Warm Laundry

Good Wednesday morning!

The Gallery Pics are from Josh's Choir Concert last night. Even though he loves choir, his face doesn't show it. He's big on concentrating. It was a great musical evening, and Roxie and I enjoyed it very much.

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST! - Okay. This is a good one. After much thought, I decided to celebrate my third year of blogging (Thursday, October 19) by letting you enter the Contest via Facebook. Super easy.

All you have to do is "like" my link. I post A Simple Life link every day (Monday through Friday) on Facebook. If you hit the "like" button, you are automatically entered in the Contest!

NOTE - Every time you like my links (A Simple Life OR 50 is Nifty) over the next couple of days, your name will go in the bowl... again. I post two links a day. That is two chances a day! Not bad, huh?

And the prize is... to... die... for! If you win, you get to pick from the following items which will be purchased (by me) from Whole Foods Market:

1. Two beautiful bars of organic soap. (Just tell me your bathroom colors, and I will make sure the bars will match. They come in many pretty colors and they smell divine!)

2. A $10 Gift Certificate to the Village Brasserie. (This is the little restaurant in the middle of Whole Foods. It is wonderful!)

3. An assortment of ten mini desserts delivered to your door.

4. A $10 Gift Certificate to Whole Foods Market!

5. A $10 Gift Certificate to Yogurt Mountain (which is conveniently located CLOSE to Whole Foods Market).

Remember... You can only choose one of the above!

What are you waiting for? Hit the "like" button under my link and your name will be put in the bowl for drawing Thursday, October 19 at NOON!

If we aren't friends on Facebook (or you are not on Facebook), feel free to contact me via e-mail, and I will put your name in the bowl. No problem!

RANDOMNESS #1 - As I have told you in recent posts, Roxie is learning to drive. I am NOT a good driving teacher. I am NOT calm. I am NOT encouraging. During a driving lesson, I am simply trying to survive. Oh. And I am NOT proud of my lack of "teaching a mere child how to drive" skills. However, I have accepted this as a part of my personality work-up and continue to move on.

That being explained, on our Sunday driving lesson, we used Austin's truck. The Big Gold Van is not the best vehicle when it comes to teaching. It is big. It is cumbersome. And there is no way for me to get to the pedals from my comfortable co-captain's chair 20 feet away from the driver... in this case, Roxie.

Long story short... At some point during the driving lesson Sunday afternoon in Austin's truck, I must have thrown my cell phone into the air while cringing and covering my eyes.

When the truck finally stopped, I hopped out really, really fast.

I left my cell phone in Austin's truck.

Austin took my cell phone to Jacksonville... and he's going to Kentucky for the weekend.

I will NOT have a phone until the middle of next week... and I blame driving lessons. (You may have noticed in the past, I am not "big" on accepting responsibility. Another one of my little personality glitches.)

If you need me... call the house!

RANDOMNESS #2 - I wasn't a good mother today. I KNEW it was going to be cold. I KNEW my dryer was broken and needed replacing. I washed all of Josh's jeans at one time... except for a pair which was washed, ironed and hanging up. I thought I was prepared, but then Josh wore his good jeans to Christmas Tree Farm Orientation yesterday... and demonstrated to the newbies how to do something on the ground. Thus, making his only DRY, clean pair of jeans dirty and wet.

Josh had to wear shorts today. I am so, so ashamed. I tried to even it out by making him wear a really warm hoody, but in my heart of hearts, I know today will go down in history as the day The Enchanting Belinda was a bad, bad mother.

RANDOMNESS #3 - Josh, Roxie and I have started watching the new show Terra Nova together. It is a very good show, and unlike Lost and some other shows I've tried to watch with the kids as they've gotten older, I understand this one. So far, so good.

RANDOMNESS #4 - Mikie will be home by 4:00 this afternoon. I am thrilled. I am going to cook and bake, I think. Pecan pie and chili with cheesy cornbread comes to mind. Yes. That is what I'm going to do.

Wednesday Wisdom - I'm loving a little Eeyore today. I try not to be an Eeyore, but I really "get" him. He makes sense to me. (And Tigger tends to annoy me, so I know I'm not that uber-cheerful kind of person.) Yep. More often than not, I am an Eeyore... and proud of it!

"I'm not asking anybody," said Eeyore. "I'm just telling everybody. We can look for the North Pole, or we can play 'Here we go gathering nuts in May' with the end part of an ants' nest. It's all the same to me."

"I might have known," said Eeyore. "After all, one can't complain. I have my friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last week or the week before that Rabbit bumped into me and said 'Bother.' The Social Round. Always something going on."

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.
"So it is."
"And freezing."
"Is it?"
"Yes," said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

Talk about looking for the silver lining!

Warm Laundry

I had another little tradition to share today, but this one caught my eye. From Nitty.Gritty. under My Blog List enjoy Jody's take on the everyday task of doing laundry!

"So my little laundry fun is well-received on days like today. As soon as a load of clothes is ready to come out of the dryer, I fill the basket and whichever kid(s) happens to be nearby, they are treated to some warm laundry smothering. Today Teague was the lucky recipient. He got a blanket and Wyndham's dress wrapped around him and tossed on his head... which he promptly pulled off and laughed about.

"I love to do this... and my kids all love it too... when they are just going to bed or have been settled in for a few minutes already. I love it when it's a load of bath towels, all fluffy and fresh and piping hot. I grab the hot items out of the dryer and sometimes totally surprise them with a pile on their heads as they lay in their beds. Or sometimes I call them to come help me out for a quick minute. And when they show up I put Daddy's lounge pants and t-shirt on their heads. They laugh and scream and pull it off. And they always want more. It can get out of hand in a big hurry when one kid puts underwear on another one's head and the fun factor for that kid drops off suddenly. But the laughter and warmth and fun that comes from a dryer full of warm clothes is one I know they'll remember when they've grown, and one I hope they don't outgrow too soon.

"It's the little things."

Yes. Yes, it is!

Have a blustery Wednesday. It is the PERFECT FALL DAY! I am lovin' it! Be sure and enter the Contest today. I'll be back in the morning with Blog Linkage, a Date, Autumnal pics and Randomness. (The Contest winner will be announced at NOON!)

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda