My Day Book

Though I have a lot on my mind, I’m not sure any of it is blog worthy. So instead, I’ll participate in The Simple Woman’s Daybook questions …

Outside my Window… I see mist and fog. It always amazes me when mornings start out like this and then later, it becomes a perfectly beautiful, sunny day. In fact, this could be a metaphor for my mornings in general – I wake up groggy and less than attractive and then, by the time I’ve had my morning coffee, my “mood” burns off and I’m sunny and beautiful.

*pause*

HAHAHAHA. Okay, if you know me, I’m neither sunny nor beautiful, but hey, it sounded good, right? 😀

I am thinking… that I’m actually in pretty good shape, work wise. I spent most of the weekend tweaking the high school website and have cleaned out my pending folder … things are looking good – quiet – but good. Now I have time to work on my professional website and my NaNoWriMo outline.

From the learning rooms… I’m currently reading about the ins and outs of NASCAR. That’s the basis for my NaNoWriMo story and though I know a bit, I don’t REALLY know what goes on behind the scenes. And considering I plan on centering my story around a female race car driver *gulp*, I need to know this stuff. I do know I’m going to base my two lead male characters on Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards – one is moody and dark, the other is friendly and sunny. I’ll let you decide who is who. *wink* (And by the way, for you race fans, can you believe what happened to poor Kyle this weekend?? Wow, talk about a BUMMER).

I am thankful for… our good health. I’ve been sick this past week and am just now feeling like I can rejoin the land of the living. My oldest son brought home a DOOZY of a cold, which he very kindly shared with me and together, we’ve been hacking and blowing our brains out. I’m very thankful that none of us get sick very often.

From the kitchen… For those that know me, you know I’m not exactly THRILLED with any aspect of cooking – I do it simply to feed my guys, that’s all. However, I do plan weekly meals for the simple fact that I have no desire to think about cooking anymore than is absolutely necessary. I do need to make a run up to Harter House today though to buy some hamburger meat (I don’t buy meat from Wal-Mart – gross) and some beef stew chunks. We’re having baked spaghetti today and beef stew tomorrow. I LOVE crockpots – just throw crap in, turn it on and forget about it. My kind of cooking. Me and crockpots? We’re thisclose.

I am wearing… an apple green t-shirt and gray sweat shorts. After my shower? I’ll change the color of my t-shirt and run around in black gym shorts until it’s time to step out into the real world and then I’ll put on some jean shorts. What … you were expecting more? Pfft. I’m at home most of the day – who do I have to impress?

I’m like the world’s cheapest female … I’m tellin’ ya.

I am reading… Catherine Coulter’s Riptide. I haven’t started it yet, actually. I go through reading spurts. I might go for a solid one/two weeks not even cracking a book spine and then suddenly, the urge to read hits and it’s rare to find me doing anything ELSE. Much to my family’s chagrin.

I am hoping… that my husband hasn’t broken his toe. He jammed it, hard, into our treadmill last week and has been hobbling around ever since. The swelling really hasn’t gone down and it still hurts him to walk on it. I think he’s going to the doctor today – I hope it’s just a bad strain and nothing worse. Poor guy.

I am creating… pressure for myself. Various family members have been telling me about people they know who have either written books, or who have published books. I’m not quite sure how to respond to this. Do I take it personally because these people know that I would love to write and publish my own book? Are they challenging me to do the same? Are they rubbing it in my face? (No, I don’t think so, not these people). Or, more likely, am I taking it the wrong way and being too sensitive about it because I know that should be ME they’re talking about?

I have no one to blame for this, except myself.

I am hearing… silence. Well, except for my intestines rumbling, but we won’t talk about that. Even though my family pretty much does their own thing on the weekends, it’s not uncommon to hear various video games, a TV, my husband practicing his guitar or my iPod, er, stereo, thing going. These sounds were punctuated by GD’s persistent cough, the spin cycle of the washing machine and a neighbor’s lawn mower. My weekends are noisy, but in a comfortable way – if that makes sense.

Now? Silence. I hear the hum of the refrigerator, the whir of my computer’s hard drive and the soft buzzing of the ceiling fan. I always appreciate and savor the silence on Mondays – I’m usually sick to death of it by the time Friday rolls around.

Around the house… I am burning an Autumn Leaves Yankee candle (can you smell it? Aaaahhhhh. I burn candles to disguise the fact that I haven’t dusted in months – I know, I’m clever like that. Feel free to steal that idea *wink*) and I need to clean my husband’s bathroom. (Why yes, we do have his and hers bathrooms – you don’t? *grin*). I cleaned my bathroom in record time right before my parents came over on Saturday because I was afraid they would have to use it and be grossed out. That’s the only time I clean house – when someone is coming over. That’s why the husband likes people coming over. *smirk*

Oh, and the bathtub needs some SERIOUS attention today. I think I saw something move in there earlier. It might have just been a mold shadow, though. Ugh, how’s that visual for you.

One of my favorite things… is to have a sweet-smelling home. I love Yankee candles … other than disguising the musty undertones, it just perks me up and makes me happy. Isn’t there some study that says smells can alter your moods? Hence the reason I burn sweet-smelling candles – to butter my husband up right before I tell him about the (new!) Amazon.com amount on the credit card. 🙂

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week… Well, other than what I’ve written about above, my goal is to make this week easy on my guys. I’ll take the boys out for our weekly treat either Tuesday or Wednesday, I’ll continue to make website updates, get some writing done, have lunch with my mom Tuesday, have lunch with my man on Wednesday and be a good wife/mom. (It’s a nonhormonal week – that’s doable, actually. *grin*)

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you…

This is the husband sealing our driveway. Yes, we have the world’s shortest driveway. And yes, it’s AWESOME in the winter because being asphalt and on the south side of the building, snow and ice melt really fast so we never have to shovel.

I still can’t believe he was out there doing that. Not only was his toe hurting and he was basically standing on one leg to baby the other, he wasn’t feeling that great (I think he was trying to catch what GD and I had). This man’s energy never ceases to amaze me.

Do you see the strip of dead grass next to the driveway? The husband had to put weed killer down because we have these WICKED thick vines that are, for some strange reason, attracted to the asphalt and not only grow toward the driveway, but burrow UNDER the asphalt so that when we pull the suckers out, it also loosens the asphalt. Isn’t that crazy?? So, the husband put weed killer down to draw a line, so to speak. We just paid out the nose to have our driveway replaced, we are not about to let some weird plant thing destroy it.

I’m SO THANKFUL I have a man who’s motivated to do things around the house.

Seriously. Because I’m not.