Monday, November 12, 2007

Monday Mish Mash

They're baaaaack! Yup, the kids are home. They got back safe and sound from the youth retreat yesterday afternoon. A little weary from the 6 hour road trip but full of good things that they learned about their walk with the Lord. The bags are dumped in their rooms waiting for them when they get home from school. I didn't have the heart to make them unpack, vegging on the couch watching the Cosby show seemed more in order. Who wants to nag at them when they haven't been home for 3 days. So we just enjoyed being in the same room, unpacked bags and all.

Tia couldn't even get into her room anyway. I've had a busy weekend. The plan of relaxation and total slothfullness that I had planned lasted until noon on Saturday. At that point, I made myself get dressed, deliver the Operation Christmas Child boxes to where they needed to go, returned DVD's to the library and met my Mom for a little Christmas shopping. And then it was time to get into the paint clothes and tackle the trim and closet doors in Tia's room. This poor child has been living with lilac colored walls, which are lovely. But the trim was a mess. Some of it was shocking pink, left over from days gone by when her and Kay shared a room when they were little. They are now 17 and almost 13 and haven't shared a room in 4 1/2 years. And some of it was dusty blue from a failed attempt at taking away the shocking pink. I got it half done with the blue, decided I hated it and it didn't match anything, stopped and there it stayed. It's embarrassing how long. As Shalee can attest, it's been on my to do list since the spring of '06. Yes, that was 2006.

So, Saturday, I grabbed the bull by the horns, or more like, the paint by the brush, and got to it. And is usual with everything our house it seems, the job turned out way bigger than when I first thought. So I continued on Sunday, and it still needs a second coat. So today, my day off, will be spent finishing up so the child can actually sleep in her room tonight. Although, with the oil paint fumes, it might keep her on the futon downstairs for another night. Yes, hubby still like the oil paint on the trim. So if I'm a little loopy in my posts for the next few days, well, I have an excuse and I'm not afraid to use it.

Let's see, what else. Oh, I was privelaged to be able to read and review a lovely pre-school children's picture book this weekend. When I was first asked, I admit, I hesitated. I'm very picky about what I like in pre-school books. In fact, shhhh, don't tell ,but a lot of children's books that win awards, I really dislike. I find they appeal to the adult reading them, but the kid's are bored as I read them. The stories are complicated with complicated pictures. The one's I find the children love and ask to read over and over are the ones with bright, simpler illustrations, with not too many words on a page (usually not more than 2 or 3 sentences a page is plenty), and they love the ones that rhyme. And I admit, I'm very partial to a lovely rhyming story myself.




Well, I Love You More by Laura Duksta and illustrated by Karen Keesler is all of everything I love in a preschool book. It's beautifully written with lovely rhyme and has fun, bright illustrations. With a sweet story of how much a Mom loves her child, it flips over to become the response of how much the child loves the Mom. Two stories in one. The dayhome kids loved the flip aspect of the book and were totally drawn into the story. The message is heart warming and the prose totally relatable to the child. This book will hold a special place on many a child's bookshelf and in the short time I've had it is already a favorite with my dayhome kids.

For more reviews, check out the above link on Amazon and if you'd like to read more about the author you can go here.


A couple carnivals going on in blogland this week. Join in. We'd all love your ideas.





Today is the kickoff to Homemade With Love over at Kisses With Sunshine. Gibee has the absolutely most creative and beautiful ideas for homemade gift giving and is hosting a carnival where you can share your ideas with us uncreative types. Head over here for the details and to link up with your ideas.





Karla at Looking Towards Heaven is hosting a holiday menu carnival this Thursday. You just need to write a post with your Thanksgiving menu and post some recipes. How fun and think of all the ideas you can get to add something new to your table. Now being Canadian I've already had Thanksgiving last month, but you can still participate. Write what you had or will be having at Christmas and post your fave recipes. Click here for the details.
And last but not least, I have a couple questions. Does anybody know why I can no longer find the button on Youtube to put videos on my site? I noticed a few other people still posted videos. How'd you do that?
And is anyone else having trouble with blogger publishing double spaces where there is not supposed to be double spacing and you're preview does not show double spacing? Am I seeing things? What's happening?
Well, was that mish mashy enough for you? I feel like I had to get so much out in one day. It's a very, very busy week and I may not be able to post much. I'm now off and running to finish the second coat of oil paint.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

pleased they enjoyed themselves

sounds liek you had a productive weekend too :)

Beck said...

Yes! I am TOTALLY getting unplanned double spaces!
And I can't think of a better person to review a children's book then you - and that book sounds WONDERFUL!

Anonymous said...

You packed a lot into that post, that's for sure. Hope you finish up on Tia's room today. Doesn't sound like a relaxing day off but the feeling of accomplishing a long put off task should make up for it.

Faith said...

So glad your teens had a great youth retreat!
Sounds like you got alot accomplished really! The book sounds wonderful. I used to teach special ed prek and I usually liked most books that were simple, one word sentences on each page, especially by Eric Carle...do you know his books?

Karla Porter Archer said...

I get a lot of unplanned double spaces too. Sometimes I spend a lot of time trying to work them out.

Thank you for mentioning my recipe thingy!

Blessings,
Karla

Cyndi said...

What a lot of great info! I'm so glad the kids made it home, and I'm so glad you "vegged" with them. What a great weekend!

Oh, and that looks like a children's book I would *love*, thanks!

Have a super week, Susanne!

Laura said...

Hello my friend, here I am on Tuesday but better late than never right? I've got bible study at my house today which meant I actually had to step away from the computer and clean....lol! Glad your kids made it home safe and sound. Sounds like you were busy with the painting. I hate that job and can totally understand the putting it off forever part. I do the same thing. I pealed the wallpaper off in my dressing room about two years ago and that's as far as I got....sigh.

Laura

Donnetta said...

With the You Tube question. Was there a specific button you were using before or grabbing the "html" code from the embed bar? The embed html code has moved to the upper right side of the screen instead of below the video where it once was. At least for the one's I have looked at.

As for the double spacing.. me too! If you go into the edit HTML tab instead of compose tab you may find a lot of "div" in between paragraphs. Once I am ready to publish I make sure those are removed and it seems to take care of it.

Hope that helps in my VERY limited knowledge of code and things.

Glad your children had a fantastic time and that your daughter is getting a "new" room as well! ;-)

Don't work too hard!!!

GiBee said...

First of all ... I am TOTALLY with you on the whole book thing. My son is packed with energy, and is usually moving on to the next activity after the one hundred elevety-eleventh sentence on page one. Two or three sentences at the MOST!!!

As for the double spaces, I couldn't have said it better than Momrn2 -- go to the edit tab and delete all the extra "div" junk.

Finally, I believe pictures of the finished room are totally in order! Oh, yes ma'am!

Be Inspired Always said...

Great review :)




Jillian

Barb said...

Yes, blogger is behaving badly these days. I'm not having trouble with spacing. I AM having trouble with it all being so.dang.slow these days. Takes forever for the blogs I follow to upload.

I'm planning to get in on GiBee's party. After being gone a week, I'm hopelessly behind but late's better than never I think. :-)

gail@more than a song said...

You're so busy but getting so much done!
When I've put youtube videos on my blog, I click on something on the right I think that says "embed"...copy and paste it in is what I think I did and it worked.
I'm not on blogger but sometimes I have trouble with blogs loading and lots of times it won't take the comments for me. Hope it's all good for ya now.

Hen Jen said...

glad to hear your kids had such a good retreat. How did your dd like the new look in her room?

I've heard good thing about this book, it sounds lovely. Chinaberry had good things to say, I love that catalog!