January 2017 ~ week 2

This week has been one of wintry weather and lots of downtime because Abigail and I got colds -- just sick enough that we didn't feel like getting off of the couch.  We did not start back to school on Monday as planned...instead, we were bums most of the week!

Nice things about being sick: staying home, extra rest, snuggling under a warm blanket, extra cat time, Grandma-socks...and a good nurse.  David takes great care of us during the day so that Bruce can work.  He is not quite so cooperative about pictures...

 

One afternoon we made homemade snow-cream for the first time.  It tasted like French Vanilla ice cream, but with the icy-snowy texture of snow. Fun!

More resting...more couch-time and more cat-time...Mindy is not a big snuggler, but she knows when someone is ill and appoints herself their nurse.  It's very sweet.

In the midst of David's tending to us, he managed to spend his Christmas money on Amazon and was delighted when his new Star Wars Lego set arrived!  It is always so much fun to watch him go to work on a new building project.  Here he is with his U-Wing Fighter.

By Friday, we were starting to feel like normal human beings again!  We cleaned and organized and played board games in between projects.

And for a week that started out with ice and snow and frigid temperatures, this is how we ended it...70 degrees and outside without even a coat! Ah, Georgia, how we love thee... :)

Thankfully, Abigail was feeling much better in time for our church's youth group event on Saturday -- her first time to participate in the annual "Cabbage Bowl," where our teens compete against our senior citizens in Wii Bowling.  It is a really fun event and a great chance for the strengthening of relationships between these two very different age groups.  The seniors won the overall tournament as their combined score was higher than the teens' combined score (this is typical...they have won the overall competition four out of the five years).  Abigail and her friend/bowling partner, however, won the individual team competition, defeating the usual bowling champions!  Here they are with their "trophy" after church today.

Not only that, Abigail was the individual high-scorer, so she brought home that traveling trophy and a Chick-Fil-A gift card!  Nobody suspected she was going to be such fierce competition, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed her victory. :)  The teen guys have already started vying for her to choose them as her bowling partner next year! Way to go, Abigail!

Our weeks ~ October 21, October 28, & November 4

Our weeks have been full of many things...

Beautiful autumn colors (this is in our backyard)

 Abigail's second round of Botox on her left leg (see her faithful nurse?)

 Adorable cats who entertain us by playing in catnip, jumping windows in pursuit of insects, watching the printer in fascination, and (best of all!) snuggling

 A working weekend retreat in the lovely north Georgia mountains

 The magic of the first frost of the season

 The slow-paced fun of our latest science experiment (aka snail terrarium)

as we study animal classification

 Tree climbing (David is in the tree on the left)

 Schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork

 A 'mission of mercy' trip to cheer up my parents since my dad is down for the count with a foot infection and my mom is busy being his nurse:

With Grandpa during his daily IV treatment

 David and Grandpa hanging out at the pool

My first batch of 'real' soap (lye based soap with goat's milk & orange scent)

 The kids making pretty glycerin soaps with Grandma

 A fun picture from their yard, just because I like it!

Cousin/nephew/niece-love (and uncles and aunts, too)

 Back in Georgia again, to our chilly (but pretty!) fall weather...

from about October through March, if I am wearing pants,

you can be pretty sure that these are hiding underneath. :)

Football!  David wore his Broncos hat to cheer for Peyton Manning.

 The conclusion of our fall soccer season

Even a little bit of sewing & embroidery got squeezed into the schedule

 That's those three weeks in a nutshell! :)

Our weeks ~ September 23 & 30 and October 7

During these weeks, we made a trip north to visit family and attend a family wedding.  My picture-taking wasn't so great, but the trip itself was wonderful!  We shared lots of laughs and adventures and have lots of happy memories of our time together.

On our way to NY, we stopped in NC to visit Bruce's parents and his aunt, who was visiting (and I forgot to take a picture), then we stopped in Maryland to visit Bruce's sister and her family.  The cousins love each other to pieces and they did a great job squeezing as much togetherness into our day as they could!

On our way from MD to NY, we did a quick stop in Gettysburg to introduce the kids to that history-rich area.  We did a speed-tour of some of the battlefields and stopped for a quick look in the cemetery to see where President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address.  We plan to visit again for a longer tour.

Next stop, NY!  In between playing games with my grandma :), we went on some adventures.  Here are some highlights of our trip...

Salmon River Fish Hatchery

The salmon are running in NY at this time of the year, so we got to watch them fighting their way up the stream and then making their way up the fish ladder to the holding tanks.

This picture doesn't do justice to the size of the fish...most of them were around three feet long.

After a picnic lunch, we headed to Salmon River Falls.  It was gorgeous!

(This is the only picture from the whole trip with us and my grandparents smiling for the camera. Grrr!)

Next we headed to Pulaski, NY to watch the fishermen hauling in salmon from the Salmon River.

Last stop of the day was Oswego, NY, where we ate incredible, every-bit-as-good-as-I-remembered haddock sandwiches for dinner at Rudy's, on Lake Ontario.  The kids (and Bruce!) enjoyed skipping rocks on the lake.

Later in the week, we went to Abbott's Farm, where we watched cider being made, fed animals, and played in the corn maze.

We enjoyed time with extended family...

\

...ate local favorites...

...and watched out the window until we saw a big barge headed up the Oswego River, then raced into Phoenix to watch the drawbridge go up and the barge go through the locks (with only about six inches of clearance on each side -- very impressive!).

We ended the week with a Minota family wedding...

...and then headed home, through the beautiful fall colors of southern New York.  It was a wonderful week; it was even worth the painful goodbyes!

It helped a little that we came home to our cats (who were VERY happy to see us after two weeks...this is the kittens watching the kids, who were playing outside)...

...our church family (this was set up for a ladies' fellowship lunch)...

...and our friends (Karen and I did our annual applesaucing and ended up with enough sauce to keep us going for a long time!  I got to use NY apples this year, from my grandparents' tree. :)  Adel took her first whole apple very seriously and impressed us all!).

It was a wonderful trip, and it was terribly hard to leave our northern family,

but there's no place like home...

and that is the dichotomy of having loved ones far away!