Books and Coffee

I have spent a good part of my time online this week entering book and apron giveaways! There is so much good stuff out there; you just have to look a little, not too hard even. One day I'll share a few links of where I go to find the giveaways I enter. Here's a taste:

• The other blog I write at: Simply Sensational Divas Review Right now we are having our official launch party for the whole month of August. Come join in!!!
• Brimful Curiosities - Monday and Friday she lists book giveaways.
• The apron giveaways are only open for a few more hours, I believe, but they are at: The Apronista.

Oh, there are so many more, but I'll have to share them another day.

I know I'm late for the Company Girl Coffee, but my DH and I usually enjoy a coffee in the evening, so . . . please join us. Have a look around.

I am sharing my story about my depression and what I'm doing to work through to a better place. I think the depression series is going to be three parts but might expand to four; I've written two posts so far.

Oh, we did some harvesting from our garden today. I was too involved to get any pictures, but we picked some peas and then podded them (is that the correct term?). I could not believe how good little W was at getting the pods off without damaging the peas inside! He loved helping even though he was so tired and should have had a nap instead. Even Baby R got in there! The empty pods only kept her happy for a short time; she knew where the action was and needed to be there.

J is closer to getting the bus ready for the road; the seats and seat belts are all installed now, except two. We now have seat belts 10, including the driver. And shelving for storage or for a table or whatever we need it for; he made a place for the stroller, behind the back seat. I have the tether hooks I need for the three car seats that the youngest children use. He needs to do a little bit of rust repair and painting. (New law states that school buses used for personal transportation can't be school bus yellow. I hope that made sense; what I'm saying is, if it is not longer used as as school bus, it can't be that yellow.) We hope to have the registered and insured by the middle of next week!

We sent out two more resumes and have a lead on another job opportunity for J. J has also picked up some work (just a day or two) with one of the new fire fighters. We are still enjoying having him home, but as every month passes and we get closer to when the parental leave runs out, we get a little more nervous. It's hard not to worry about whether or not he will have a job. We've already been through a bankruptcy; we don't wanna go that route again. We have figured out the minimum it takes to run our family and it's not very much, in the whole scheme of things. I mean we could tighten our belts a little more, but right now we're living pretty tight. So we have the facts and the information we need, and there are jobs out there that J qualifies for, so we'll just keep pushing out the resumes and keep our ears open for more unlisted job opportunities. God knows what we need when we need it; we'll just have to continue to rely on Him and embrace each day He gives us together as a family.

We moved our oldest daughter to her own room. Prior to this all three oldest girls shared a small room. It was overwhelming for all of us with the amount of stuff that was in there. And they didn't even have a lot of toys in there. Just the fact that there were three beds, 2 desks and a dresser, etc. Three people make a lot of stuff. So we moved her to the guest room; now we have no room designated for guests, but we'll move her over to her sisters' room if needed. She has worked out a deal to get some more furnishings or paint; I told her and her dad agreed, tentatively, that if she keeps her room clean for the whole month of August she can have a night table with a drawer for socks and underwear and an alarm clock / radio for the top. Today is day seven and she's only had one reminder in the last seven days. I took some time to speak with her the other night about how she was liking her room; she's loving it, even thriving there I think. I'm so glad we decided to do it.

Ok, well, that's quite an update, so I'll leave it at that. Tell me about your week. Leave me a comment. Thanks for stoppin' by for a virtual coffee.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Don't forget to check out the great giveaways at Simply Sensational Divas Review.