My hubby's job seems to not be thinking through some major changes they are getting ready to make with employee's schedules.  I am willing to bet they will loose employees that currently aren't working 40 hours already. Some of them are having to work more than one job on their regular off days they already have.  DH's hours and days off are changing to the extreme to say the least.  I am going to be able with my oldest and grandma's help to keep going to my monthly meetings.  The biggest change for me will be having to skip a good many Sunday church services since that will no longer be one of his off days.  I am saddened most by this than anything else.  I will be using Podcasts to make sure I can keep up with Sunday sermon's.  Those that stop by here pray for this change to end up being something we all flow into and that everyone pitches in and helps with.  My dearest prayer is that this is something the family takes care of without complaining and making harder than the circumstances themselves already are.

I got up this morning, we had some yummy fresh fruit and toast for breakfast, then I cleaned and gathered up clothes of the girls' that they had outgrown to pass on, reorganized their closet, ran to the store for milk and bought our turkey since they were 77 cents a pound, got my house picked up, laundry done, and we have the doors thrown open and are enjoying the beautiful 74 degree weather and nice breeze.  Mike cooked for us yesterday so all we have to do is heat it up, make a few sides and we are good to go.

So what am I mulling over today? Not much thought provokedness (not a word but it is here LOL) going on here.  Just a quiet day on the home front with not much extra needing to get done.  We got up this morning and I had toast and coffee.  Got the house picked up, laundry done, talked with a friend on the phone, watched Forensic Files, and KK got almost all her work done for the week.  She has a few questions left to answer for Citizenship tomorrow but that is it.  We had leftovers from Mamcitas for lunch.....OH MY GOODNESS they sure were YUMMY!  Got one of my set it and forget it machines going for dinner.  Gonna get the girls' evening stuff done, get in a shower, and hopefully start another book in the Mitford series.   

I am by nature a lady who loves hobbies I can do with my hands!  I love to do various arts and crafts projects with my girls of course.  I love to scrap book, cross stitch, plastic canvas, paint ceramics, and adore baking.  The girls and I just recently made an advent calendar with KK cutting it out, Diva coloring it in, Love Bug glued the pages onto card stock, and then I added the finishing touches with chip board letters, embellishments, and ribbons to hang it by.  It was a lot of fun and cute to add our personal touches to.  Here is the link to give it a try yourself: http://www.mssscrafts.com/devotions/adventtreasurehunt/
Thanks to my sweet home school mom friend who lead me to this site!!!!

Went to my monthly home school meeting last night and was so blessed for the fellowship and prayer shared with these wonderful women.  We had soup, salads, and sandwiches as well as some killer desserts.  We lifted each other up in prayer as well as praises to our Heavenly Father.  We laughed our selves silly, had a wonderful speaker, and got to have some extra fun leaving and receiving gifts from our Secret Sisters.  A few of us stay after the meeting to clean up and have "mom's time out" as we like to call it.  We always laugh till we cry, talk about our wonderful families, and share ideas to help us with our kids'. 

I got in LATE....this gave me about three solid hours of sleep and then the alarm went off.  I got up and got Diva and Love Bug off to the bus then went back to sleep for a little over an hour.  Then I had cinnamon butter toast and coffee for breakfast.  Then we got up, got the laundry gathered and sorted, the regular daily chores done, iced tea made, the floors swept and mopped, the bathroom cleaned, and the laundry done.

Now we are finishing up lunch of AWESOME Squash Tortellini Cheese Soup (thanks "S", KK says to tell she will clean for food ) and a ham sandwich.  Then KK is going to finish up her school work for the day and then hit the showers before youth group tonight.  Then us adult's are getting take out from up the road YAY!!!!

A blogger-friend, Claire @ www.coffeeanyone.bravejournal.com (couldn't get my link thingy to work), had sent me this tag "The Smile Stone Award " an award for bloggers who show kindness and spreading happiness around. What is a "smile stone" anyway? But heres my 10 reasons:

 

Here are top 10 little reasons that make me smile as of today:

1. My older girls' singing to make my youngest giggle.

2. The smell of fresh baked goods (brownies today).

3. A "we have no plans, just relaxing" kind of Saturday.

4. Crock Pot cooking...just put it all in and dinner is done.

5. The Mitford Book series, they have made me smile time and time again.

6. Cool fall weather, that I can throw my doors open and enjoy.

7. Watching the birds and squirrels get ready for winter.

8. Warm tea/cocoa to sip curled up on the couch.

9. Movie night with my sweety.

10. Great friends who encourage and lift me up daily (IRL and in the Blogosphere)

I am passing this on to a few great ladies for them to pass on to as many people as they would like that make them smile too.

First of all to Dawn"ity" from P.S. He Loves You  @ http://pshelovesyou.blogspot.com

Then to J'laine @ http://rootslady.bravejournal.com who has a graphic in one of her posts that not only makes me smile but also makes me full on chuckle!

I would tag more people but several other people I am out in the blog world with are doing this as well.
Thanks Claire for thinking of me and making me smile often when I visit your blog!

Today I am making taco soup (a Duggar recipe, I have made three of their recipes lately) in my crockpot which we are making cornbread with.  I also made my friend "L's" awesome brownies for dessert.  I did three loads of laundry and got us all caught up with our clothes, as well as mine and DH's sheets, and all the towels that were dirty from this week and cleaning today.  I am glad this got done today as we have another day or two before a cold front and rain are in the forecast.  I am sure going to miss being able to hang out my laundry to dry this winter, which means I will only being doing laundry every two weeks cause we don't have the ability to have a dryer in this house.  We would have to have the landlord bring in an electrician to do some wiring, and who knows what that would cost.  Have had one doozy of a day dealing with the baby wanting undivided attention from Diva and Love Bug who aren't able to play as much as she would like during the week.  Gonna pull together dinner....the younger girls' are having mac-n-cheese since I wanted to make the soup a tad spicy.  Then clean up the kitchen, get the girls' in the bath, clothes out for church tomorrow, and get them in bed and read to so DH and I can watch our movie in some quiet.  Then I will read some more of my book and hit the hay.

So what am I thinking about today.....the coming holidays.  We are exactly 21 days away from Turkey Day.  We are going into new territory this year with our meal.  We usually at this time all vote on one new vegetable and one new dessert to try with our regular menu.  I recently purchased a Thanksgiving 101 cookbook for KK to add to her Hope Chest and thought she should take a look at it for her voting.  She studied the evening she received it before bed, the next morning she asked if she could cook (with myself as the Head Chef of course) the Thanksgiving Day meal.  Our normal tradition is to wake up and have Paula Deen's Quiche for breakfast while watching the parade on t.v.  Then I get he Turkey in the oven and let it cook for a few hours before I have to start everything else.  For lunch this year we are having veggies, olives, meat, cheese, crackers, and dip.  Then while the meal finishes in the oven we watch a movie together or play a game.  We usually decorate our trees on this day but this year we are starting a new advent calendar so we aren't doing that till December 3rd.  So we will hang our house lights and decorate our yard while the kids' are out of school. (BTW it is 49 days until Christmas)

Got up this morning after tossing and turning a lot last night.  Had oatmeal, a piece of toast, and a cup of coffee.  Cleaned the house, laundry got done, floors got swept and mopped, bathroom got cleaned, and we just had tuna sandwiches and chips for lunch.  Now we just have to get KK finished up with her school work for the day since she took a break for lunch.  After that I think I will run take a shower and then read for a bit if I can.  This evening I have a meeting to go to and then hopefully get a better nights sleep than last night.

I had to lay in bed for a while this morning cause I was having an awful sinus headache.  Then I got up and had some honey butter toast and coffee YUMMY.  Got my bed stripped and new sheets on, then got the house picked up, and now I am just hanging out after a walk with Busy Body to the store for some milk and stuff to make brownies.  The older girls are off to youth group so I can cook later than normal, which I will do in about an hour. 

I got up bright and early got Love Bug and Diva off to the bus, got DH up and we both got dressed and went to vote at about 7:30am. We came in at a lull and didn't have to wait but 5 minutes in line. One of the volunteers at the desk is a friend of ours so we chatted with him while we signed in and were back home by 8:25am which was cool!!!! Got the house picked up, had a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, got out some hamburger for our hash brown casserole for dinner tonight, and now we have the doors thrown open to the lovely breeze and partly cloudy weather which is wonderful. Hoping to nap with Busy Body today and read some more of my book but that is about all that is left on my list for the day since everything is done already including KK's school work WOO HOO!

Today I got up and got the girl's off to the bus stop, made coffee and oatmeal, got dressed, picked up the house, and KK and I went to the library for our weekly mom/daughter outing, came home and finished picking up, DH had to cover one of his guy's that got called out for the Coast Guard shift this afternoon so we just hung out till it was time to get the girls', then I put a chicken in the rotisserie for dinner. I love my "set it and forget it" machine!! We had dinner which was YUMMY!! Now we are getting baths and dishes done so we can watch Little People Big World and Jon and Kate plus 8. Then we will read and hit the hay so DH and I can both get up with the girls' then go vote.

Today was gorgeous yet again.....loving this weather, it got to 77 degrees today with bright sunshine YAY! I got to have the coolest thing happen in the house today....one of those things you never expect.  I had the doors thrown open and went into Diva and Love Bug's room to drop off a toy and heard this flapping noise.  I kept investigating till I found that it was a small bird flapping at the closed window between the blind and the window.  I carefully raised the blind and proceeded to try to help the bird out the open door, this did not go as planned. The bird then flew across the room, out the door, and into my kitchen, where it got in between my decorative bottles and the window.  I cleared out the bottles and thought o.k. surely I can help it now.  The poor little things heart was just thumping so hard I thought it was going to give itself a heart attack.  But then it turned around and flew out the open door to perch on my back fence and sing me a song.  It was AWESOME!!!!! I just kept thinking WOW a bird in the hand literally. Other than that it was a normal day full of cleaning, laundry, and chasing Miss Busy Body.  It just struck me how we can just be going along with a normal day and God comes along in such a way to just say hi and give you a song......it is amazing!