As of Late: November

Wow... third Thursday of the month already!
Wow, its Thursday of this week already!



 As some of you remember, Christy hosts As of Late every month and I enjoy participating especially in this phase of my life where things seem to be so different every month.  Maybe life has been like this all along (it probably has)... but Christy's blog event every month helps me take a deep breath, look around and REALIZE all the great changes happening in my life.

That being said...

• As of late, I look at a sky like this on my drive home, and I can't help but feel anything but Thankful and Grateful for the amazing blessings 2011 has held.

This was the sky on my drive home yesterday!

• As of late, I have been running around like CRAZY -- especially this week, but there is an end in sight, so its a really good thing
• As of late, I have been on-the-go from the moment my feet hit the floor in the morning until 11 or 12 at night (to the tune of still answering work emails at 10pm)
• As of late, I have been trying balance my usual caseload of students AND three additional student evaluations -- which are very time consuming
• As of late, I've remained as frustrated as EVER because Google Reader, Blog Feeds, etc do not update for my blog.  Even though I post EVERY DAY, Google Reader says my last post was three months ago.  Despite posts to numerous blog help forums, I remain frustrated and without solutions.
• As of late, I feel like the purpose of HOMEMAKER has been revealed to me in a completely new way as I have prepared our little house to receive our family for Thanksgiving
• As of late, I feel the charge of keeping a lovely and peaceful home for my wonderful husband as he has spent many nights in the past month working late, or through the night at school on work or graduate school -- I love that he trusts our home to me in his absence
• As of late, our little house has become our little home as I've learned the difference homemaking can make in a life, a marriage and a house
• As of late, my hubby and I have been menu planning for our first married Thanksgiving, our first time hosting Thanksgiving, and the first time any and all of our family will come to visit
• As of late, my evenings have been filled with puppy obedience classes (I'm a student) and middle school ultimate frisbee classes (I'm a teacher)
• As of late, I have been fighting a throat thing for over a week -- scratchy, thick, sore, annoying but no fever, no cold and it hasn't gone away.  Thank you for prayer about this.
• As of late, I have printed far too many wedding pictures and put many in frames around our house.  I probably need a balance in the photography department, but for now, I love it!

One side of the hallway between master and guest room

The other side of our hallway - I don't love the white frames
but they were on sale  :-D

• As of late, I feel as though I have seen little of my little Lexie-girl (cat) as she spends more and more time in the basement away from our puppy

• As of late, the sounds of cat purrs have been replaced by low cat growls and cat hisses are common sounds around our home
• As of late, I continue to pray for Lexie and Lloyd to get along -- or at least tolerate each other, but I confess the progress is slower than I would prefer
• As of late, I have been pondering and praying over Proverbs 12:4
• As of late, I am getting REALLY excited to see my momma and daddy -- but really nervous to cook in front of my momma and mother-in-law
• As of late, I have not been exercising -- I've been watching what I eat, but I have no exercise routine at the moment and I don't like it
• As of late, I finished reading Gone With the Wind and I've been struggling to get into my next book -- part of that is probably that I haven't had time
• As of late, my hubby won an IPAD at school and he's trying to get me into reading Ebooks -- but I don't think he realized that this would mean he has to share the Ipad...
• As of late, as I'm making my own little home in a tiny town in Colorado, preparing for Chris and my families to come visit us, I am missing my older sister in a fresh way -- It always surprises me when I miss her in a new way, and I think this will be the case for the rest of my life

• As of late, I am choosing to look past all of the Christmas decorations in the stores because I am very focused on Thanksgiving and Christmas comes AFTER that
• As of late, VAIL MOUNTAIN opens on Friday and Chris and I are getting excited to HIT THE SLOPES!
• As of late, I didn't realize I had so much going on -- but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I have been so busy it means a lot is going on
• As of late, I keep cheering for University of Michigan football and only two games left to the regular season (always sad to say goodbye to football season) :-(

Taken from W&L Alumni Magazine Autumn 2011

• As of late, I have been increasingly thankful to our veterans and servicemen overseas, especially nearing this holiday season
• As of late, I fall more in love with my husband every day

See below for pictures of my recent homemaking efforts:

Headed into the guest room

Through the door of the guest room

We're ready for visitors!

I am really proud of this room

This bookshelf used to be by the dining table
but we like it better by my desk

To fill the void of the bookshelf, I added the tall crazy black picture frame

Full of prints from the Photobooth at our wedding

Across from our bed, looking at this, hopefully Chris and I will never go to bed angry

People could actually walk into our basement now!

This room has only been this organized for 24 hours

Our new dining room table, ready to be used!

Our new China cabinet

Full of our beautiful China!

I still have ironing to do before Thanksgiving dinner
and the gloves are for handling the China

 What have you been up to as of late?