Leisurely Woman's Daybook 12

Outside my window...It's a Chattanooga -like day in St. Louis. Sunny and quite cool with that top-of-the-mountain fall air smell. Nothing better than that...makes me wish I were there.

From the kitchen...we'll be eating leftover pork tenderloin for the rest of the week! Yesterday's company wasn't quite hungry enough.

Around the house...time to switch to the fall/winter bedding. But I ruined my quilt last year by spilling bleach on it, so I need to find something new. It's a surprisingly difficult task for me to find bedding I love. Picky, picky, picky. Classy, yet informal. Colorful, yet understated. Warm enough for the cold husband, lightweight enough for the hot wife. Etc., etc., etc.

A favorite thing...Grapeseed Oil. It can be used anyway that Olive oil is used and I much prefer its more mellow taste!

I am thinking...that I might want to find some volunteer work...maybe at a local hospital or cancer center.

I am wearing...red Under-Armour shirt and gray running pants...it was a tad chilly this AM. My new strategy to make myself keep walking/running is this (and I have to force it because I am bored out of my head with the routine!): when my husband drives the children to carpool, I ride along and have them drop me off somewhere along the way. If I want to get home, I gotta hoof it. Whatever it takes, you know?

I am hearing...John Gorka - Armed with a Broken Heart. I've been a fan of this folk singer/songwriter since I first encountered him on a Windham Hill compilation in the late 80's. My favorite album: Land of the Bottom Line. Here's a review from Amazon: His rich baritone and literate songwriting are John Gorka's links to an urban folk tradition that belies his years, linking him more to early '60s troubadors than to the singer-songwriters of the '70s and '80s. Ranging from snapshots of modern life (as on the title song), to quietly devastating love songs ("Armed with a Broken Heart," "I Saw a Stranger with Your Hair") and funny, wistful meditations ("Italian Girls"), Gorka's songs are studded with dry wordplay, precise imagery, and sudden glimpses of deep feeling. Gorka and producer Bill Kollar resist more conventional commercial polish to keep the arrangements lean and largely acoustic, with Gorka's voice sparingly shadowed by occasional vocal harmonies from Shawn Colvin, among others. --Sam Sutherland

I am reading...My Life in France.

I am thankful...for my faithful, hardworking, exemplary father.

Plans for my week...a minimalist week, really. The usual: reading, writing, doing chores...MAYBE I'll clean out the VBS closet at church. MAYBE I'll paint the risers on the stairway to the second floor. MAYBE I'll shop for new bedding. MAYBE I'll actually look for a volunteer position. MAYBE I'll start writing a book. MAYBE...

A photo/video I am sharing...Last year was my boys' first at Westminster Christian Academy. We experienced our first Spirit Week there, which is quite a production and about which (as usual) I was very skeptical. As it turns out, it was a lot of fun! Here's a video from the previous year - they call this the Blue Man Stomp...each class comes up with a rhythm routine, which they peform with "primitive" resources...paint buckets, garbage cans, plastic pipes, glass jars, etc. These kids can get pretty creative.