One ought , everyday

"One ought, everyday at least,
to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and if it were possible,
to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe
"A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties". -H. Martiniau

"And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner." -Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

I was over at The lilting house, Melissa Wiley's blog and read her lovely post on her "rule of six", *six things to include in your child's day; which used to be her "rule of five". I found it so beautiful and practical and tangible, I wanted to link to her here and encourage you to go read it. Melissa is a homeschool mom and a writer of books, besides keeping two lovely blogs. Her post is all about six things you should give your children to do everyday, and her tangible way of reviewing their accomplishements at the end of the day. Go on over and enjoy.

100 Posts!

This post is number 100! I can't believe I have reached this milestone already. Well, of course this calls for somekind of celebration. I think 100 things about me is a sort of tradition here in blogland...but I don't think I can think up 100 things about me...So, in place of the traditional meme, I thought I would host a contest instead.

Because we all love contests. Because we all love free things. Because I have a blog and I can host a contest if I want to.

Jennifer's 100th post contest

Here's what is up for grabs:

1st place winner: Choice of 1 year subscription to Wondertime Magazine
or 1 year subscription to Kiwi Magazine.

2nd place winner: a $10 gift card for Starbucks.

what you have to do: *just leave a comment that you want to enter, and leave a way for me to contact you if you win (email or blog site is fine) *if you mention my contest on your blog and post a link back to me, I will enter you 5 more times.
*you can still play if you don't have a blog, you will just be entered once-leave your email.
*a random drawing will be held Saturday, November 11th ( names will be put on slips of paper and chosen blindly by one of my kids)
*I will post the results on my blog either Sunday or Monday after (Sunday gets alittle busy around here)-hey, the suspense will make it all so much more fun..

Too magnanimous for words...

This weekend we are giving hospitality to a few college-age brothers for a conference. Well, I survived the house cleaning...of course it had to all collide on the day I needed to turn in homeschool work to our charter school teacher. -It's just a Jen thing.

The brothers have Demi's bedroom for the weekend. Friday evening we were sitting around the dining room table having dessert and getting to know the college boys. As I was herding the children towards bed, Demi in an attempt at supreme hospitality casually remarks to the boys:

"I usually like to sleep late in the moring, but you guys can play my game cube even if I'm not up yet."

We were highly diverted by this demonstration of supreme sacrifice and goodwill. Along with the casual assurance that he indeed has preferences and habits even at age 6.
He just says the cutest things..

An open letter to the man at Starbucks

Dear man-who ordered the venti vanilla latte breve, decaf;

We are extremely sorry that you picked up my husband's venti vanilla latte breve-quad shot by mistake.
And as you were lying awake at 3 a.m. wondering if all of Starbucks had laughed at you as you walked outside oblivious to your mistake, I would like to assure you that is was only a small 1/4 of the cafe that laughed. It was really more of a sympathy-snicker, really. Everyone felt really bad for you, it was not done on purpose. You were in too much of a hurry for anyone to realize the sad truth until your order showed up at the counter.

I don't know if this will console you, as you frantically dig out the cup from your trash can at 3 a.m. and confirm the clearly marked "4" written on the side of the cup, or only fan the flames of resentment in your agitated/very awake-being, but it was really your own fault. Don't be in such a hurry next time.
As Juan Valdez himself, would probably tell you, -a true connoisseur of coffee savors his drink and does not rush. The first really will be last. It's a cosmic thing, don't you know.

Thursday Thirteen #8

Thirteen things about Meg

1. She is the oldest of our four children

2. Meg's middle name is Noelle (and Meg is only her name on this blog)

3. She was a marathon nurser...I'm talking sometimes an hour long

4.Meg is a horse lover

5. Meg plays the violin and is in an orchestra

6. Meg loves to read, she just finished "Fairest"

7. her favorite food it cheese tortellin pasta with olive oil and goat cheese. And also avocado

8. She used to be afraid of mooses (but didn't know what they were...)

9. Meg enjoys researching things, mostly animals she would like as pets, and making reports about them.

10. She loves to watch Jeeve's and Wooster and A & E Sherlock Holmes dvds.

11. Meg wants to be a veternarian when she grows up.

12. Her favorite color is green, and she still writes letters to fairies.

13. she loves to draw and paint and take art classes.

Thursday thirteen is a weekly meme hosted here. My number indicates how many I have done. Visit the hub to see other lists.

10 Random Facts about me-Meme

I was tagged by Becca at And Together we learn for this meme. So, here goes...

10 Random things about Me
1. I am half mexican. I look like my mother-light skinned, blue eyes. My sister looks dark like my dad. (I hate beans tho, go figure!)

2. When I was 9 or so, I received a real unicycle for a present. I learned to ride it well.

3. I love chocolate. My favorite snack is ghiradelli bittersweet chips right out of the bag.

4. I met my husband at a high school Bible Study at the beach when we were 16

5. I wanted to be a pediatric nurse and took anatomy and physiology in college. I volunteered at a children's hospital too. Realized I couldn't handle blood and yukky stuff...And a good thing too, I couldn't clean my baby's umbilical cords!

6. I took french in high school. I live in So. Ca, spanish would have been more useful... I can say "I don't know" in french with flair, however.

7. My favorite poem is "The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Elliot. And I still don't know why...

8. I collect old Grace Livingston Hill novels (first editions), they are not really great literature, but they are sweet, Christian, always a Jenny ending, and I love to read them while eating. (finally figured out it was because she talks about food so much...)

9. I have a medical problem with the circulation in my hands and feet. My hands are always cold, I usually wear gloves in church. In California...even in summer. (I wear big fluffy socks to bed too)

10. My husband is my best friend. I don't like to do neat, interesting things without him. We order the same thing at restaurants, and we are usually thinking the same thoughts and surprise each other with that...the thoughts are often random and not obviously tied to what we are doing, such as "I would love to be sitting on a beach right now" or "we should give so-and-so a call." It's funny cause his mind is so much more logical than mine, and we do like many different things, but we are such good chums too.

I am going to tag Lindesy at Enjoy the Journey, Kelly at A spacious place ,
Jennifer at Did you ever get the feeling? and Amy Christopher