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!

January 2017 ~ week 1

 Hello from a country that has been long unheard from -- I have decided to try out posting on my blog again...we shall see how it goes.

We started the new year with a whole week of school break ahead of us.  Abigail and I got out one of our favorite movie snacks (while we watched some Pride and Prejudice) -- chips and cream cheese!

Mindy enjoyed one of the new Christmas toys...just in case you wondered, this is how much of a sixteen-pound cat will fit inside a Barbie tent.  I'm pretty sure she thought she was completely hidden. :)

We have enjoyed lots of cat snuggles during our days off.  The cats love it when we stay home and make our laps available!

 This weekend has been great fun -- we've had a winter wonderland!

 Abigail discovered that you never turn your back to someone who is sledding down a hill.  David hollered warnings and tried to swerve, but to no avail!  Fortunately, it was all laughter and no tears.  There was a layer of ice under the snow, so David had to help Abigail get on her feet again!

 I filled the birdfeeders just before the snowstorm hit -- the beautiful birds have made good use of it and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

Our house looks so pretty with snow on it!

When the weather forecast started buzzing earlier in the week with rumors of snow on the way, I decided to leave the outside Christmas lights up a little longer than normal.  It paid off -- oh, so pretty!

 All three cats know how to ride out a snowstorm -- find places of warmth and patches of sun!

After we took the kids sledding and enjoyed the novelty of a snowy day, we came back inside and hunkered down...and I finished a knitting project.  It has been a while since I made a hat, and this one has quite a few messed-up modified spots, but it's close enough to make me happy!

After we put away our Christmas decorations, we rearranged our living room furniture, so now I have a nice, organized area by my chair that keeps my knitting accessible and also makes it easy to pull up my spinning wheel.  I have high hopes for creative productivity in 2017!

 Today found us with church services canceled as our whole area is still snowed/iced in and the better part of wisdom when this happens is to stay home and avoid the unnecessary risk.  Our southern winter equipment (the sun!) has started its work, but needs another day and some higher temperatures to make it safe to get on the roads again.  This "bonus day" at home has been full of wonderful family time and extra rest...and Bruce's Chicago-style deep-dish pizza!

Our week ~ March 31

This week started out with Abigail feeling under the weather...thankfully she was back on her feet in time for her sleepover birthday party!  Her theme this year was rainbows and unicorns, so I had a blast planning details accordingly.

For dinner Friday evening, we had rainbow pasta and rainbow bread...

...and for dessert, a simple cake

that had a surprise inside!

For snack on Saturday, we had rainbow sugar cookies.

The girls had lots of fun being girls...there was a lot of happy playing and a great deal of giggling and squealing, too. :)

Pin the star on the unicorn's horn

Abigail's friends helped her release her birthday balloons (the letting go of the birthday balloons and watching them until they disappear is a tradition in our house, started when they were younger and wanted to keep their balloons forever but I was tired of them being in the way...so we made it something exciting to watch them rise into the sky while they still had enough helium to make it!).

Other "regular" moments in our week:

School (this is Felix hard at work on a spatial manipulation project :)

David and I have been working on the landscaping.  These pictures don't show the scope of the work we have done so far...all of the cutting and pulling and hauling and sweating...but they will have to do.  He is my right hand man who provides all of the brawn and grit that I am no longer able to provide...it has been a joy to work alongside him!

A couple of the plants blooming at our house right now (the daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses are about done; grape hyacinths are still going strong; tulips are still coming on; many others are getting ready for their big show!)

Bleeding heart (from my Grandma Minota's garden)

Vinca vine

I forgot to include this picture last week...a snuggle session with our friends' newborn.  He is absolutely beautiful and it was wonderful to soak him up!

January 2014

Well, here I am again, having skipped a blogging chunk but picking it up now rather than dragging around the weight of too many missed weeks!

Our January started out in a very unusual way...all four of us were sick with the flu, which was our shared "Christmas gift" from our family Christmas in Florida at my parents' -- most of us got it over the course of the week spent together.  It really threw us for a loop, and we spent two whole weeks lying around moaning.  The cats thought it was great to have so many laps available for so long -- they were the only ones who were happy about it!

Eventually we got well enough to get dressed and get started back to school again.  We hit our 100th day of school just before Christmas break, so we are trucking along nicely towards a completed year (180 days)!

David earned some extra credit while we were studying mechanical energy; he (voluntarily!) created a contraption demonstrating a fixed pulley.

We saw a hot air balloon over our house -- a rare occurrence and lots of fun.

Abigail baked gingerbread from scratch mostly by herself -- it was delicious!

We enjoyed a visit to my dad- and mom-in-law's in NC...and guess how many pictures I remembered to take -- NONE!  Grrr.... :(  We enjoyed a peaceful couple of days together (and my two slaw-dogs from Hot Dog World brought much happiness, too!). :)

I sewed a messenger bag as a gift for Abigail's friend's birthday.  I was very pleased with the finished product. (I used this free pattern if you're interested; I made several tweaks, of course, but the basic info is great.)

The kittens are still as adorable as ever.  Felix loves to share grooming love, but the girls don't always appreciate it.  This time it was mutually acceptable and very sweet!

And this week came the crowning event of our month -- SNOW!  Three inches of it, plenty for sledding -- and cold enough temperatures to keep it for a few days!  We have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day 1...The flakes started to fall and school went downhill fast. :) I gave up and called a snow day, and the kids headed right outside!  We all held our breath and waited to see whether we would get enough for accumulation.

 We didn't have to wait long to know that this was going to be a 'real' snowfall!

 

 Day 2...It stayed, and now had a thick layer of ice underneath it.  More sledding, more fun...what a blast!  We sledded down our neighbor's hill and right across the ice- and snow-covered road toward our yard.

Day 3...it's still here!  We're supposed to inch above freezing temps and start losing it today, but the kids are milking every last ounce of enjoyment out of it that they possibly can.  I have enjoyed it very much, but I must admit that I am rather ready to be done competing with snow for the kids' attention in school, spending significant time during the day bundling and unbundling the kids and drying a zillion layers of clothing so they're ready to use again, and having sore muscles from sledding with the kids!  Yes, I am truly southern now.  I love to get snow for a few days and then I love to give it back again in exchange for our warm sun and easy-to-navigate winter weather! :)

Stay warm!!!