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"Different Methods"

The Love with Which We Perform

What if there is a higher purpose to this thing called "marriage"?

This Impossible Life

Joy

What I've accomplished this week: (that I can remember anyway)

• Exercised every day.
• Had friends over for a fully made-from-scratch dinner
• Hosted a movie night for the same friends
• Completed a week's worth of my Bible study lesson
• Attended ladies Bible study
• Knitted half a scarf for a Christmas gift
• Had dinner with my mom, dad & sister
• Made four loaves of zucchini bread
• Grated and froze the last of the zucchini for future use
• Made from scratch and froze three chicken pot pies for future dinners
• Finished three days of schoolwork with the girls
• Made a double batch of whipped butter
• Cooked two whole chickens and made broth with the remains
• Cleaned out the fridge
• Cleaned the girls' bathroom
• Made 12 quarts & 1 pint of applesauce

And, for your comfort…what I have NOT accomplished this week.

• Making my bed
• Putting sheets back on the girls' bed after washing them (although they don't seem too sad about sleeping in a cloud of blankets)
• Any laundry besides the sheets
• Putting away the six loads of laundry I did last week
• Vacuuming the living room (and the movie night included popcorn, so you can imagine…)
• Mopping my kitchen floor (I think we're going on three weeks now. But in my defense it is thoroughly swept)
• Washing my hair more than once
• Cleaning the toy explosion in the girls' room
• Any yard work
• Putting away my make-up that is on the bathroom counter…why I don't know…I haven't had time to wear it
• Starting this week's Bible study lesson
• Playing with my girls
• Framing Miss E's new birthday picture that is sitting on my shelf
• Sending out Miss E's birthday thankyous…for her birthday that was a MONTH ago.
• Paying the bills
• Balancing the checkbook
• Going to bed before eleven pm

As you can see, doing "it all" is a nice ideal, but far from reality.

Oh and I should add, in the midst of my glorious applesauce production today I managed to dump scalding hot applesauce all over my hand, leaving me with a not very dramatic looking, but seriously painful burn.

Oh, AND, I knocked a dinner plate off the counter this morning and it shattered into a million pieces all over the kitchen.  Seriously, a million. Tiny little Corelle slivers all over my kitchen floor.

So do not be deceived…for every thing accomplished there is a different thing neglected. I'm learning to accept that my life will never be the life of a girl who does it all.

Instead it is a balance of finding what's worth doing and what is okay to neglect.

How was your day?

P.S. I Googled for home remedies for my burn, and this vinegar tip seriously worked like magic! One more reason I heart vinegar!

I would say that a little kindly advice is better than a great deal of scolding.
For a single word, if spoken in a friendly spirit, may be sufficient to turn one from a dangerous error.  
In the same way, a single syllable, if spoken from a hard heart, may be just enough to drive another from the true path.

-Fanny Crosby

We've been so busy the last couple of months, I haven't even really had time to share about all of our seasonal fun.

If you know me at all, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year.

But, we've actually been having so much fun this fall that there hasn't been time to think about the dreaded cold that will be here soon.

Here are a few highlights:

We grew our own pumpkins this year, for the first time ever. It was so exciting watching them grow and turn their bright shades of orange.  And we ended up with one for each of us, so it was perfect!

We spent an afternoon at the county fair with some friends. Here Miss A is getting a spinning lesson.

My goal when attending the fair is to find every possible simple, old-fashioned thing I can for my girls to enjoy.  This year we skipped the carnival completely. The fun thing was afterwards hearing the girls brag about the best part of the fair being the hayride.

In the livestock building at the fair there was a cute little farm set up where the kids could harvest a bunch of produce.  Then they each got "farmer for a day" ribbons. Super fun!

One of the biggest highlights of fall…picking apples at Grammy's house.

Getting to enjoy an apple pie for dessert afterwards is also a great treat.

We also got to attend a local fall festival that had an Indian village. The girls were very impressed by that. Unfortunately we were too cheap to pay ten dollars for a picture with the Indian chief (who I feel the need to point out was extremely Caucasian!).

So that's some of what we've been up to lately.  More to come soon….

How have you been enjoying this season?