Rain, schedules and some chit chat!

It started this morning and is still going, the pitter patter of rain drops pouring from the skies.

Sometimes just a drizzle, other times strong and powerful, followed by lightning and loud roaring thunder.

The house has been so dark all day, I've had to light lamps and some candles in the living rooms and kitchen, and I've opened the windows and let the fresh air flow all through.  Don't worry, I made sure the windows open were not letting in rain :)

I got laundry done, I got the usual housework going and I also worked on a new menu plan.  I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow, was actually supposed to go today but this storm that moved in was quite bad this afternoon and I would have to wait until hubby got home from work to be able to go back out to base and really didn't want to go out in that.

He picked up a few things on the way home, but I will go and do the whole shopping tomorrow and then I'll get a grocery haul up for you.


I've really been enjoying my morning routine lately, it's changed a bit from what it used to be.  I still get up at 5:30am with hubby to make him coffee before he goes to work and I'll usually enjoy a cup with him too.

When we lived in Idaho and he was working as the Nestle Merchandiser at the base commissary, he never had to be up early so I kinda got used to sleeping in until about 8:30 each morning, but since moving here he is back on a normal schedule, or rather, a schedule reminiscent of he one he had when he was still active duty in the Air Force.

But, with the move and the stress and everything that was going on, I would get up with him at 5:30 and then after he left, I would go back to sleep on the couch with Lola.  I stopped doing that a month ago, I now don't go back to sleep at all but rather take the quiet morning hours to have some me time.


After he leaves for work, I gather the dogs up and my coffee cup and head back to the bedroom. I climb into bed with Lola, Bella is not allowed on the bed anymore because as she's gotten older she's having a harder time controlling her bodily functions, but she stays on her bed right next to our bed and she loves it.

I then enjoy the rest of my coffee and catch up on computer work, emails, blogging, and watch my Portuguese soaps from the night before and any new Youtube vlogs that have been posted.

At about 7:30am I go back to the kitchen for a new cup of coffee and some breakfast, it's either toast, or cereal, or oatmeal.  This morning though I fancied some toast and fried eggs and that is what I had.

I come back to bed and finish any work I have and then by 8am I'm up for the day, getting dressed and getting housework started.


This morning, I got dressed and then opened all the windows, blinds and curtains to really enjoy the rain, and I wasn't the only one happy to see those big raindrops coming down.



The Robins were so ecstatic, it was such a joy watching them in the rain, they sat in the puddles, flapped their wings, shoved their heads in the water and just flew around, back again, jumped, ran, flew, and continued this ritual over and over.



I could spend hours outside with my camera during a rain storm, just snapping away and watching nature and smelling that rain scent.  Such a simple thing but something that makes me happy.

So the rest of the day I got all my housework out of the way, I'm still busy with laundry, it just never ending and honestly, the one chore that I dislike immensely.

Since I haven't been able to make it to the grocery store this week, the main reason being that since my husband switched contracting companies, their pay was delayed, I've had to make do with what we had in the pantry and fridge/freezer.

For dinner tonight I used a pound of ground beef and some hamburger buns from the freezer to make some homemade sloppy joes, and served up some crinkle cut home fries with it.  These simple meals seem to be the ones my husband and kids enjoy the most, thank goodness.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to make it to the commissary, actually, not hopefully, I HAVE to go as we're definitely running short on food and I just can't put it off anymore.

I'm going to finish up my menu plan and my grocery list right now, catch up on the shows on my DVR list and then try to get some sleep while the rain is still coming down.  I love sleeping to the sound of rain.

Anyway, I hope you've all had a good week so far, I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday again, my word, though I am looking forward to the weekend.

Have a great night everyone and thank you for stopping by.

The Determined Heart by Antoinette May - TLC Book Tour

Paperback: 410 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (September 29, 2015)

Frankenstein lives on as one of the most fascinating fictional creations of all time, but the true personal story of the women behind this work of genius is equally as compelling. In her new historical novel, The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein (Lake Union Publishing; September 29, 2015), New York Times bestselling author Antoinette May brings to life the tragic story of obsessive love, betrayal, and redemption that spawned an enduring classic. In a story more dramatic and tragic than anything a writer could invent, the lives of Mary Shelley, her great love, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and her complex web of family and friends entwine in a chronicle of strange behavior, bohemian attitudes, and unconventional acts as far ahead of their time as the amazing literary work that grew from them.

Mary Godwin Shelley was the daughter of two revolutionary thinkers—political philosopher William Godwin and philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. An unconventional childhood in an intellectual, if impecunious household would shape the young girl’s renegade spirit. When still a teenager, she ran off with the already-married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, an act of equal parts passion and defiance that led to a life of wandering destitution. Espousing free love, the couple would endure its share of tragedies, each of which would add to their romantic legacy. From the darkness that surrounded her life, though, the brilliant and talented Mary imagined a timeless work of fiction that secured her place in history, if not her happiness.

The Determined Heart is a masterful work of historical fiction that reanimates the timeless story of an iconic literary life.

**************************************

About Antoinette May

Antoinette May is the author of Pilate’s Wife and The Sacred Well and coauthor of the New York Timesbestseller Adventures of a Psychic. An award-winning travel writer specializing in Mexico, May divides her time between Palo Alto and the Sierra foothills.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a review copy.

***************************************

My Thoughts:

 Ok, who hasn't been fascinated with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for their whole life?

I don't think there has ever been a time in my life where I wasn't aware of Frankenstein, the story, the movies, I mean to this day it's such a famous well known work of fiction.

But who exactly was Mary Shelley and what was her life like, what made her tick, where did she come from and why did she end up writing such a strong work of fiction?

I will admit that I'm never really one to wonder about the book authors, I'm mostly interested in the stories being told than who the writer really is or what they are about.  What I did find in this book is that Mary Shelley, to me, is just as fascinating and interesting as the story of Frankenstein itself.

I had no clue that as a teenager she ran away from home with a much older married man, a poet of her time.  Her life took so many tumbles and ups and downs beginning with the death of her mother shortly after Mary's birth, her father's struggles to take care of her and her sister, then the arrival of her stepmother, the falling in love with the poet, their life on the run and the bits and pieces that would inspire her to write about Frankenstein.

All these things together created a web of a very fascinating life that I for one was unaware of but am so glad I now know.

What this book has prompted me to do is research more on Mary Shelley and even reread Frankenstein. 

Then versus now!!!

I don't know what it is about me lately but the nostalgia is kicking in, big time.

Maybe it's not that there's anything wrong specifically, I do tend to go through phases in my life where I miss certain things, whether it be my childhood days or a teenage life, or the first years as newlyweds.

My kids though have been what is on my mind the most lately, that and the fact that I keep missing the time when they were little.  It doesn't help that I watch so many vlogs of young moms who are just having their first babies, or have toddlers and are doing all that fun stuff that we do with them, whether it's going to the park to play, or taking them to Chuck E. Cheese or even just watching cartoons and playing with the newest fun toy out there.

I was thinking back on when we had our children, who as you know are now 16 and 12.

I didn't realize at the time just how fast it would all go by, like in the blink of an eye they are grown up.  But I was watching a vlog, actually one I found just two days ago and I'm fascinated in the sense that it reminds me so much of my first few years of marriage and dealing with being a military wife and having a little one. 

That sense of excitement leading up to the first baby being born, the hospital stay, the birth, then bringing them home and trying to figure it all out.  The long nights, the exhaustion, and the incredible joy of seeing all their firsts.  With it, the first deployment as a military wife, the fear and loneliness and trying to juggle keeping the home fires burning while missing your husband.

Something else really gets to me now, and it's not that I'm jealous.....well maybe just a little, not going to lie, but in talking to my niece who is currently dating a marine guy, and then watching this vlogger, it just made me realize how much easier it is for them today than it was for us 18 years ago. 

We were lucky to get a 10 minute call once a week and even so, the calls were constantly dropping or almost impossible to hear over the background noise.  Then we had the missed calls and I would cry so hard everytime that happened, we didn't have cellphones so when I went to get groceries or run errands or a doctor appointment, my worry was always that I would miss his call, and I did, on multiple occasions and then I would get home, hear the message on the machine and bawl.

There was no skype, communication was mainly through that little phone call or letters which took forever to get there, and the guys were usually so busy that I wouldn't get much of a response from him.  To my one daily letter I would be lucky to get 1 a month.

I also sometimes wish I had a good camera back then, or that vlogging was in fashion because I kinda think that kids in today's generation have so much more recorded memories and photographs than my kids ever will.  Sure I took photos with my 35mm and had a huge clunky video camera that I filmed a few videos with, but nothing like now. 

I kinda wish I had vlogged everything from the pregnancies to the deployments, grocery shopping, the labor, their first birthdays etc.  It's kinda sad that I don't have much of that at all.

Goodness I sound like a whiner at the moment, and please don't think I'm not happy with the few memories I do have recorded, not just here on the blog but through actual photographs and later on digital photos, but it's just not the same.  You know what I mean right?

Almost makes me want another baby, which is not going to happen, not at my age and where we are in this point in our lives, not to mention wanting to vlog and take good pics is not exactly a reason to have a baby.  HA!

Is there a point to this whole post?

I'm not even sure, but then again this is my personal blog and a journal and I guess sometimes we just want to get our feelings on paper, or in this case on the computer.  I don't regret anything about my life, and the few memories I have recorded of my kids is something I will treasure forever, just think that I may have had a lot of fun being able to go through it all again in this day and age.

What do you think???

Happy Homemaker Monday - 10/19/2015

Good morning friends, well, yep, another Monday.

I am absolutely knackered today, insomnia is something I've been struggling with the past year, I never had problems with it before, never had issues sleeping but now it seems that if I get woken up in the middle of the night for anything, I just can't go back to sleep.

2am this morning I woke up to go to the bathroom, and that was it. It is now 6:42am and I haven't been able to get shut eye again, I have given up and decided to just stay up for the rest of the day.  It's going to be a very long day......

The weather in my neck of the woods:
50 degrees right now and it's been pretty nice all week long, temperatures have cooled down a lot and we haven't even had to use the air conditioner, which is a huge plus because it gets so expensive during the summer.  We are going to get some rain, and some more sunshine this week.  Here's what it looks like.....  

Things that make me happy:
Reading a good book, finding a series I really enjoy and just shutting out real life and immersing myself into the story.

Book I'm reading:

Nora Roberts "The Dark Witch"

What's on my TV today:
New Downton Abbey episode 5

Vlogs on Youtube
Working through my DVR list

On the menu for dinner:
I really have no clue right now, I need to get some groceries but my husband just recently switched contractors and we are in that limbo phase, waiting for the new company to pay him and so far nothing.  I really need the money to come in so I can get groceries. I do have some chicken in the freezer so I'll probably do something with that.

On my To Do List:
  Laundry, small load to iron

Homeschooling with the kids

New Recipe I tried or want to try soon:
No new recipe but I did remake an old one just to try and get some new pics for the blog

In the craft basket:

Fall Scarf, still working on it

Looking forward to this week:
The rain, not even going to lie, the prospect of rain two days makes me very happy

Looking around the house:
It is so dark and quiet at the moment.  The kids are still asleep, hubby is at work and it's me and the pugs.  The sun is starting to rise though and it looks beautiful.  I need to tidy around the house a bit today, nothing major but just a bit here and there.  

My favorite blog post this week:
Did not get any blog reading done, but I do watch vlogs every day and I absolutely am in love with the SacconeJolys.  They are the sweetest couple ever and their little ones Emilia and Eduardo have got to be one of the most adorable kids on earth.  My word, they make me want to have more babies.  If you've never watched one of their vlogs, you simply don't know what you're missing out on.  

A newly discovered blog or youtube channel you would like to share with the readers:
One of my favorite vlogger channels is Donal Skehan.  If you've never heard of Donal, he is a young food writer from Dublin, and he always has some yummy recipes to share. 

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

Lesson learned the past few days:
That if I can't stop thinking or wondering about something or someone, then it means that something is unresolved.  Lately I've been kind of struggling with the notion that no matter how hard I try with some people, they are either just not interested, or I may have to keep trying to break through the wall they have put up. But when is enough enough?  How much can a person take before getting fed up and tired and just not care anymore, or should we push through those feelings and continue on waiting for the breakthrough? I've been praying a lot the past week for God to show me exactly what I should be doing, whether it's time to accept the fact that this certain person just doesn't care and is not interested, or if what I'm doing is not falling on deaf ears but through perseverance will eventually bring them around.  I have no clue what the right answer is here, but I do know that God knows what it is, so I've put it in His hands.  

On my mind:

Many friends and family needing prayer at the moment.

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:

Outside work

It's a pretty day here in North Texas, the wind is blowing and the temperatures are staying around 79 degrees.

We've been waiting for cooler temps to do some work outside because any other time during the summer, is just too scorching hot and within 10 minutes we are drenched in sweat, bit by chiggers and ready to get back in the house.


We have quite a few Pecan trees on our property and it's getting to that time of the year, so they're starting to fall to the ground by the hundreds, some already out of their outer shell, others working on it.

Our yards are literally covered in pecans and so it's time to start harvesting the ones already on the ground.  I spent an hour out there going from tree to tree and grabbing the ones I could, not all made it into my basket because certain little birds had already gotten to them.

I can't tell you how exciting it is to be surrounded by pecan trees, I've always been such a fan of pecans and being able to harvest them in my own yard is a wonderful thing.  I know with the holidays coming up they will certainly help with all the pecan pies I will be baking.


While I got busy harvesting the pecans, Curt and Nick worked on gathering, chopping and starting a wood pile up against one of the fences.

Nick had never yielded an axe so he found it a lot of fun and before long was chopping here and there, wood bits flying all over.


Living in the country is beautiful, and peaceful and just what we have always wanted, but for anyone who has never lived away from a city, you would never understand the amount of work that goes into keeping a home and acreage on a place like this.

We've never been ones to shy away from work and so I face it with a smile on my face and thankful for every pecan I pick up, every prickly weed I remove from my pants and every gorgeous sunrise I get to witness every morning.



It's now a quarter to 3 in the afternoon, and I thought I would sit down and write up a quick post while I watch some TV with Jasmine.  We just finished watching True Monsters and are now starting one of the episodes of My Haunted House from the DVR.

The rest of the afternoon I'll be spending doing laundry, ironing, catching up on the DVR and just trying to have a restful Sunday.

I sure hope you are enjoying your weekend.  Thank you for stopping by for a visit, I appreciate every reader that stops in, comments and continues to read my blog :)