Weekly Preview

This past week was really relaxed in a way - I didn't even leave the house from Sunday noon to Friday night. This almost never happens to me; I'm usually on the go! But I took advantage and worked 4-6 hours every day on my editing and I completed it!

Sunday - Sunday School, Church, Youth group for David, relaxing
Monday - Lessons, Writing, Support Group Meeting
Tuesday - Lessons, Writing, James to soccer, Girls to KAH (I think)
Wednesday - EMILY IS TWELVE TODAY! Art class, Pioneer Club
Thursday - Lessons, Writing, Get ready for co-op & party
Friday - Co-op, Emily is having a sleepover
Saturday - Send kids home, clean house, go to a friend's for the evening

Not Much To Say

Wish I had something to say here, but all I've done so far this week is teach lessons and edit my book. Oh yeah, I watched Nights in Rodanthe and cried buckets. I haven't read more than just a few pages in either of my books. I haven't even gone out of the house since Sunday morning when I taught SS. Meals have been concocted but they wouldn't win any culinary awards.

I have exercised twice this week so far, keeping up my 3 sessions a week. (Though I haven't yet managed to add a 4th session). I've kept my calorie count within my limits every day except one (when I ate ice cream). I lost 2 more pounds!

Editing is going well. I've sent the first chunk out to most of my beta readers and the second chunk out to one since she read the first part and responded already. I've gotten 93 pages edited (out of about 236). It's mostly the old stuff I wrote in 2007 and edited already in 2008 so this isn't the challenging part. Hopefully I can push through the rest of that (about 40 more pages) today and move on to the new stuff.

The kids are playing with a remote control car. The boys aren't feeling top notch today, but I need to move them into their lessons. Bob is at the church working on a painting project.

So, same old, same old, here in the Wagner house. Can't wait for SPRING!

Weekly Preview

Low-key describes the week ahead, at least until we hit the weekend.

Sunday - Sunday School, Church, David to Youth Group
Monday - Lessons, Editing FMN
Tuesday - Lessons, Editing FMN, James to soccer clinic
Wednesday - Lessons, Editing, FMN, Pioneer Club
Thursday - Lessons, Editing (There's a sledding day planned, but I do not think we'll go.)
Friday - Lessons (Last school day of the month), Editing, Movie Night at a friend's house for ME
Saturday - BOOK CLUB! YAY!

OTHER STUFF

• Sometime this week, I need to work on March's lesson plans. MARCH! YAY! MARCH! I'll try to do a little each night.
• I haven't done the taxes yet either, so that's on the to-do list also.
• I have some paperwork to submit for a 3 week test scoring job I've accepted. That will happen in April - 20-30 hours a week.
• Going to work hard on finding Bob some jobs to apply for.
  

The Holy Hand Grenade

For your viewing pleasure - 2 minutes of David reciting a section of dialogue from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He's not even seen the whole movie, just sections on youtube. I'm pretty much amazed at his ability to retain sections of dialogue. He's always been able to do it, but I can rarely get him to perform. He did so on this occasion in exchange for a can of Mountain Dew. LOL (And it might be more pleasing to the ear than four minutes of children shrieking. Heh heh heh)

Weekly Preview

Sunday - Teach Sunday School. Relaxing and enjoying family. David has youth group, I believe. I hope to make some headway on reading Jane Eyre.
Monday - Lessons and editing Forget-Me-Not (FMN). Writing curriculum meeting at night.
Tuesday - Lessons, editing FMN, I don't think the girls have their Keepers at Home meeting after all.
Wednesday - Lessons, editing FMN, Pioneer Club at night (Rollerskating night!).
Thursday - Field trip! Editing FMN
Friday - Co-op, Editing FMN, the girls have a sleepover for KAH
Saturday - NO PLANS except pick up the girls. Will it stay that way? LOL

This week, I will be editing Forget-Me-Not - doing a read-through it once to make obvious changes and spell/grammar check, and then get it printed out (maybe??) so I can do some serious editing before passing it on to the beta readers.

Leftover from last week:

• I need to do my yearbook page sometime this week - due Feb 20. DONE
  
• I need to type Emily's story for her co-op class and make sure she is caught up. DONE
  
• Gotta get the taxes done soon.

New for this week:

• Must order Angel Food Monday. DONE
  
• Do couponing this week in earnest. - NOPE, didn't get to it
  
• Mail a paperbackswap book. DONE
  
• Work on a video I am doing for a job possibility.
  
• Watch the rest of the Horatio Hornblower DVD's I have from the library. RETURNED
  
• Make some progress in Jane Eyre. DONE!
  
• Watch the Robin Hood disc I have from Netflix. DONE
  
• Figure out what's going on with the software for my Flip Video. (errors! Figured out a work-around temporarily)
  
• I'm sure other stuff will come up now that I've listed these.
  

Do I Know How to Party or What?

I had the MOST fun last night! My original plans changed. Instead of visiting one friend, whose family was ill, I ended up going out to dinner with an awesome friend.

A DELISH dinner at Don Pablo's was first on the agenda. Afterwards we went to a bookstore - one of the big ones, with a coffee bar and live music in the store, some good, some just so-so, and some really bad. But it was entertaining all the same. We browsed around together for a bit, looking for books for our book club and just good books in general. Then we split up and browsed on our own for a while

A few treasures in hand, we headed back to her house for a movie. It turned out to be TWO movies, a Dove bar, and a really late night. Into the wee hours, in fact! Among our exciting pasttimes was looking up words in the dictionary. Yes, we both find that intriguing. lol Did you know "telephonically" is really a word but "crabbily" is not?

At a time that I'm embarrassed to tell you, I stepped outside to drive home only to discover the world had been dusted with a coating of cold white stuff which made driving somewhat treacherous. I made it safely home, only seeing 3 other vehicles in the half-hour journey.

So, my big night included buying books and looking up words in a dictionary. ROFL Do I know how to party or what?

Meredith's News

If you're reading here, then you probably know that my pen name is Meredith Malone. Check out HER blog for some exciting news! (Yeah that does make me feel like a split personality! lol) Link in the sidebar.

Hands-on Bible, Hornblower, Happenings

Hmmm... What have we been doing?

Sunday I taught with my new Sunday School curriculum - Group Publishing's Hands-On Bible. LOVED IT and so did my class. The lesson is scripted (meaning it tells me exactly what to say. OK, call me lazy, but I love it!). It is chock-full of hands-on items like chopsticks, sticky darts, and atom balls. There is no silly lesson paper with ugly illustrations or confusing crossword puzzles. What else is there? Lots of Biblically-based concepts, reading from Scripture, and a Bible point repeated through the lesson so the kids "get" it. I am geeked! I was about ready to quit, but with these exciting materials, I think I can keep going until summer!

Monday I wrote 3700 words and Tuesday I achieved 3000. Wednesday was a No Writing Day since I was gone all day and then I was exhausted. The muse did not visit. I hope to write 3000 today and tomorrow and maybe that will wind up my plot! Then it will be revision time.

Bob took all the kids to Chess Club on Tuesday and I had the house to myself to write. When they came home, we went for a 25 minute walk. The weather was lovely - mid-50's and sunny. Lots of squishy grass and mud puddles, but I so loved being outside!

Yesterday was our homeschool Valentine party at the bowling alley. Suzy chose not to bowl (she said she doesn't like bowling), but the other 3 bowled with their friends and had a great time. Then we had snacks together. Check Cornerstone for pix of their Valentine boxes.

After the party, we visited friends for a few hours. The kids played and the moms chatted and watched part of Return of the King. NICE downtime. Not sure why I was so exhausted when the day was finished! LOL

Watched Horatio Hornblower for the first time last night. LOVED IT. Highly recommend. (Dad would like this! Mom, see if you can get it!) David and I started with the first one - The Duel. It's a BBC series (based on books) that takes place around the time of the French Revolution and is about, obviously, a guy called Horatio Hornblower who starts as a British Navy midshipman and eventually makes his way up the ranks. Exciting and noble! Plus there's Ioan Gruffudd. lol (Did I spell that right?)

Got David Left Behind on audio at the library. I'd like to expand his horizons beyond the Eragon and Twilight books. He's listened to all the Eragon books and the first two Twilight books multiple times. And when I say multiple, I don't mean three. lol

We are getting some more gravel for our driveway, supposed to come today. We got some last spring and it's spread out a bit. Not quite the whole driveway is covered now. We have some muddy squishy bits - thus the need for additional stones.

Time to go scrounge up some lunch for the kiddos!

Relaxing Time

Friday was homeschool co-op. I will write about that on Cornerstone.

I went to Maryann's for the night Friday night, taking David and Emily along to hang with her kids. She and I and Erin watched a couple movies Friday night and relaxed with Mexican food and rum and Coke. :-) (Not Erin, she's not yet one-and-twenty.) Movie reviews on Mirkwood. I guess David and Alex and another friend stayed up into the wee hours, playing video games. I turned off Emily and Gabby's TV at about 1am. LATE NIGHT for all the kids.

This morning we watched Someone Like You (Hugh Jackman) which I own and enjoy a lot, but hadn't watched with Maryann yet. Watching movies with my friends is usually a time for conversation and discussion. lol Then we had lunch and chatted. Another friend came by and used Mare's Cricut machine for a couple hours, then she left and another friend came by to pick up her son. A nice relaxing day. I needed that!

Left there about 3pm and stopped by Meijer on the way home to get the week's groceries. I should make up a menu for the week. Heated up pizza rolls for dinner, resulting in everyone's happiness.

There are four loads of laundry waiting to be folded - everyone does their own and puts it away. Chores are done, dishes are being washed, baths and showers are happening. Need everyone to lay out church clothes. I have to finish planning my Sunday School lesson. I have new curriculum which uses lots of hands-on stuff. Not sure how it'll work out, but I'm glad to give it a try! Can't be worse than what I WAS using, I don't think.

No plans tomorrow except to take David to youth group. I was thinking about my story off and on all weekend so I may be writing, since I need to get back to it. It's calling me!

I'm reading a book that's caught my interest - two actually. A Christian romance by Robin Lee Hatcher and Blue Like Jazz, which is another book on post-modern Christianity, to sum it up in 3 words which doesn't do it justice.

Oh yeah, and I wanted to say that it was NICE OUT today and it smelled like spring! I know it's not going to last, but at least it's a tiny break from the unrelenting wind chill and below zero temps we've been experiencing.

Weekly Preview

I am having trouble getting next week straight in my head - all the places to go and what needs to be accomplished. So, I am doing my weekly preview a little earlier than usually.

Friday - Leaving soon for Maryann's for the night with David and Emily (anyone want to come along?) James has a friend over.
Saturday - Suzy has a birthday party to go to. James is going along. (It's rollerskating.) Bob will take them. I will stop at the grocery store on the way home. I will plan my Sunday School lesson using the new curriculum I just got today. Oversee house cleaning in the afternoon and church prep in the evening.
Sunday - Teach Sunday School. Writing? Relaxing? Enjoying family. David has youth group.
Monday - Lessons and writing
Tuesday - Lessons, Chess Club for the boys, Writing, James has soccer clinic.
Wednesday - Short day of lessons, Valentine party at bowling alley, Writing in afternoon, Pioneer Club at night.
Thursday - Lessons and Writing
Friday - Lessons and Writing
Saturday - Valentine's Day. Need to think of something to DO for that.

I need to finish writing Forget-Me-Not this week, read through it once and make obvious changes, spell check it, and then get it printed out so I can do some serious editing before passing it on to the beta readers. (Wanna be a beta?)

I need to do my yearbook page sometime this week or next - due Feb 20.

I need to type Emily's story for her co-op class and make sure she is caught up.

I'm sure there are other things, but now that THIS stuff is written out, the other stuff can float to the surface and I can grab it.

EDITED TO ADD - The taxes floated to the surface. Gotta get those done soon.

Weekly Preview

I miss doing the weekly preview and so I am going to start it again. It helps me think more clearly about the week ahead too. Hopefully it doesn't bore you! lol

Sunday - Church today and David went to the Super Bowl party for youth.
Monday - Lessons, Writing (goal 3000) and Seeds of Faith Support meeting
Tuesday - Lessons, Writing (goal 3000), James has soccer and the girls have Keepers at Home
Wednesday - Lessons in AM. 3 kids have art in the afternoon. (Bob says he will take them and take Suzy on a private time and then I can write, so goal 3000). Pioneer Club at night.
Thursday - Lessons in the AM, All kids have dental appointments in early afternoon. Maybe we'll visit the thrift store afterwards. Writing in the evening, if possible. Not setting a goal yet. Get ready for co-op
Friday - Co-op all day. Writing in the evening? Or maybe plans with friends?
Saturday - NO PLANS! RELAX!!!