Open House: Saturday, January 5

Outside my window:  
It's cold and wet.  The chickens are happily feasting on the apple peels the girls threw out to them earlier.  I wish it would ensure us some eggs.  We have 13 hens and are averaging about an egg a day.  I miss our fresh eggs.

What I’m hearing:  
Coughing- in various parts of the house. And quiet-time chatter.  Isaac and Audra are in the living room today while Ella and her cousin Sadie occupy the girls' room.  Adelia and Isaias are downstairs.  Adelia found a whistle and was blowing it willy-nilly until I told her that wasn't actually a quiet time activity.  ~whew~  

Thinking about:  
Re-arranging our bedroom, which is complicated because our room is small and everything is crammed in here and it truly might fit only one way.   (Actually, I think Mark told me it will only fit this way but I can't accept the fact that I can't ever move things around in our room again, so I'm going to wait for him to come home tonight and then toss out some ideas.  I have two, and I hope one of them will work.  I'm itching to change things up.)  Mark is so sweet to put up with me. 
I'm also wondering if we should refinance our house right now since interest rates are so low. 

Reading: 
Tim Keller's The Reason for God.  I recently finished 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker.  Before that I read Christa Parrish's newest book, The Air We Breathe.  Have I mentioned that I love her writing?  (If you like the books I usually recommend, *check her out*.)
Before that I read Kristin Kimball's The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love, which isn't for everyone, but I really enjoyed it because I still dream of having land and a small farm where I can get myself a jersey cow and milk her by hand.  I read all the parts about cows to Mark with happy sighs.   

Reading aloud:
A George Washington Carver biography, which is fascinating.  And it has inspired me with a GREAT idea to implement this year with the garden.  More on that later.)  Also, Seven Alone.

Looking forward to:   
Mark coming home from work today.  He's been training someone all day so I haven't talked to him at all today and I miss him.  And:  Michelle.  Coming to visit.  From Indiana.  THIS month!

Grateful:  
That I'm feeling so.much.better.  I was sick over Christmas.  Really sick.  For weeks.  Everyone in our house has gotten it, now.  But I am feeling so much like myself again and am so grateful.
...for extended family and so many cousins!

Cousins!  {on Christmas Eve}

Praying :
...for my mom.   For God to use us as He wills.  Always for Mark, our marriage, and our kids.

In the kitchen:  
Applesauce in the crockpot (Ella and Sadie helped peel, core and slice apples today), bread that I began making this morning that is.not.rising and I'm crabby at it.  If it doesn't rise I'll just use it for pizza dough, I guess (?)  But it has poppyseeds in it so that seems odd for pizza dough.   Oh!  And the other night I made PW's Cauliflower Soup recipe and it was amazing.  Seriously delicious.  We all thought so.  [I skipped the celery, used dried parsley (not fresh), 2 % milk (instead of whole) and skipped the sour cream.  And I added italian sausage, because it's nearly impossible for me to put a meatless dinner on the table for my family.]  But I will make it again for sure.  

Organizing: 
I switched out the girls' dressers today (Ella's is bigger, so I put her clothes into the little girls' dresser and moved their clothes into hers.  It is going to work so.much.better.)

Knitting:
Audra's birthday sweater. 

In the school room:
We're still on break.  I think we were supposed to start back on the 2nd, according to my calendar.  Although I haven't actually checked it, I think that's what I'd planned.  But with all the sickness around here I decided to take extra time off.  Maybe next week?