The Toman Family's Tidbits: Daybook: December 12th

(This post was originally written Monday the 12th, and I didn't get around to adding photos until today, December 30th. I am hoping to get something new posted once we're back after all of our Christmas travels. Until then, I hope you all have had a blessed Christmas season! P.S. I have no idea why my blog is looking weird and most of my post is highlighted in white. Try to bear with me...)

Outside My Window: ...its dark and another cloudy night. Looking at the forecast, it seems as though we're expected to have a lot of cloudy weather this week.

I Am Listening To: ...the hum of the refrigerator. Beyond that, the house is quiet. Brinley seems to have had an easy time falling asleep (which rarely happens now) and Bruce retired early after feeling worn down today.

I Am Wearing: ...a pair of Bruce's flannel pajama pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Quite honestly, this is what I've been wearing all day. Nothing better than staying in pajamas on a dreary winter day.

I Am Thankful For: ...time spent with family. Yesterday, the three of us went out to my grandparents' farm for lunch, and afterwards I drove Bruce, Brinley and Grandma down to the river (Colorado) and then to the fish ponds on the Ranger. Bruce, nor Brinley, had ever been down to the river or seen the fish ponds up close so we went on a little afternoon ride. When we got back to the house, Brinley made sugar cookies with her G'Ma and Auntie Shirlene.

I Am Pondering: "Who would ever know the greater graces of comfort and perseverance, mercy and forgiveness, patience and courage, if no shadows fell over a life?" Ann Voskamp

I Am Reading: ...a book about the Amish that my grandmother is lending me. I can't remember what exactly it is called and I'm not going to risk disturbing Bruce by wandering in the bedroom to find it on my nightstand. I'm also listening to Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts through my audible.com app. If you haven't heard of Ann or her life-changing book that has been on the New York Time's Best Sellers List for a bazillion weeks, than you should really check them out. I promise, you are in for a treat. While I'm slowly but surely just getting around to reading/listening to Ann's book, I've been following her blog for quite some time, and the words that she writes are just as beautiful as the photographs she takes and vice-versa.

To Be Fit And Happy: Bruce and I started WeightWatchers about a month ago to help get us both back on track. Now that we're back in the land of amazing food, we needed to be reminded what a portion is exactly. You know...three tacos are okay to eat. Six...not so much. Anyway, things seem to be working well, as we've both already met our first goals. One thing that has helped tremendously is my grandparents gave us a treadmill that they were no longer using. My goal is to walk/job at least 5 miles per week, but last week I sailed through that and did nearly 7. Slowly but surely I'd like to work myself up to a goal of at least 10 miles a week.

From The Kitchen: I'll be honest...not much has come from my kitchen lately. Like I mentioned previously, yesterday we ate at my grandparents and today's supper came from Pizza Hut. Thinking back, Friday evening Brinley and I did make Gingerbread Cookies--both men and women. As you can imagine, Brinley had a blast decorating them and snacking on some too, of course.

I Am Thinking: ...about anything and everything that needs to be done over the next week. Laundry, gift-wrapping, lesson plans, packing for travels, etc.

I Am Creating: ...nothing lately. I'm just working on getting presents shopped for and wrapped for all of our Christmas festivities. If Brinley's lesson plans and activities count, then I've been getting those together for the next few weeks since we'll be traveling quite a bit.

On My iPod: Nothing new lately...most of the time I listen through my Pandora app.

Towards A Real Education: Brinley and I have been having a blast with her 'schoolwork'. Since the week of Thanksgiving we've taken time off from the letters and that week we had Thanksgiving-themed activities, and now for the past couple of weeks we've been doing some Christmas-themed activities. I figure we'll probably get back to doing letters of the week after the Epiphany.

Towards Rhythm and Beauty: Decorating for Christmas...something I look forward too all year long. We brought Christmas decorations in from storage shortly after Thanksgiving and Brinley and I had a blast hanging all the ornaments on the tree. Other than the tree, we really haven't decorated much due to little extra space in the apartment. We did hang up stockings, but that pretty much covers it. I think Brinley's going to be a Christmas-lover just like her Momma because she loves to watch Christmas shows and listen to Christmas music. Hopefully there's not going to be too much fussing when its time for the tree to come down after the Epiphany.

To Live The Liturgy: Focusing on making our little domestic church as peaceful as possible during this time of year which seems to be more of a challenge this year than in the past. When we lived out-of-state, we came to Texas whatever weekend we were able to, saw who we could and that was that. Now that we're closer to family and friends, we're having to pick and choose who we can see for the holidays because there are only so many weekends during advent and the Christmas season and everyone is fairly close.

I Am Hoping And Praying: ...that the sun will continue to shine.

In The Garden: I guess its time to delete this category since we don't have a garden or any kind of lawn here. Hopefully in the Spring, Brinley and I will get a few potted plants and flowers on the patios. I could write about those... ;-)

Around The House: And I guess this category needs to be changed to 'Around Our Home' since technically we don't live in a house anymore. Anyway, aside from 'decking our halls' we really haven't been doing a whole lot. We're still moving furniture around here and there, but the nice thing about living in an apartment is there are no little projects to do, nothing to fix and no lawn to take care of.

On Keeping Home: I'll be honest, this is an area I've been struggling with ever since we moved in. As you can imagine its been a little difficult squeezing a three-bedroom house into a two-bedroom apartment. To prove it to you, I could post a picture of a stack of boxes in our master bedroom closet that haven't even been touched since we moved, but we don't need to do that...I don't want to scare anyone.

One Of My Favorite Things: ...spending time with family.

Brinley Anne This Week: ...continues to surprise Bruce and myself. One day this week, Bruce was giving Brinley her bath and he kept hearing Brinley say, "pouring the agua". He peeked around the corner to the living room and asked if I had taught her that water is agua in spanish. I said no. To this day, we don't know where she picked it up from--no Dora in our home--other than the spanglish that Bruce and I throw around between each other every now and than.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Let's see...Brinley and I will have schoolwork on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Morning. On Friday, we'll probably do our errands for the week. I also need to get busy wrapping Christmas gifts. The three of us will be celebrating our family Christmas this weekend as well as going back out to the farm Sunday afternoon to visit with more family that we didn't see last weekend. Also, sometime between now and this weekend Bruce or I will need to put together Brinley's big present that we have in storage.

A Picture I'm Sharing: