Happy Homemaker Monday - #6 - 2011

It's going to be a really busy day for me.

Hope you all had a good weekend and have a good week ahead :)

The weather in my neck of the woods:
43 degrees and still just a little cool in the mornings, enough to wear a jacket.


Things that make me happy:
My amazing husband


Book I'm reading:
The Shelter of God's Promises by Sheila Walsh
Born under a Lucky Moon by Dana Precious


What's on my TV today:
Pretty Little Liars on TV tonight
Deadwood Season 1
Being Human on Syfy


On the menu for dinner:
Meat Lovers Lasagna

On my To Do List:
Nicholas has an appointment this morning to get tested for allergies
Get more moving boxes
Pack a bit more
Homeschooling


New Recipe I tried or want to try soon:
Haven't tried anything new lately, I do have some to try and will be doing that this week

In the craft basket:

Knitted Broken Cable Cowl


Looking forward to this week:
Finding out which house we're being moved to so we can our move organized


Tips and Tricks:
Moving is an integral part of military life, we've learned to become pros at packing up a house and being gone within a short period of time.  Whether you're doing a full move yourself or having the movers do it for you, I ALWAYS pack my own boxes and keep an inventory of what I have in them.  I assign them a number and write down the corresponding number on a sheet of paper with details of what is in each box.  When we get to the next house, it's much easier to locate whatever I'm looking for.




My favorite blog post this week:
Didn't get much reading done last week


Blog Hopping (a new discovered blog you would like to share with the readers):
Simple Homeschool



No words needed (favorite photo or picture, yours or others you want to share):

Me and my girl

Lesson learned the past few days:
That pain and heartache hits everyone and you're not immune.  My family is having to go through something heartbreaking and we're all struggling to stay afloat and deal with the news.  I can't go into detail but I ask you all for prayers, we need a LOT of prayers to surround us all but especially my dad and stepmom.


On my mind:
My father and stepmom, they are going through a rough patch and I really would appreciate some prayers for them.
Our upcoming move within the next week or two.


Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.

Psalm 42:1

30 Day notice of relocation

Being a military family has it's perks and I have to say that it's one of the most rewarding ways of life you'll ever encounter.  But with that also come a lot of cons and I mean a lot, a lot of little annoyances here and there, the constant packing and moving from base to base and country to country, never really being able to place roots anywhere until you retire.

For the most part it's a wonderful way of life but you're also at the mercy of the Military and their housing, yes, the dreaded four letter word that every military member cringes at.  HOUSING! 

They like to keep us on our toes and you don't ever feel like it's YOUR house, you're just a guest.....you add your touches here and there and try to make it a home but in the back of your mind you know that it's not really your place and when they want you out, they want you OUT.

Friday afternoon we got a knock at the door and were presented with a letter.

Dear so and so....this is your 30 notification of relocation.  We decided that we want to renovate all the homes right this very minute, so therefore you will pack up your things, come to a meeting next week and draw a house out of a hat, then move into that house.  If you don't like it, you can trade with another family that is being relocated.

I would say it's surreal but unfortunately it's the second time that this has happened to us on this base, the very first time I'm sure my older blog readers will remember, we had just arrived at this base 6 months prior and were told to move out of our house into this one.  Now, we're being told to move out of this one to another one and frankly, I'm getting pretty tired of this.

July will be 4 years that we've been at this base and in that time period we've moved 3 times and lived in 3 different houses, tell me that is not ridiculous???

So here shortly, in about a week or so, we'll be doing this again:

 

 

And I'm sure right after that, I'll be making another post on how sore I am and how everything in my body is killing me.  Such is the life of a military wife!

I'm starting to pack up the house again, pretty much going to pack everything that we don't need for our daily living.  Then I have to start cleaning, luckily I like to keep a clean and tidy house so it won't be hard when we have our inspection.

We have our pre-inspection sometime the end of next week or beginning of the following one, even though they're renovating and tearing it apart, we still have to leave it as if it was being moved into. 

So, packing, looking for more boxes, coordinating the kids schooling so they won't miss too much when we have no internet during the move, having to organize the dish and phone transfer to a new house plus changing the address on everything AGAIN.

There's doctor appointments, my car being repaired and all sorts of other little things going on in the middle of this move.  I pray for patience and I pray for an extra hour or two in a day.

If you see some sporadic posting from now until we're in the new house, you'll understand why.  :)

Someone Else's Garden by Dipika Rai - TCL Book Tour

Someone Else's Garden by Dipika Rai

By Gopalpur standards, she is already an old woman, her younger sister was married before her. She looked after all her brothers and sisters and she's still at home. Without the borrowed money, no one would have taken her. What kind of man accepts a woman, almost in her twenties, with a birthmark? It has to be a desperate man.
 

About Dipika Rai

One of four children, Dipika Rai was born and educated in India. Her gypsy spirit was cultivated at a young age when she travelled throughout the country in a trusty Ambassador with her family, bumping into all sorts of characters: river pirates, princesses, tribal elders, poachers and petty politicians. After securing an MBA and doing time in the corporate world of banking, she returned to her subliminal love: writing. She moved to Bali, freelanced for 30 magazines around the globe and had a marvellous time exploring both her creative energies and new cultures. Once her children were born, it was time to stay at home. Unable to relinquish the gypsy in her, she continued to wander, but this time in a world at her desk. This world and the people in it came together to form her first novel Someone Else’s Garden.
Learn more about Dipika at her website, and follow her on Facebook.

My thoughts:

I think the first thing that caught my attention with this book, was the cover, it's stunning and it makes you want to sink into a big chair with a cup of coffee and just dive right in.

From the get go, the author had my attention, the story begins with Mamta's mom going into labor and I was quickly thrown into the Indian customs and the descriptive way the author pulls you right into the story.

I've always loved reading and being educated at the same time, and this book definitely provides both entertainment and history, it made me smile, it made me cringe and it made me aware of how different other cultures are.  Females have pretty much no rights at all as the main character in the story Mamta, is sold into marriage and her kidneys and other organs become property of her husband.  Mamta ends up leaving her husband and getting a job, and though she's sending money home to her family her mother considers her dead, she does end up falling in love with someone else.

It was a good book, I enjoyed reading it, like I said there were some parts that were hard but only because I could never imagine living in the conditions that some of these people live and I could never imagine not being able to pick my own husband.   While some may find the book actually depressing and gloomy at times, I quite enjoyed it, I took it for what it was, an entertaining, interesting read.

Thank you to TLC for providing a copy for this review, all thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

Cooking Thursday - #5 February 3

Simple Apple Crumble

3-4 good baking apples

1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 packed cup light brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Peel and core apples, then chop in roughly 1/3 to 1/2-inch chunks. Place apples in a glass pie plate.  Stir together sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle over apples.


2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon and salt. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingers, mix well with a pastry blender, or pulse the dry ingredients and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles crumbs. Mix in the brown sugar until blended.

3. Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly over the apples.

4. Bake until the topping is crisp and golden, which should be 25-30 minutes. Serve warm.

Right now I am.......

:::::::: Indulging in these beautiful tulips, knowing that I'm horrible with plants and praying that I can keep them alive

:::::::: Smiling at these mini roses, in awe of the Lord's amazing work in creating such a tiny stunning specimen

:::::::: Thanking the Lord that my little one has been given the green light by his pediatrician, his pneumonia is gone

:::::::: Thinking that next week Monday I'll have to endure watching him uncomfortable as we see an allergist to determine why he is always displaying cold symptoms

:::::::: Anxiously waiting to find out if we're also getting a letter from our base housing, informing us that we are to move out of our current house within 30 days because they need to renovate

:::::::: Still giggling at this silly pug who got herself somehow stuck behind the curtains and couldn't figure out how to get out, she eventually just gave up and sat there looking miserable



:::::::: Feeling my heart overflow as I listen to Nicholas and Jasmine recite the Lord's prayer all on their own, with conviction and with pride.

:::::::: and counting my blessings that through this crazy week of unsettling news, of happy joys and of tiring days that seem to flow from one to another, I still have my amazing family standing by me bringing me more joy than I could ever dream of