Daybook for 03/16/2010

FOR TODAY
(03.16.10)
Outside my window...faint tinges of gold are on the horizon as the night moves in.

I am thinking...that my sweet baby gets the hiccoughs a lot lately. It is mildly distracting but oh so cute. It is far more rhythmic than when The Diplomat is just kicking and squirming.

I am thankful for...my nephew's health and that his seizure last week was just a result of a high fever.




From the kitchen...there is a trend toward eating more organic foods. Beyond the health benefits, organic fruits and veggies seem to be far more flavorful.

I am wearing...pajamas. I know it is a bit early, but at least I am comfortable.

I am creating...lists and schedules. I am also still working on a baby blanket for my new niece or nephew.

I am going...to make dinner soon. Tuesday is a late dinner night here at Chestnut Hollow because Ish teaches a few night classes.

I am reading...way too many things at once.

I am hoping...that tomorrow's glucose tolerance test is the last one of this pregnancy.

I am hearing...very little at the moment. It is quite peaceful here right now; my upstairs neighbors must be out.

Around the house...there is some tidying to do.

One of my favorite things...is a restful night of sleep.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Tomorrow morning I have to get some bloodwork done, and then i have a date with the swimming pool. Tomorrow evening is the first night of Childbirth classes. Thursday is pretty free for now. Friday I will be going swimming again. Saturday Ish and I have Reading Workshop, and after that, we are going to a lecture that one of our friends is giving. Saturday evening we are having dinner with friends.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

"I will know it is spring when the cherry blossom tree has flowers on it"--Owen, 4yearsold

For more daybooks, join Peggy at The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Menu Plan Monday: 3/15-3/21

We didn't quite follow our menu plan last week. The day that we were supposed to have crockpot chicken Ish offered to make dinner instead, and we ended up eating with Ish's folks on Friday night. The pumpkin pancakes were a hit once we figured out what temperature to cook them on--we don't have a griddle, and it was our first time making pancakes on the stove here at Chestnut Hollow.

Dinners:

Monday: Veggie Melts on Garlic Nan, Apple Slices

Tuesday: Alfredo Mac & Cheese topped with Tomatoes, Carrot Sticks

Wednesday: BBQ Chicken, Baked Delicata Squash Rings, Salad

Thursday: Chicken Fajitas, Corn

Friday: Boca Burgers, Cheesy Broccoli and Rice, Pineapple

Saturday: NOTHING!!! (We're eating with friends at their home)

Sunday: Irish Spaghetti (I'm trying to make a meal with lots of leftovers to help Ish out when I am visiting my family for 8 days!)

For more meal planning ideas, head on down to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

On reading...

I am currently participating in a reading workshop, and after all of the discussions the group has had so far, I have taken a greater interest into finding out why people read and what they mean when they say they are a reader. Today, I found this article from the 11/25/2007 edition of the New York Times that tries to look at that same question. I don't think the journalist does an adequate job, but it is a start.

Daybook for 03/09/2010

FOR TODAY
(03.09.2010)
Outside my window...the birds are chirping and the squirrels are skittering about. It is a beautifully sunny 60 degree day.

I am thinking...that I need to do my Reading Workshop readings for tomorrow evenings meeting.

I am thankful for...my mother who answers some of my weirder pregnancy questions without making me feel like I am crazy.

From the kitchen...there are the remains of a delicious lunch. I have been craving a deli turkey sandwich for a few weeks, but I didn't want all the nitrites and nitrates that deli meat is teeming with. Since I was 40 dollars under budget with this weeks grocery shopping, I went to the local food co-op after my swim today and splurged on some organic turkey. They had some organic potato bread on sale for half-price and tomatoes equivalently priced to the non-organic ones at the super market. All of that plus a few other things I had been meaning to pick up still has me under budget for the week by 26 dollars.

I am wearing...A green short-sleeved maternity dress, a pair of charcoal grey maternity leggings, and a pair of flip-flops.

I am creating...the same thing as last week (and the week before)--a baby blanket.

I am going...nowhere else today unless I decide to take another walk.

I am reading...so many books.

I am hoping...to bake some banana bread for my sister-in-law tonight.

I am hearing...birds chirping outside, Ish shuffling through the papers he is grading, and voices of passersby.

Around the house...there is laundry to be done.

One of my favorite things...is the feeling of sunshine on my face.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Reading Workshop tomorrow, a swim on Thursday, and then I have no other plans until Mass on Sunday.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

April 2006, University of Delaware

For more daybooks, join Peggy at The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Menu Plan Monday: 3/8-3/14

I wasn't going to post my menu this week out of sheer laziness, and then I realized that I had already done the crux of the work by making the plan--typing it up is easy. The good news of this week is that Ish and I have decided to just eat late dinners when he has night classes. I am looking forward to this increase in cooking as it means a more regular meal plan.

Dinners:

Monday: Balsamic Zuchinni, Chicken and Tomatoes over rice. (This was so incredibly easy and delicious!)

Tuesday: Pumpkin Pancakes with Applesauce

Wednesday: Pineapple Salsa Chicken in the Crockpot, Brown Rice, Carrot Sticks

Thursday: Spicy black bean and tomato burritos, lemony avocado

Friday: Trader Joes Pesto Tortellini, Red Sauce, and a yet to be determined vegetable

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Barbecue Chicken, Cheesy Broccoli and Rice, Carrot Sticks


For more meal planning ideas, head on down to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

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Classic Literature! Get Your Classic Literature Here!

Okay, so maybe I am not going to provide you with any classic literature, but I just read an article about reading The Classics on BiblioBuffet that made me both chuckle and think. Without further ado:

Is This the Line for Faulkner's Latest?


Have you read any classic literature lately? What was it, and how did you like it? Also, if you have any good articles on reading to share, please do.

Monthly Reading List: February 2010

February was the month of starting and deciding against finishing books. There were several books that I began but ended up really not liking-one because it was poorly written, a second because whoever owned it before me must have been a smoker and I couldn't take the smell.
This amounted to a lot of wasted reading time. I have managed to finish a couple of smaller books this month.

Reading List for February 2010

The Way of the Cross for the Holy Souls in Purgatory (Revised) by Susan Tassone- I picked up this book at a local Catholic bookstore as an aid to my Lenten journey. I have been trying to be more conscientious about praying for the souls in Purgatory. I am very pleased with this book; not only does it outline the Stations of the Cross as an offering for the Holy Souls, but it also provides information about the origin of the practice of praying Stations as well as reflections from scripture and the saints.

The Rosary for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by Susan Tassone- I acquired this book at the same time I acquired my first reading selection and for the same reasons. This book provides a Scriptural Rosary for all 4 sets of mysteries as well as other Marian prayers. I was also quite pleased that this book offers instructions for praying the Rosary as now I can highly recommend it to beginners.

Currently Reading:

Super Reading Secrets by Howard Stephen Berg
Photoreading by Paul R. Scheele
How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Thirty-Day Devotions for the Holy Souls by Susan Tassone

What have you read this month? Any recommendations?

How Schooling Stole My Love of Learning...

...and How I am Taking It Back

For as long as I can remember, I have considered myself a person who loves to learn. Schooling, however, does not seem to have done me very well. Over the past few years, I have slowly started to realize that, despite its obviously contrary intentions, my formal education seems to have put a damper on my love of learning. Is this surprising? Not really. The question is: How did it happen?

One of the roots of the problem comes from institutionalized schooling. 13 years of public school taught me a few things about learning:

1. Self-directed learning is a mortal sin.

2. If you know more than you need to about what is being taught, then you might as well hop in the hand-basket headed directly to Hell.

3. The 11^th commandment is “Thou shall not write an essay that is more than 5 paragraphs”

4. If you don’t do a Science Fair Project, you will fail at life (or at least out of college).

5. Completing homework is the only reason children have to exist.

What’s that I hear? You mean that wasn’t what I was intended to learn? Oops!

Another issue, one that arose during my college years, was the feeling of being nailed down to a specific path specified by my major. Though I changed my major several times in college, I was ultimately an English major, and as one who holds a degree in English, I feel as though the majority of my required course work did a disservice to what it means to be a lover of the written word. There were a few courses that I took, two of them in my senior year, that kindled my passion for learning in a way none of my other courses did. It took me a while to figure out what made them different from everything else I had done in college. The reason has recently come to the surface, they allowed for some self-directed delight oriented learning. I wasn’t being told what I had to write about but instead to dig in and get my hands dirty. Why couldn’t all of my courses be like that? My figuring is that, despite being advertised as a venue for exploration and free exchange of ideas, colleges and universities are becoming more and more a continuation of the factory-system model that is perpetuated by public schools.

Where does this leave me? Well, after several years off from formal education, I am finally feeling the deep desire to begin to acquire a true education. I am starting to get the inkling that a mixture of self-directed learning with a few enrichment courses thrown in here and there might be where I am headed. I am in the early stages of planning my itinerary. What topics do I want to learn about, and how deeply do I want investigate each of those pathways? I suppose this leaves me on a quest.

Daybook for 03/02/2010

FOR TODAY
(03.02.10)
Outside my window...the sky is beginning to show the signs of waking; little streams of light are making there way in at the fringes of the closed blinds.

I am thinking...that The Diplomat's ears definitely respond to sound now. I can usually sleep through Ish's alarm; apparently The Diplomat cannot do the same.

I am thankful for...my brother being safely home in the United States after his tour of duty in Iraq; I got the chance to talk to him on the phone after dinner last night! I am also thankful for having passed my cardiology exam; I am cleared to have an out of hospital birth.

From the kitchen...there is lots of leftover Irish spaghetti, yum!

I am wearing...pajamas lent to me by Ish. I am about to out grow them. My mother has offered to reconstruct and put a lycra belly on a pair of my pre-maternity pajamas when I visit her at the end of the month. I think I will be taking her up on that offer.

I am creating...nothing new. I am still working on the scarf and baby blanket.

I am going...swimming!

I am reading...Girl in Hyacinth Blue and my Reading Workshop textbooks.

I am hoping...that the pool isn't too crowded today. Sometimes the entirety of the men's swim team decides to get in extra practice during recreational lap swim; as a very slow and relaxed swimmer the churning up of the water makes swimming a little bit less enjoyable.

I am hearing...very little at the moment. It's a quiet morning.

Around the house...there is laundry to put away and the kitchen floor needs a good sweeping.

One of my favorite things...is playing hockey (a card game) with my husband when we both need a little down time.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Nothing too out of the usual until Friday. Friday evening, Ish and I are going to a birthday party for our nephew Owen; I am still amazed that he will be 4. This weekend, my friend Genevieve comes to visit from MA. She is staying with another friend of hers, but will be spending time at Chestnut Hollow as well.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Cape May, NJ--February 2007--Sunset

For more daybooks, join Peggy at The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Menu Plan Monday: 3/1-3/7

Wow! It is hard to believe it is already March and that spring is almost here (this probably has something to do with the amount of snow still on the ground). Anyway, on to the meal plan:

Dinners

Monday-German Pancakes (held over from last week)

Tuesday- Pasta and bean salad (Ish@work)

Wednesday-Butter baked rice (healthified), BBQ chicken, Pineapple, Pepper sticks

Thursday-Yogurt, fruit, granola bar (Ish@work)

Friday-Pizza at Ish's parents' house to celebrate our nephew's 4th birthday

Saturday- Dinner with a group of friends (I may be cooking a turkey breast for this occasion)

Sunday- Lite Honey Mustard chicken, corn, carrot sticks, apple slices

For more meal planning ideas, head on down to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie!