Monday's are my favorite!

With my current schedule, I am totally free on Monday's. This is such a blessings! I use the time to do household things that I would have normally done on the weekend. [Though Sunday I did clean a little because Joe was around to help ;-) ]

Just to give you a peek into my Monday, here is how it goes:

6:00-8:00 (depending on the day): Wake up and change the sheets. I am a fanatic about changing the sheets every week, and clean sheets are one of my favorite things EVER. However, folding the sheets in another story. Our big king bed can be quite the challenge. So usually, even thought we have 3 sets, I wash, and then put back on the same ones. That leaves the bed unmade for a few hours, which I don't love - but can handle. ;-)

Then I make some coffee and get to work reading blogs, checking email, responding, reading news stories, etc. Because Monday's are more laid back in the morning, I usually get to take more prayer time as well.

Finish any laundry left over from last week. Usually I try to do a load or 2 during the week to keep the work load down. I realize that with only 2 people, we don't produce a lot of dirty clothes, but someday there will be more little people joining us who make a lot of laundry, and it is good to have a little routine now to fall back on.

Clean. Not too hard with our 2 bed/2 bath home, and I keep that to a minimum by picking up and tidying things all week long.

Meal plan and grocery shop. Joe did the meal planning this week and next (We try to do 2 weeks at a time) which was great! It isn't everything I would have picked, but I love that he wanted to help plan and of course picked all his favorite meals (lots of meat and potatoes, especially on October 4th - our engagement anniversary and the feast of St. Francis - "Let the meat hang from the walls!".

Now I just have to head to Freddy's to get all the goods.

I try to be home from the store around 11:00 (won't happen today), wash the produce, put everything away and then busy myself with other tasks.

Today I need to run some errands aside from the grocery store (Macy's and Target), finish a sewing project I am working on, (put the sheets back on the bed), head to my mom's to drop off stuff for her garage sale next week (If you are around, come check it out, there are lots of great things!) and prep some dinners for this week. There are also some family business things I need to get done - bill paying schedule, paper filing system (for being an organizer myself, I still haven't mastered paper management the way I hope to someday). Maybe there is something on this website that Lindsey blogged about today- Organizing Junkie

On my list of fun things to do, I also need to write my dear friend Sr. Cora Marie (used to be Kathy Webb) a letter. All last year I wrote her once a week, but this year she can't receive mail except for her feast day, Christmas and Easter. So I have been writing once a month.

I hope you all have a productive Monday! Let me know if you have tip for paper order too! PLEASE!

wedding - 1 (1909 photos), by Anna Doherty

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Pretty darm proud of myself!

Proud in a good way ;-)
Look what I made today ....


Since we have glass doors in both our bathrooms and I wanted to add some color, but without a shower curtain, that is hard. The above color is in Joe's bathroom ;-)


We got the dining room furniture a few weeks ago and hung the curtains last week. Joe provided the flowers ;-)

I made the bedroom curtains today, and the 2 cute pillows to match with the extra fabric. Now the room seems complete to me. Hooray! I love the neutral color of our bedding which made for any color to be the accent. We picked blue and painted one wall that color and the curtains are blue too.

Another glass door in my bathroom---- We have brown and light teal towels in there, so I made some curtains to match the teal color. I think it makes it look very nice. Just how I imagined. I do like the style I picked for Joe's bathroom a little better.

Seven Things I love ...

Tagged by Cheri over at As the Family Goes.... Thanks!

Seven Things I LOVE!

1) Joe! Being married to Joe. Talking about how cool it is to finally be married. Be watching a movie or cleaning the house or driving somewhere and saying .... "ummm We are married!" It still doesn't get old and is so fun.

2) Though I miss Minnesota and our friends there very much - I LOVE being in Washington and seeing either my family or Joe's family every weekend. We have been having a great time doing little adventures around the state. Last weekend, we went to Zillah and went to 3 different wineries.

3) Reading about and learning things I never knew. As I mentioned in a previous post I have been reading Beautiful Boy. It is a book writen by a father about his son who is addicted to drugs and they cycles of heartaches he and the rest of his family go through. I am facinated by this whole other world that I had no idea about.... The book is honest and thoughtful. The father is a writer for the New York Times and is very eloquent in his heartfelt love and deep suffering as he watches his son destroy his life. Everyone knows about suffering and heartache - David Sheff makes his come alive on the page. He isn't a man of faith, but slowly comes to see God as necessary.

4) Lazy mornings, hot coffee, catching up on good prayer time, reading books and blogs and new recipes to make for the week.

5) Being crafty. I made 2 sets of curtains and feel so accomplished.

6) Thinking about, talking about, praying about, and trying to make real long term goals or ideas. There are so many things we want to see, do, experience, try ..... It is fun to dream, and to make a reality.

7) New friends, old friends, catching up, getting to know, and loving people where they are at.

You are supposed to tag 7 people, some I would tag have already been tagged .... but check out their posts and new people can participate!
Kristine, Carrie, Laura, Sarah D, Janelle, Amelia

The Simple Woman's Daybook

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For Today... Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Outside my window...clear skies and very chilly. Fall is almost here!

I am thinking... I got up a little too early today and don't have much to show for it - haha!

I am thankful for... being unpacked and settled in. Everything has a place.

From the school room... Joe started teaching yesterday. Looks like he has a great group of middle school students this year!

From the kitchen... Meals are planned for the next 2 weeks, and I am off to the store this morning. BBQ Chicken with pepper-jack cheese, baked potatoes, and broccoli tonight.

I am wearing... uh-oh. Still in my PJ's - about to get ready for the day ;-)

I am creating... my first Daybook entry and a long over-do post.

I am going... to get ready and go to the grocery store. Then off to visit my friend Kristine.

I am reading... Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and Joe is still reading me the Harry Potter books!

I am hoping... I can get everything crossed my list today (and a little more)

I am hearing... The washing machine doing some hard work on sheets and towels.

Around the house... It feels great to have everything put away, furniture in its place and things in order. Our daily routine has begun.....

One of my favorite things... The smell of clean laundry, and the 1st night of sleeping in fresh sheets. It's the little things!

A few plans for the rest of the week: Jack's retirement party on Friday, clearing out the attic with my mom to get ready for the garage sale, and enjoy the extended weekend!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

Nothing like great girl-friends! This is a picture from the day before the wedding. We went to Seattle and were tourists for the day. I just love remembering how all our best friend were in town for such a fun week and to be a part of our big day! Thank you!

Much needed post - in the "7 quick takes" format

It's been one month since the big day, and I have been so overwhelmed with stuff to post about that I just don't post at all. Silly, I know, but true. I will do this post in the "7 Quick Takes" style, even though it isn't Friday, over at Conversion Diary , just to keep my head from spinning.....

1) We had a great wedding! I hope you got to see Casey's great pictures (the previous post links you to his website). He did such a wonderful job capturing the day from beginning to end! He was such a trooper and arrived at my house at 6:40am the day of the wedding, and could be seen at 10:45pm leaving the reception after a long night of dancing and pictures. Thank you, Casey.

Also, the whole day's details will come in another post, but it truly was the best day ( and week ) of my life. Everything people say is true ..... It is just magic. Everything went off without a hitch. The only thing that we weren't too happy with ( and by WE, I mean my mom and I, Joe had no opinion ) were the flowers. We wanted something much different than what we got. But, my mom went to the florist and spoke to them about her unhappiness, and got a nice chunk of change in return. Our best friends were in town for the big day and we had a whole week of fun. Joe and I commented we need to do it every year - not get "re-married" because that is impossible, but have a great big party for everyone to come to!
(Most of our friends at my parents house Thursday before the wedding)

2) Mexico was ---- too good for words! I will make another complete post about it in the future, but here are some pictures. We were at a great resort (RIU Palace), all inclusive, on the beach, lots of pools, yummy drinks, food, snorkeling, para sailing, outback tours .... you name it, we did it.


3) Another wedding - My dear friend Sara Primera was married to Josh Davila 2 weeks after our wedding. I went down to Texas, without Joe, and was a bridesmaid for Sara. It was nice to see a few other NET people and old friends. I also danced the night away (kind of) with Ernie - he is one of "my people" and taught me how to dance like a real Mexican. Now I need to teach Joe.
Keep Sara and Josh in your prayers as they begin their lives together!

4) Joe and I went to Woodland Park Zoo, the Sequim Game Farm, and my parents beach house in Wenatchee/Chelan. I would say we are living up our "pre-retirement" (in the next post) quite nicely.

5) We have been calling this stage in our life, "pre-retirement" - being a teacher, Joe has the summer off, and I am still looking for a job for the time being and thinking about how to start organizing here - until then, we are just 2 young retired people. It has been great!

6) Harry Potter - Joe loves Harry Potter, I never got into it. So, for the past few days, Joe has been reading me Harry Potter - we are on book 4 (he said the 1st 3 weren't worth the effort) and I have seen the movies already. My love language, if it exists, is being read to. Maybe that goes under the "quality time" category, but I really think it is something totally different.

7) Joe got a job! We are very excited about that. We probably should have been a little more "nervous" about picking up and moving home the week before the wedding, without job, and no time to look for them either. But we trusted in God's providence and knew something would happen. Well, within a week of being home from Mexico, Joe had a few offers and the best one was at the school closest to our home! The Lord is so faithful and we trusted He would provide. As always, He did! Mr. Skillman will be teaching at St. Patrick's in Tacoma - Middle School Science.

More posting to come. 1st things 1st - get new married life organized.

God bless!

The Skillman's

p.s. Soon (or maybe not so soon) I will be making the move to this place: http://theskillmans.blogspot.com/

It is still unnamed and hasn't been used, but I think our new life as one needs a new blog as one ;-) I will keep you posted.

Wedding Picture Link

I finally put the LINK up - sorry about just positing the website - but I am sure you all figured it out.

check out some great pictures Casey made into a slide show!

More to come!