Pinterest! This meme is hosted by Simply Stacie and Sassy Mama in LA every Thursday where you can link up your posts on the theme of the week. Each week we will have a different theme for you to find pins you love on Pinterest and create a post to link up here.

This week’s theme is Winter.

As I write this, it is currently snowing, so winter is happening right outside my window.  Need to make your own snowflakes?

Source: shanty-2-chic.com via Ruth on Pinterest

Maybe you would like to make a snowman, but there is no snow where you are.  Here's a simple idea for you and kiddos!

Source: bluecricketdesign.net via Ruth on Pinterest

Or even this one!

Source: craftychicmommy.blogspot.com via Ruth on Pinterest

But I have to admit that I really love this idea!  I have made something similar to these several times, and they can be a mess and a pain, but I assure you that your kids will love them!

Source: myblackbook.free.fr via Ruth on Pinterest

Maybe you feel like celebrating the season of winter tonight.  Check this out!

Source: thisbottleofvodka.tumblr.com via Becky on Pinterest

Or if a hot drink to celebrate winter is more to your liking:

Source: weheartit.com via Ruth on Pinterest

And this is just too cute!!

Source: blog.mpmschoolsupplies.com via Ruth on Pinterest

So glad we are still in winter!

Source: Uploaded by user via Ruth on Pinterest

I want to thank Simply Stacie for this post.  That is why I can now embed pinterest links/pictures in my blog post!

Diary of 5--Sister Community to the Simple Woman's Daybook

I happened to find something really neat over at Diary of 5.  This is a new community that is a sister to the original Simple Woman's Daybook. And if you do this particular link-up, you are entered to win a surprise!

So I am in. 

____________________________________________________________

I am seeing...a computer with more work than I know I can accomplish tonight

I am hearing...a dishwasher running--it is kind of noisy since it if starting to wear out

I am smelling...I don't really smell anything--my allergies are acting up tonight

I tasted...McDonald's this evening!

I am feeling...rather tired and glad the week is drawing to a close

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Well, I happened upon this, and I thought I would give it a try for something different.  I am linking up at the Simple Woman's Daybook, so here goes.

FOR TODAY (1/9)

Outside my window...it is dark and cold.  It has been a kind of yucky, rainy day.  Typical of the Pacific Northwest.

I am thinking...about how my back aches after helping dig a trench yesterday.  I am also thinking about when the sore in my mouth will go away--pretty pathetic, eh?

I am thankful...for my health and my job.  I rarely have to go the doctor about anything.  And I almost always have a job--I am a substitute teacher, and I almost always find a job even when I think I won't.

In the kitchen...I just finished making some hamburger helper lasagna.  While not absolutely fantastic, it wasn't as horrible as it could have been, and it used up some ingredients I had on hand.

I am wearing...a grey sweatshirt with a winter scene and a cardinal on it, Mickey Mouse flannel pants, and pink slippers. Very comfortable.

I am creating...a wonderful blog post.  And I have some giveaways to list tonight!

I am going...to be going to see Brad Paisley, Scotty McCreary, and the Band Perry in concert with my daughter next month.  I am pretty excited.

I am wondering...what will be happening at this time next year.  Will Martin be saved?  Will my dad even still be living.

I am reading...several books just now.  I just began reading The Hunger Games, and I love it!

I am hoping...to get a job for tomorrow that will not involve a long drive!

I am looking forward to...accomplishing my goals this month!

I am learning...that God's timing is always perfect.

Around the house...it can be crazy sometimes with a mentally ill father, a tomboy daughter, a friend from England, a mother who is often exhausted (my mother), 14 cats, and a dog that would love to chase them!

I am pondering...whether I will ever get married again.  

A favorite quote for today...God is bigger than any of my problems.

One of my favorite things...is to blog!  I have grown to love blogging so much that I just can't get enough of it!

A few plans for the rest of the week: list giveaways on my blog, cook dinner, and this weekend take my daughter to open gym.

A peek into my day...Get up at around 5 A.M., get caught up on the computer and get ready for work, drive to work (sometimes up to an hour), substitute teach, work out at the gym, come home and cook dinner, blog and go through e-mails till around 10:30 P.M. or so, retire around 11:00 or 11:30 P.M. for the night.

Pretty on Pinterest: Week One-Diamonds

Well, I decided to jump on in in this new meme.  Here are the instructions:

Welcome to Pretty on Pinterest! This meme is hosted by Simply Stacie and Sassy Mama in LA every Thursday where you can link up your posts on the theme of the week. Each week we will have a different theme for you to find pins you love on Pinterest and create a post to link up here.

This week’s theme is Diamonds.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Follow Simply Stacie and Sassy Mama in LA on Pinterest.
2. Create a themed post using your favourite pins. Be as creative as you like just as long as it fits the theme in some way.
3. Link up your post on the linky below.
4. Visit other people’s posts and discover some new pretty pins for your collection!

Next week’s theme is Winter so start thinking about your post to link up next Thursday.

Link up your Diamond posts! We reserve the right to delete any posts that do not fit this week’s theme.

So here goes.  I found some interesting links on pinterest this week in keeping with the theme.  Okay, I did it tonight.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the money to go out and buy a diamond ring, so just in case you are looking for a cheap alternative, check this out:

How to make fake diamond ring out of aluminum foil

I didn't know you could make one from aluminum foil!  This would be terrific considering our current economic crisis!

But there is even a cheaper way to have that diamond you always wanted!

How to draw a diamond ring

I didn't know you could draw a diamond ring!  I wonder how many guys could get a girl to say yes with either of these!  

I really think this is a beautiful clip art for Valentine's Day!

And this Christmas decoration is outstanding, in my opinion!  I hope I could make it for next year!

In case you wonder, Christmas is something that I think about all year long.  And you can't beat Christmas and diamonds!

And for all the Martha Stewart fans out there ...

I doubt I would ever make these, but they are really pretty, and they are diamond-shaped.  

Actually, I would prefer these to the fake diamonds from early!

Looking forward to next week! Thanks, Simply Stacie!

Thoughtful Thursday--BBC List of Top 100 Must-Read Books

I did this once way back when.  It was over a year ago, so I am going to post it again.  


The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions:
• Copy this list.
• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.
• Italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.
• Tag other book nerds.


(I'm going to change this.  If I have read it since I last did it, I am going to change the text color to red.)

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The King James Bible 
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 
Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas HardyCatch 22 – Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 
Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
Emma -Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis 
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving 
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Dune – Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men – John SteinbeckLolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Germinal – Emile Zola
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession – AS Byatt
Christmas Carol – Charles DickensCloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Watership Down – Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet – William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


Now what about you?  I do have a couple of these on my list to read.  I certainly have read more than six of them!

A Remembering You Holiday MEME

I know I don't usually do this, but when I saw that author Tricia Goyer was doing a MEME that would give me a chance to win a prize, well, I thought I would go ahead and post this.  Here is the info from her site:

Here's how it will work…post and answer the below questions on your blog or Facebook. Then either tag specific people or tag your readers/friends (so they will answer share and answer the questions too). Then come back here and fill out the linky (below - under the photo where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER). Easy.

1. What's your favorite holiday song?


Beyond the shadow of a doubt, it is O Holy Night.  I never tire of hearing people sing this.  I never tire of hearing it myself.

2. What's your favorite holiday tradition?

I guess I would say holiday baking.  Baking special things for the holidays is always special.

3. If you could travel one place with an elderly family member where would you go?


That is a tough one.  I don't really have any elderly family members left alive.  My grandmother still is, but she is not in the best of health.  I guess I would say Germany since I know we have lots of family ties there.

4. What questions would you ask?


I think I have asked lots of questions of elderly relatives over the years.  I would want them to tell me about their relationship with God.  That is something elderly people do not always like to speak about.

5. What is a non-tangible gift have you received from an elderly relative?


I guess I would say time.  That is what my grandfather always gave me, and it helped shape me into the person I now am.

6. What is the best/worst/strangest gift you've received from an elderly relative?


The best gift--going to Disney World over Spring Break when I was in college.  By far the best!


Want your chance to win a prize pack?  Ten will be chosen to receive a 4-prize pack of Tricia Goyer books.   Do your own blog post or post on facebook your answers to these questions.  Do it before December 22nd!

Super Questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge

I haven't done this MEME before, and it looked like fun.

1. Will you watch the Super Bowl? If so who will you root for? If you are outside the USA what is the 'big deal sporting event' in your own country?

2. Is ignorance bliss?

3. Which of the seven dwarfs are you? (and just in case your Disney is a little bit rusty, here they are-Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy)

4. When you are riding in the car with another couple how do you organize the seating? (Men up front? Women up front? Couples sit together?) And thanks to Lori at Mountain Woman at Heart for the question! Everyone go say hi to Lori.

5. What is beauty?

6. If someone asks you to bring an appetizer or a dessert to a party in their home, which would you choose?

7. What is your crowd pleasing go-to appetizer?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Meet Me on Monday 16th Edition

Questions: 

1.  How many TV’s do you have in your home?

2.  What is on your bedside table (nightstand)?

3.  How many pair of shoes do you own?

4.  Can you change a flat tire?

5.  Do you prefer sweet treats or salty treats?

Saturday 9 Just Like Me

These  questions sound really good today!

1. Who in your life do you think behaves and thinks the most like you do?

2. As a kid, were you ever wrongly accused (and punished, if it went that far) for something you didn't do? If so, what was it? What happened?

3. What about as an adult, were you ever wrongly accused for something you didn't do?? Do you think it's worse to be accused as a child or an adult? Why/why not?

3. What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?

4. If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be and why?

5. Instead of going to work Monday, if you could spend the entire day doing something else--any one or two things that you absolutely love doing--what would you do?

6. What sites (other than meme sites) do you use most to help you post on your blog?

7. Check out a post on your blog from six months ago (March 2010) and tell us what is different now about your blog and/or life?

8. What was the last photograph you took?

9. Which fashion trend do you believe is the most horrendous and why?