Monday, May 11, 2009

A New Week

This will be a wonderful week. I have made up my mind! I had a stressful week and weekend last week, and I refuse to go down that road again. How in the world will I stop it?? I will let you know when I figure that out! So far Monday has been great. After sleeping 10 hours straight....yes from 9pm-7am...I got Kyle off to work, made a pancake breakfast for Sweetheart and the littles, and got a double batch of Zucchini bread in the oven. I forgot to put dishwasher soap on my grocery list and under my new "shopping rules" (these are just in my own head), I will be unable to go get more until my regular shopping day. If I forget it, I do without. Because of this I have 4 loads worth of dishwasher soap left. I made sure I washed all the bigger items by hand. A nice sink of soapy water actually felt good this morning.I would have normally washed the baking bowls and measuring cups by hand anyway, but not having enough dishwasher soap made me more conscience of what I put in there. I have many new grocery shopping rules and one is to look for the best deal. I found a GREAT deal on butter. I bought 4 of them.Problem is, this was not quartered. It is just a 1 pound block of butter. I will use it this week, but will not buy it again. It was $1.88 vs. $2.18. Not enough of a savings for me. THEN I went to Aldi with Rachel and found 1 pound of butter, quartered for the same $1.88. I was amazed at their prices. I have never shopped there. I am thinking of changing that.
The Zucchini bread was a big hit.

I saved a loaf to the side for Sweetheart.

He is working hard in his Mom's yard today. He just loves doing yard work and my mother in love has a HUGE yard. Speaking of yard size, I may be expanding my garden this year. Sweetheart and I are discussing it ;)

The rest of the day will be spent doing what Sweetheart instructed me to do. "Have a good day doing something fun." I think I will quilt and maybe cut some fabric for a new quilt top.
I wanted to share a little book I read. It is WONDERFUL! The Author is
Frances Ridley Havergal. She was born in England in 1836 and died at 42 in 1879. Her father wrote over 100 Hymns and she herself was a noted poet and hymn writer. Click on her name to learn more. Among the many hymns she wrote was, "Take My Life and Let It Be" in 1873. This is one of my favorites.

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
The book,
"Kept For The Master's Use"
was written with that hymn as the foundation. Written in 1879 (the year of her death), it is considered a memoir. My church's copy is an antique edition, but beautifully maintained.
In doing some research on Miss Havergal, I found a blog completely dedicated to her works. It was truly inspiring. You can read "All For Thee" by clicking on the link.
I plan to do a read aloud of Kept For The Master's Use this summer with my kids. We are actually doing school 3-4 days a week now since we are ahead of our schedule. We do home school year round, but our summers are much lighter. For now, I am off to do something "fun".

11 comments:

~JoAnn~ said...

Bren~ Glad you plan on having a good week, ME TOO!! I am praying that my week goes smoothly and that I can get everything ready for Matthew's party on Saturday. That book sound real interesting. I love anything from that time.
Blessings,Joann

Nancy said...

I LOVE Aldi's...I like everything I have tried from there EXCEPT the automatic dishwashing liquid. It didn't work..
This first time I went, there was a nice elderly lady just finishing up unloading her cart. I thought I would be nice and offer to take her cart so she wouldn't have to return it herself... She looked at me like I was crazy, huffed off and returned her own cart!! I put up my hands and walked away. Only when I got my own cart did I realize that you had to pay 25 cents to "rent" the cart...I felt terrible!! LOL

Mountain Mama said...

Oh your bread looks yummy!

Hope you are still having a great Monday! Have a blessed week.

Winona said...

Bren, I'm glad you have decided to have a good week. Me too. I have shopped at Aldis for many years. Most of their stuff is just fine. I don't go there as often any more because it is further down the road through more traffic than I like to drive in. LOL That zucchini bread looks yummy! Have a great day, my dear friend. Winona

julieQ said...

Your zuchini bread looks so good! I really like your old book, I love old hymnals so much, and this seemed so much like one.

Andrea Cherie said...

Gorgeous hymn!

Niki said...

LOL, you wouldn't make it in Canada, Bren, all the butter except for the incredibly expensive fancy schmancy kind comes in a 1 lb. block ;)

I'd love to read that book, the bonus of organizing a church library is finding jewels like that one! Sounds so interesting.

I too love to sink my hands into warm soapy water....but it's nice when you done HAVE to, and can just choose to :)

And I'll be by later for a piece of that delicious looking bread and a cup of tea...because I seem to be in an especially chatty mood today, as you can tell from my lengthy comment! lol
Have a wonderful day
Love
Niki

Melzie said...

That is so funny I've decided the same thing about shopping :) I used an off brand of shampoo for 5 days last week to make sure I 'listened' to myself LOL and it didn't work half bad! :)

I love Aldi BUT at our Aldi store I am very careful to never buy flour I got mealy bug infested one time from there and it has scared me ever since.

xoxo melzie :)

moreofhim said...

I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful and blessed week. It's so hard when things aren't peaceful. I know - we've had some trauma around here lately, too. Nothing horrible, just enough to keep everything and everyone upset for days at a time. *sigh*

I'm SO looking forward to being finished with our graduation. I have SO many things I want to do for fun and also so many new and exciting adventures to pursue.

I love that hymn, too. Thank you for sharing it and the links, too. I'll be checking them out when I get some time - in June. LOL

Take care, my friend!

Love, Julie

Rose said...

Hello~my name is rose and I am a SAHM homeschooling, too~ I saw your post on DiNeice's Organized Homemaking for Christ's blog. So I thought I would pay a visit. I also love quilting and have many books about quilting from the pioneer days. I love historic books also. Have a wonderful week and I just love your photo's and posts. I have been reading them and enjoying your writings, God bless, Rose

Donetta said...

Hay you, Your days are full yes...You know those butter blocks are great to use in baking, or use a sharp knife on cool butter cut into 1 teaspoon size chips (like a restaurant) and then when your cooking a n egg or such just tack a chip off the cold butter dish in the refer. scatter them on a butter dish so that they are not pressed all together.