Change Begins At Home

Karolee at My Montana Moments gave me this wonderful award. I take this one very personal because it says something about what is most precious to me. "My Home", not my house...my HOME.

The "Change Begins at Home" award originated at Bean Sprouts Blog (thanks for starting a new award Bean Sprouts!)

Here is what she says about it:

The "Change begins at home" award, this is given to bloggers who live what they preach, who try to make the changes in their own lives that they would like to see in the world.

The award rules are:
1. Nominate three bloggers who epitomise "Change begins at home"
2. Link back to the person who nominated you, and link back to this post.
3. When you receive the award, you may display the "Change begins at home" button on your blog.

There are so many inspirational blogs that I read. I am inspired daily through seeing the creation of quilts and the wonderful homemakers who blog about their lives. I really had to give this one some thought as it limits me to 3 names. Here they are in random order.

Corin at The Botzy Blog. She has recently been presented with some challenges that we ALL go through as young mothers. She handled this in a way that most of us would not have. She put ALL else aside to tend to the needs of her children, sacrificing her own desires to take care of those most pressing. Alot of us would have (and have) ignored the situation or just complained.

Ann at Tis The Gift To Be Simple is such a wonderful wife, mother and her home is so very important to her...no hostess treats for her kids!!! She makes sure that her guys all have her own lovingly created treats. I am very impressed by her posts.

Rose at Thread Bare whose daughter Maddi is a completely lovely girl. She is pen pals with my daughter Charlotte and anyone who has raised this beautiful young lady is deserving of this award!!!
All of these ladies have made their homes a place that is deserving of this award. Thank you ladies for letting us "in" to your homes and lives so that we may learn how to improve on our own.

Wednesday is a day that Sweet Hubby is home and we have a very light home schooling day. It is in essence our "Saturday". Daddy is always at work on Saturday, so we rarely, if ever, get 2 days in a row with him. Today has been a productive day for him. He took down the pool. I took this picture through a screen on the second floor.

He also mowed the lawn, probably for the last time this year.

We had a light home school day. Mostly correcting spelling and some critical thinking assignments. Charlotte has grown! I know you are thinking, "Well of course...she is a child and they do that." Well Charlotte does it very slowly. When she actually has a growth that is very noticeable, we get excited. We went on a little spree yesterday and got a new fall/winter wardrobe. She is 10 1/2 and wears a 7/8. Now in some things she is requiring an 8! The girl has some normal sized feet which on her small frame look larger. She is very conscience of this and was thrilled that she found shoes that made her feet look smaller. It is difficult to find shoes that fit because her feet are long and narrow, especially at the heel. Here she is in one of her new outfits.
I ordered her a couple of jumpers from Lilies of the Field yesterday too. I am going to have our matching Thanksgiving dresses made through them. Yeah, yeah, I know...well I am not giving up my clothing thing...just not now.

Zach needed very little as far as clothes go. He had a growth spurt before summer so got new winter clothes twice last year. The second batch still fit. He did need new shoes. He said these were so fast he needed to wear his Superman shirt so he could have "super speed"! I spent my day visiting with my neighbor and cleaning. I always enjoy any time I spend with Beth Ann. We are, together, going to try a new church on Sunday. She is the neighbor who gave Kyle the treat for helping with her basement. Like me, she has biological and adoptive kids...just more than I have on both levels! Plus she runs a day camp out of her home. Children are definitely her thing! We connect on a couple of life issues! Out of our 7 house cul de sac, 3 of us have adoptive kids (only 4 of us have kids at home still) and all 3 of us have kids with trauma. That poor 4th family! Actually they are very supportive and understanding.

I found a new-to-me cleaner. I only share those that I feel are excellent and this one I LOVE...the only thing that I do not like is the name. "Holy Cow" I did not notice it until I got it home. Now, I doubt I am giving money to a group of people who worship cows, though they are a green company and they only sell natural products-hence the name, I am sure. This is the BEST grease cutter EVER! Plus you can use it on carpet, bathrooms, well really anywhere! I found it in my local drug store, but you can get it online by clicking on the link above. The price is very good...I paid under $4 for a large bottle. So now I am off to pick up dry cleaning and a quick stop for medications and then home. Dinner and a movie tonight.... Evan Almighty. I heard it is good. Hope you all had a great middle of the week!