The Simple Woman's Daybook

I am participating in The Simple Woman's Daybook today. If you would like to join in, please click on her name and join in!!


FOR TODAY Tuesday
Outside My Window...Trees blowing in the wind as there is a storm coming.
I am thinking...That the house is a mess and my mum arrives to stay in two days.
I am thankful for...Living in such a beautiful place
From the kitchen...Not much, I need to go shopping!
I am wearing...Fat Face top, flip flops and my favorite skirt that has seen much better days and that my girls have banned me from wearing outside!
I am creating...A silver and glass bead bracelet.
I am going...To be a published writer
I am reading...Jodi Picoult's latest, Grapes of Wrath, books on freelance writing,
I am hoping...That our new business will be successful and will be less stressful
I am hearing...My daughter watching TV while she knits and the wind in the trees outside my window.
Around the house...Clothes that need putting away, an ironing board still out, books on the floor, tables and every surface, pictures of our trip around Asia.
One of my favorite things...When I'm working and one of the girls comes in and says " Is there anything I can get for you mum?" That my husband brings me a cup of tea every morning and wakes me up.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Tidy the house, take Lara to Barnes and Noble, make some earrings to match a necklace I have made for mum.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

The girls having fun after visiting the Dali museum

Review of digital edition of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

This is one of the easiest digital magazines I have ever come across in the way of finding my way around it.
You click one button to see the whole magazine laid out in thumbnail size pages and them click on the one you want to read. To turn a page or zoom in there are arrows.
One feature that makes it much better than the paper version is the search button. How many times have you read a magazine only to remember a point you wanted to share and not be able to find it again. It is also much more eco-friendly too, as you are saving trees by downloading instead of buying the paper version. You can print from it too though if there is a particular article you want to keep.
You can even share it with a friend by clicking on the button and filling in their email address.
It works out much cheaper too. For just $16.95 you get a whole years subscription as opposed to $39 for the paper version.
I loved it and being a homeschooling mom I am always looking for new resources and ways to save money.

Mothers and Sprouts

This week is countdown until mum arrives on Thursday. It's going to be a busy few weeks I think, as we are leaving for Orlando on the Monday as some really super friends have arranged for us to stay in a luxury apartment for the whole week. The girls are really excited as it has swimming pools and loads of other activity stuff.
I have started writing for a new online publication called Helium. Just trying to make some extra pennies as Nick sets up our new business venture.
Our car is definitely dying. So we have booked it in for fixing the week we are away as we were going to hire a car anyway (we didn't trust it to get us to Orlando and back!). So we have to decide whether to buy another or put the money into fixing this one.
Nick put up our new washing line yesterday and I can't tell you how good it feels to not be using the tumble dryer. All the washing smells great too. I bought a sprouter this week too as I was fed up of having plates all over the kitchen with alfalfa and mung beans in various growth stages. It seems really good, and we ate our first crop yesterday in a salad and I put some into the bread mix this morning which turned out really delicious.
I have been experimenting with different bread flours, much to Lara's unhappiness! All wholemeal is just too heavy, so I mixed it half and half with organic white. Then I tried a mix of white, spelt and wholemeal which was great. Then I tried a cup of brown rice flour in the mix and it was dreadful. I think the best is a cup each of wholemeal, white and spelt with some flax and sunflower seeds thrown in. It just tastes so yummy and with a generous helping of Irish butter, it's all we eat for lunch some days.
I am happy to say we are getting greener all the time. xx

Product review The SchoolHouse Planner

When I was first asked to review this product I must admit I didn't think it would be that great, not being much of a planner myself. How wrong I was. It is one of the best resources I have come across in a long time and I only wish that I'd had it ten years ago when I was first starting off on our home school journey.
It is actually 247 pages long and can be printed off, if you prefer. It is also very easy to use as a pdf document as you can put little post-it notes on the calender and weekly planner.
It has much more to offer though than this. There are website addresses for everything from curriculum to holiday resources, delicious recipes, info sheets on subjects such as a time line of inventions, a page on famous composers and tips on everything from teaching writing to learning a foreign language.
It covers from July 2008 to June 2009 but it really can be used in any way you see fit and for as long as you like.
It also has an annual planner, a twelve year planner and yearly goals page. Also a prayer journal page and a bible reading schedule that will enable you to read the bible in just a year by reading between 2 and 4 chapters a day.
I think that this will definitely help me to get everything done and planned over the next year and for just $39 it is a home school dream, everything in one place, and able to be looked at either with the click of a mouse or the turn of a page.
For more info click here.

Overheating Gardening and Rehearsals

It's been an interesting few days! Friday we took the day off to do some gardening and apart from some severe thunderstorms, pelting rain and Nick getting stuck on Gulf to Bay as the car overheated, we managed to get quite a lot done. It was cloudy all day though which was great as it meant that it was much cooler. By 4pm we were exhausted and filthy and a shower had never felt so good.
That evening we were meant to study our WT but instead we practiced our part for the rehearsal the following day. Both of us were quite nervous really, so goodness knows how it will be on the day!
So there we were standing outside the Holiday KH at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon all dressed up in 90 deg heat. The three brothers all togged out in suits and nobody turned up! Guess what... we had the wrong place it was another half hour North which meant that we arrived at the rehearsal 30 minutes late, which meant that instead of being first we got to do our part last...argh!! Three hours later, when we should have been finishing off the garden and cleaning the house for our visitors coming the next day we were still just leaving some booney town an hour North of where we live.
To make matters worse the car overheated again on the way home which delayed us another hour. So there was Nick in his suit leaning over the engine and wondering how we would get home. Some really nice guys at an auto discount store kindly lent him some tools and we managed to limp home.
So no meeting the next morning though, as the car needed to be fixed. While Nick laboured over the engine (yet again!) and finished off the garden, Lara and I spring cleaned the house, which was long overdue.
We have decided to sell the Land rover in England so that we can get a more reliable and economical car here. It's a tough decision as we will lose quite a bit of money on it. Nick rebuilt the whole engine and did loads of upgrades, so he is a bit sad. It's no use to us there though. We are just praying that we get a decent price as it's not a vehicle that sells well at the moment.
I have been reading this awesome book called Gorgeously Green.
It gives you some great ideas on how to live greener and some real eyeopeners on what chemicals are in our cosmetics and cleaning products, even stuff I though was ok. So yesterday I went through all my toiletries and looked at the labels more closely. Most of it I won't be buying again. I had already switched to greener cleaning products a while ago though, so I was ok there. It really bugs me how little people recycle here. Having lived in Dunedin and now Clearwater, our neighbours really don't bother much.
Now that the garden is tidy Nick is going to put a washing line up so we don't have to use the dryer as much. Much more eco!!
I have ordered some soapnuts to try out instead of laundry detergent, as although I buy the Seventh Generation stuff, it is rather expensive. Apparently these nuts work great and are much more economical.
Mum is coming in just over a week, so we are all excited about seeing her. We have thought of some great places to go while she is here and of course there is the convention which will be very special.