Daybook...

Outside my window... is gray, gray, gray. Chimneys puffing on rooftops up and down the road.

I am thinking... about next year's curriculum plans. I've been running through so many books/blogs/forums/magazines for research gathering ideas and pinpointing goals for our family. I feel really good about the plan; I just need to sit down now and spend a few hours on Spreadsheet or somesuch getting them all together. I am so very thankful for the freedom I have as a mother and educator to design our own learning plans.

I am thankful... for my dear children. I love the phrase my friend Erin's sister used: "authentically boyish." How I delight in watching them play and learn and work and grow.

From the kitchen... a fresh carrot cake sits on the counter. I unfortunately tried to wing it on the frosting, using regular sugar since I was out of powdered sugar. I don't recommend this; the taste is fine but the texture is all off.

I am wearing... a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and a blanket. I can never rid me of the chills it seems.

I am creating... starting to make a couple baby carriers for some mamas.

I am reading... never just one book. I always have something informative, something spiritual and something mind-candy going all at once depending on my mood. The informatives are: The Omnivore's Dilemma, and rereading Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home, which I highly, highly recommend. The spiritual is S.C Biela's The Two Pillars. The mind candy is the final installment of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy: The Cross.

I am hoping... that spring will get here faster than I think it will.

I am hearing... three little boys making sound effects for their cars as they play merrily on the carpet.

Around the house... Christmas decorations are taken down but not entirely packed away yet. A bit of mid-winter organizing needs to take place.

One of my favorite things... is a brand new pair of socks. That's the first thing that came to mind.

A few plans for this week... dinner with a friend tonight, Steve comes home from Mississippi late Wednesday, paying bills on Thursday, Adoration with the Master of the Universe on Friday, curriculum writing, stew simmering, tea kettle whistling, foggy walks in the cold, starting a new chapter book with the boys.