Reading

I've always loved a good book. My favorites are fairytales. Fantasies. Science Fiction. 

Take me to another world and let me escape my own for a wee bit of time. 

Help me to look at things in my own world with fresh eyes. 

Open my eyes to believe in that which I cannot see. Teach my heart to trust in that which doesn't make sense to my mind all of the time. 

Books are such a great, safe place to be able to figure out the world. My two oldest are right on the verge of being able to fully jump into reading chapter books on their own and I can't wait for the discoveries they will make! 

This is what I'm currently reading. It's beautifully written. 

I loved this particular part, perhaps because it seems to ring so true of our lives:

"There must be blood," the girl thought. "There must always be blood. The Green Wind said that, so it must be true. It will all be hard and bloody, but there will be wonders, too, or else why bring me here at all? And it's the wonders I'm after, even if I have to bleed for them." 

(p. 36, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making 

by Catherynne M. Valente)

(look me up on GoodReads and add me so we can share books!) 

Lately...

I have not been blogging.

I know, you're shocked. ;)

But here is what I have been doing:

Feeding and chasing after this Chunka-Munka. She's a very fast crawler. And very quiet. And very interested in exploring every nook & cranny of our home.

Laundry. Of course. Would you be surprised if I didn't mention it?

BUT. I got a little glimpse in my laundry room today, of this tiny, frou-frou dress laying on top of the basket. And it made me smile. I am glad to do these little ones' laundry.

We played "shape scavenger hunt." This is really easy & fun for preschoolers. As I was doing some random picking up around the house, I sent the kids on missions to find things of different shapes. Emerson & Atticus got really creative with it, it was fun to see them spot different shapes. We even did some letters. Sabby didn't really get the hang of it totally, but she had fun running after them.

We found a square:

And a triangle:
And an oval (his head):

This was a great add-in for our summer curriculum since someone (ahem, me) has not been organized enough to make sure we have all the ingredients on hand for activities every day.

Also, we made these little flip flop decorations (took all of a few minutes, and I predict many more flip flops will be decorated in the next few days). Well, when I say "we," I mean me. And Atticus was not in on this particular craft. He was doing dot-to-dot race cars.

I got the idea/tutorial from 320 * Sycamore. I used tulle instead of string. It's quite cute.

Reading. Trying to keep a better evening schedule so I'm not up to the wee hours of the morning and then a major grouch most of the next day. Having more purposeful, unplugged quiet hours in the evening (and sometimes, early mornings!).

(The hubs' nightstand. He's reading lots of stuff right now. I am a little envious of his ability to still be able to get fully absorbed in a book. I remember those days. Unfortunately, my brain is currently addled by preschoolerhood.)

Goodnight & sweet dreams....

A Virtual Feast of Books

My friend Laura is doing something really cool this week.

Here's the dealio:

Think of your favorite books from the last year -- fiction or non-fiction, children's or adult. Then, either post the list (synopses optional) as a comment here on her blog, or (if the list is long) send her an e-mail (bookchic2@gmail.com). She'll then compile and publish the full listing on her blog Thanksgiving weekend. So ... that means you need to send your list soon -- say, no later than November 26, o.k.?

Get in on it! I'm always up for new books to add to my goodreads list!

If you want to participate or help spread the word, feel free to copy & paste this blinkie and info to your blog or message board! :)

(To save the blinkie, right click and "save as" and upload to photobucket and then post to your blog. If you need further help, just email me at 2blackflipflops@gmail.com and I'll help you out!)

7 Days 'til Halloween....

What are you reading during this delicious fall weather we are having?

My friend Laura has a lovely selection of book recommendations. Make sure to check them out here: click!

Giveaways!!

Not from me, but from some of my friends!

First check out Mandy's blog for a cool giveaway of this book:

You need to leave a comment by Sunday, so go hit it up!

Then, for those of you who scrapbook:

The Scripts Kit Club is opening up the Scripts Membership again and want to offer new subscribers a special!

If you sign up for your Monthly dose from Scripts we will give you a past kit for FREE! Yes, how cool is that? Your first dose will be delivered in November and in addition to that kit we will throw in the September or October monthly dose - FREE.

How can you resist? There are only a few spots opening up.....so, be quick. J

Just check out the blog to find out more about it and to register!

Don't worry, if you are already a subscriber, and you refer-a-friend to join Scripts, you will receive 2 Gifts from us!

You will receive the October Monthly Project Kit, and the November Supplement.....for FREE!We couldn't leave out those loyal customers ! Thanks for all of your support through this super fun adventure!
Check it out.....Click Here

On the Eve of the Breaking Dawn

Tomorrow night at midnight I will be going to Barnes & Noble's bookstore to pick up my copy of the 4th book in the Twilight series from Stephenie Meyer.

It's actually bittersweet to me in a couple of ways... one is the knowledge that this book is the last one from Bella's perspective, although it sounds extraordinarily promising that this is not the last we've heard of the Cullens.

Another is that, for several of the past few summers, I waited in line at B&N at midnight for another release of books... counting down the days, stalking websites, theorizing with friends.

I miss that. I think it'll be a long time coming before we have another Harry Potter in the world, but in the meantime, I'll cozy up at night with my cold vampy friends.

I will be looking forward to adding this to my collection:

And- oh yeah, and I'll be counting down the days to this:

Oh my.

That is NOT what Edward should look like.
Oh my.

(Read his actual description)

Sidetracked Home Executives

(Took this pic this weekend while on a walk in downtown Birmingham with Shaun's folks. Why are there more flowers in downtown than here in our little country town?)

I've been promising Cyndi a post on this for ages and ages, so I'm finally getting around to it.

Ages and ages ago, I heard about Flylady. In case you're unfamiliar with it, Flylady (the nickname of the lady that started it- she likes to fly-fish, or whatever it's called), set up an internet based reminder system for keeping up with your household and managing it.

I loved the idea of Flylady- rotating chores and decluttering based on the week and the day, but the sheer number of daily emails started to, well, kind of hack me off a bit. I was supposed to be managing my house, but instead, I started having to manage my inbox! She's changed up the way she does the system a little bit, I think, but I discovered that it wasn't fitting me- it was stressing me out more. I don't need extra pressure in my life right now.

I did a little research and checked out the book, Sidetracked Home Executives from the library. This is the book and the system that Flylady based her system on... but she incorporated the internet and email and all that fancy schmancy stuff.

(By the way, the book is pretty cute, albeit cheesy sometimes, describing the different ways we get out of control of our homes sometimes... they call it C.H.A.O.S.- can't have anyone over syndrome. I would check it out from the library or buy it cheap on Amazon - or click on my recommended thing over on the left and you can buy it through there.)

Now, before I get into specifics, I have to tell you a little about me.

I like structure.
I tend to be a perfectionist.
I love lists.
I love lists to the point of making up extra stuff on a list that I've already done just so I can cross it off.

Because of those things, a lot of times I would tend to get so caught up in the planning stages of running my home that I wouldn't get to the "running the home" part. And, since it wouldn't all happen perfectly, I would just give up.

S.H.E works by, instead of having lists, having an individual index card for each task you have to do around your home: daily, weekly, montly, and even seasonally/yearly.

I know, I know- some of you are thinking- uh, I don't even KNOW what I do every day or even need to do!

I felt the same way- but the S.H.E. book has this huge section with all the tasks anyone could ever want to do in their life with their home, so you don't have to think it up all on your own.

This is how my card file looks:



The designer in me is cringing because this is old and not as cute as I want it to look, but as Katie says- that's a "B item." ;)

The inside has a little divider for each day of the month, like so:



As each day ends, I move the dated divider into the back of the numbers (so that they are constantly rotated into the correct order for the rest of the month).

Inside "today's" divider, I have my white daily tasks.



These are broken down to as basic as you can get. This is what works for me. I imagine some of you don't need cards to remind you to "get dressed, brush teeth, and put makeup on," but for me, it's nice to have a reminder of what's next in my day... otherwise noon will roll around and I might have *forgotten* that small detail of my day. Hehe

As I complete each task, I pull it out



and then move it to the correct spot for tomorrow, so it'll be ready to go for me when I wake up tomorrow.



I go through all, or as many, of my daily tasks in this fashion. Typically, this is a good portion of my morning (including a 30 minute internet break, hehe) and a little of my evening time. It seems a little micromanaged, but I need this to get on track during certain periods of my life. It kind of "thinks" for me, so I don't have to think of what I need to do next.

Each day of my week has different things alloted for it. Some days are for more cleaning (I have moderate and heavy cleaning days, because there is no way I'm going to end up cleaning all day long!) and some are for doing other stuff.


No matter what, the white cards have to be done every day- they are the absolute necessities I have for running my household.

These orange cards are for the "extra" things that need to be done on a weekly basis.



On Mondays, or sometimes the weekend, I look at my plans for the week and go ahead and slip these orange cards in on the days that I think they will work best (in the moderate or heavy cleaning days). I try to keep tasks in the same room together on the same days (like, dust master bedroom, sweep & mop master bedroom). I used to work by task (doing all the dusting on the same day), but I like that I can completely clean at least one room and feel like I've accomplished some small miracle.

I've got other cards that are for monthly tasks and seasonal tasks (like: monthly- clean out magazine rack; seasonal- wash windows & dush ceiling fans) that I try to fit in too.

To sum that all up: it works for me. You have to find a system that works for you. I discovered over the past few years that I get overwhelmed by seeing all the stuff I have to do and I pretty much just give up, so seeing one small task at a time really helps.

If I don't get through all of it- I know that I at least accomplish a few things each day, and that's better than nothing.

(Caveat: do I do this all the time? Heck no. I go through phases where I'm really gung-ho and then phases where I feel like I've got things under control and then phases where I am sick and pregnant and it all goes to h-e-double hockey sticks in a handbasket. Just fyi.) :)

------Edited to add 9.2010: Here's a link to my current version. It's much less micromanaged and a little more flexible! And you can click HERE to see my current list of cards.)


Here are a few helpful links to other peoples' versions of it:

Housewife Ink

This is kind of cool- but I have a feeling I would waste a lot of time fiddling around with it

Here's a yahoo group based on it- lots of great resources in the files

If you google "sidetracked home executives," it comes up with many results and different peoples' thoughts and plans with this.

Twilight Teaser!

Twilight in HD