Outside my window::

Sunny and hot. Figures that once the kids are back in school we get summertime temperatures--mid to upper 80s and maybe even cracking 90 on Friday. But the pool is still open for those of us who don't have school!

Wearing::

Gray skirt, pink t-shirt. Going to the gym later and I can work out in this t-shirt. I like to keep the time between changing and working out to a minimum, but since I'm also going to run errands after the gym, I need something on the bottom other than my workout pants. 

Listening to: 

Audrey Assad's Death Be Not Proud

Reading::

Middlemarch, Cloud Atlas, The Sandcastle Girls, A Spool of Blue Thread. How much do I love being able to get library books on my kindle? WIN. I'm also loving Clodagh McKenna's cookbooks. I write a lot about Italian food, but I'm also Scots-Irish and German, and Irish food is really good. At least, I think it is. So I'm improving my skills there.

From the kitchen::

Salad with parmesan chicken from last night; dinner with Mom and Dad tonight. Meals this week include salmon stir fry, shrimp and avocados, and chicken fajitas. Two of these are new recipes, so we'll see how they go. They're from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook, which I adore, so I'm pretty sure they're going to be delicious. I've only had a few misses with that collection. 

Praying for::

Guys, I've got some urgent prayer requests. Please join me in praying for these folks, especially? 

• My friends Abby and Chris, who are trying to sell their house near Boston--they moved to Ohio (yay!) but still have to sell the old house (boo!). 
• My friend Sage. Sage has CF like me, and she's in the process of being listed (or is already listed? I can't remember at the moment) for transplant. She's fighting a nasty infection with nasty medication--so really, life is misbehaving right now. Pray that she can kick this bug, and that he husband can get a new job in Wisconsin (where they have to relocate for the transplant). 

Thanks so much. And you're always welcome to leave prayer requests in the comments--always. I see all the comments that get posted here, and I'll pray for you!

Pondering::

September is like the new January, you know? Even though I'm long past going back to school, I always feel like it's a good time to start new habits or get back into a rhythm of life, after the sort of lazy summer scheduling. So I've got a new fitness tracking book, and I'm laying down some new fitness rails here. It helps that I took the last dose of the SCARY MEDICATION, that made me have lots of joint and muscle pain (to the point where standing was hard, sometimes), so my body is much more willing to move. Yay. But I'm also working on some new blog plans (post ideas), and I'm gathering supplies to print the manuscript off and mail it to a publisher. (I had to order mucho ink on Amazon today, so I don't run out!) CCD has started, so that alone means I have to keep that schedule and our syllabus on track. I'm also getting really excited about NaNoWriMo 2015. 

For some reason, I've always been sort of lackluster in August. September reinvigorates me. 

Around the house::

I've been a lot better about keeping the house in good shape. This was one of my August goals, and I'm proud of myself for achieving a weekly house cleaning schedule. Go, me! Since I work at home, it's important for me to have order, so I don't get distracted with a million other things. 

Creativity::

I'm making some bookmarks, because I have some beautiful yarn for them, and I need some more bookmarks around here! I will try purling again with a new ball of yarn, because the one I tried with before was just HOSTILE.