I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)

We've discovered an amazing ice cream place in town and are going to be F-A-T...

Yes, that is every bit as amazing (and as blue!) as it looks. It might be my favorite there, though the Coffee Oreo and Caramel Brownie are also outstanding...

These are World Peace Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, author of multiple cookbooks but especially the new one I got for Christmas. Every recipe I've tried from it so far has been a hit, from the Almond Crescents which surprisingly Carrie will NOT leave alone to these World Peace Cookies which are absolutely to die for if you like true chocolate cookies and not just sugared chocolate cookies. Even the chocolate ice cream recipe with vodka in it was yummy!

Did I mention F-A-T? I'm gonna be 500 miles WIDE if I keep this up. Some of you are remembering the meme I added to my Facebook wall about my beach body being postponed this year until further notice. I'm not in shape. Wait. Round is a shape, right?

And let's be honest, all those veggies mentioned in the garden post will not be in place of the above yummies, rather they'll be in addition to. I'm a Hobbit at heart, what can I say?

So this is happening

Spring has sprung. That means it's time to get seeds ready. This is the first year in the new house that we've gotten the grow lights out and had everybody on the counter in time for a head start, haha! 

Pay no mind to the photo bombers. Damon was helping with the watering can and the big kids were goofing off at the table. 

Dada got a bunch planted: cucumbers, strawberries, basil, marigolds, cauliflower, tiny red and tiny yellow tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomatoes, I think two other kinds of tomatoes (I'm sensing a theme) and we have some spots left to fill with squashes. Everybody else can either go straight into the ground and not worry about frost (peas, beets, broccoli) or wait until after the freeze- free date (carrots, lettuce, watermelon, eggplant, nasturtium, chives, lemon grass, and, ahem, wildflowers). We have another small section of ground out back covered with pizza boxes and bricks to kill off the grass. That will be the strawberries-and-friends patch. Apparently strawberries appreciate helpful thyme, which I happen to have seeds for. I was thinking somebody else is supposed to join them... carrots, maybe? 

Dada had another week of training people last week so we didn't get him as much as we'd like. We did our usual homework and karate, had a no school day due to fog, had home group on Friday night when it was 75 and the kids were all running around outside like they'd never experienced fresh air before. Yeah, it was pretty great. Our friends even brought their dogs along, so Triskal had somebody to lounge on the deck with as well! 

We also got the first mosquito bites of 2017. Someone delighted themselves in my sandaled feet and was a bloody, gross mess when I squished her. Carrie won herself several and Damon got a great big one by his right elbow. 

This week is more of the same wash/rinse/repeat. Perhaps the weather will stay a little more consistent and we can squish in some time in the puddles Great Outdoors away from the cause of all the screaming and yelling Wii. Have a wonderful last week of March, wahoo!

Days off are exhausting

I know those Presidents were busy guys, but man, school is way less tiring than a day off...

Nothing to see here...

I don't know what would make you think Dada got Sunday morning donuts...

I'll take Disbelief for $500, Alex.

This is not a photo that I found taken in November, or even last March. This photo was snapped today. It's February 18th. 

The boys are burying each other in the oak leaves out front because not only is there no snow but it is also dry enough and warm enough out to play in last autumn's leaves. Carrie has been working on her lean-to all weekend. Dada and I dug all the supports out of the big garden out back and took down the Christmas lights that festooned the front porch and picked up sticks that I'd pruned off the apple trees. I thought I'd share the snapshot of the beautiful day today and be all smug about how fresh my whites are going to smell while everyone was busy outside and I had relative peace.

Soon it will be dinner time, but these kids are determined to squeeze out every drop of sunshine and fresh air while they can.

Why do I have a terrible, terrible feeling we are going to get hammered in March?

And speaking of love languages...

Church has begun a new series based off of Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages, which is truly fascinating information. Anyone who knows me well will know that I am a Quality Time kind of person over anything else, and that it totally psychs me out when I find the right gift for someone because I am NOT a Gift kind of person. Sweet Dada appreciates Acts of Service over Words of Affirmation, which is another one that comes naturally to me, so I need to work on showing love to him in the way that he best receives it instead of just doing what's easy for me. The kids are all different as well, but Quality Time for any kid makes a big difference. I'll put a link at the bottom so you can check out the info. I see a lot of potential in how it helps with relationships of all kinds. 

But Mr. Chapman neglected to mention my true love language: cookies.

That's right. I am, above and beyond, a Cookie Monster at heart. That's why this particular $2 find at Goodwill made me do a happy dance:

I love to eat cookies, to bake cookies, to ship cookies in the mail, to deliver cookies to others, and to eat still more cookies. Cookie Monster IS my spirit animal.

And now you're getting the general idea of why this time of year is so dangerous:

~the oven warms up the house and makes it smell pretty

~Girl Scouts are selling crack cookies 

~since I can't hibernate I might as well bake

~people need cookies to cheer them up in winter doldrums

~Valentine's Day means fun heart shaped chocolate cookies

~and fun sprinkles

~nobody's really sticking to their resolutions by now anyway

~I got a new cookie cookbook for Christmas and have to test out all those new recipes

~we have kids and kids request cookies

~#wehavekidsthereforewehavecookies

~bananas headed to the dark side need transformed into creations other than banana bread sometimes

~repeat

So, grab some cookies (and hug those precious Girl Scouts) and tune in to listen to the messages here about the love languages and how they help you better relate to those around you. And have some milk. And another cookie!

Movin' on up

Then there's Thing2, who had his middle school orientation last week. This kid can.not.wait. to get to the junior high. I keep telling him not to rush it, but it's definitely a case like Iago says in "Aladdin" about, "on a scale of one to ten, you are an eleven!" 

He even managed to find some of his sister's artwork in a display case during the open house. He delightedly strolled the halls, examining the lockers, checking out the bulletin boards, and would have investigated everything in the science rooms had I not dragged him out of there by his coat sleeves. Safe to say somebody is ExCiTeD!

He takes after his father

For those of you who were unaware and/or had forgotten, his father's handle is Cliffhanger...

#itsyouhetakesafter

New mug! And another excuse for my mother to fret about glass.

Check out my new, beautiful, handblown birthday mug from sweet Dada. He created it for me while out with the work folks he had to wine and dine during their week of training in town. One of the nights, my birthday actually, was a trip to a glass blowing boutique where he crafted my gift.

I used it with delight.

The I refilled it and heard an odd *SNAP*. Hmm. I looked at it carefully, and didn't see anything obviously wrong. Maybe I'd set it down on something crumby that crumbled. I lifted it up and heard an odd *CLINK* followed by a *SPLOOSH* which was accompanied with an *ACK!*

RIP mug. Again. 

Back to the drawing board...

A Big Chair, A Boy, and His Bucket. And karate graduation.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then the ones portrayed here are:

We now join the ranks of those who have gone before us, those who also have cleaner bathrooms thanks to the aftermath of the stomach bug...

*********************************************************************

Thankfully it seemed to be a one-time occurrence. I kept him home Friday because he felt a bit warm upon awakening, but by lunch time he was his normal self and asking for his regular favorite foods. 

We made it to karate graduation on Saturday where he was awarded the brown belt that he'd earned, wahoo! We now get to go to one class for all the kids and can get all of our classes accomplished in two or three days instead of three to four. Yippie! That clomping you hear would be me attempting an Irish jig.

I apologize for the cruddy pictures. The stage lights overpowered anything my phone could do...

That's Liam on the right, escaping from Elizabeth's bear hug from behind.

The white blob is Damon, mid kick. I have a video of the whole kata but can't figure out the tech difficulties of getting it from my phone to the blog. It lets me post pictures but not videos from my phone. What's up with that?

Carrie and the sticks from weapons class. Again, I have video of the combinations, but apparently it's just for me. *sigh*

Sunday we all made it to church for the first time in what seemed like forever as Dada had been in North Carolina for work during the two previous Sundays. I got to snuggle a sweet, sleeping baby girl and then enjoyed the sunshine while pruning our apple trees a little more. 

Everyone made it to school and work today, so I've been brushing and trimming Triskal and may or may not snip some more off the trees out back. 

Valentines for the boys' class parties tomorrow are already finished, the snacks have been sent in as well, and we mailed the ones we planned to mail. Have a terrific Valentine's week, everyone, and stay away from the germs!

Boy-0, Geode-1

I don't know how many of you looked past the Cocoa Puffs to the tiny bandaid that Damon is sporting, but he managed to slice his cheek open at brunch at a friend's house last Saturday morning. He was closely inspecting a large sparkly geode that is a focal piece in her living room. He joined us in the dining room, bleeding. Our best guess is that he had his face in it to see the light playing over the surfaces and caught his cheek on the edge as he pulled back...? At any rate, it was a nice clean cut and is healing well. Boys!

"There is a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping..."

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then this one is a whole boatload of zzz's. Carrie, AKA the lump on the couch, had returned from a sleepover with some girlfriends. Damon just loves naps and will climb into one of the big chairs whenever he can catch an opportune moment of downtime. Liam is fighting off some germs and would stay in pajamas and his robe for days on end if I let him. 

No room in the inn for me since I don't curl up as well in the big chair as the kids can, so I pulled the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and went to bed in my own bed! Perfect day for a long winter's nap.

And now it's almost bedtime- my favorite time of the day! ;)

The Friendly Beast

Just thought your day could use a Fuzzy Fix. This is our beautiful Triskal, who is getting up in years. She's not fond of wet weather despite being a water dog. She likes to be read to and laid on and snuggled and is more than happy to share her fuzz and hair with whatever clothing you're wearing. She hasn't met a person she hasn't liked, except the meter readers at the old house. She sends her love. Happy Monday!

Oops, I did it again...

I'm not alone in my state of holy-cow-it's-already-three-weeks-into-January-ness, so there's comfort in knowing I'm not alone in the state of my unbegunst (hahaha, now THAT should be a new word!) resolutions or the fact that I completely spaced it last week when I should have taken a mid-month photo of the boys at the bus stop.

Oops.

It just dawned on me this morning that it hadn't even crossed my mind to do it, not just that I'd forgotten to upload it or blog it. Never even took it. I guess getting back into our school groove took more out of us than I thought. It's still too dark to get any of Carrie while she's out there, a fact which was brought home to me this morning. One of the bus riders had sketched a smiley face on the window and was backlighting it with some sort of electronic device so that I could see it. It made me giggle as I walked back into the house before discovering that the boys A) weren't dressed, B) weren't yet eating, and C) very likely to not be alive long enough for me to take their picture at the bus stop...

So to use one of Dada's favorite Steven King/ Roland Deschain-isms, "I cry your pardon." I'll try harder to be awake in the morning mid month so I can get that picture! I suppose the next one will be a Valentine!

The Swing of Things

Hello 2017 and the changes that it brings. I'm going to do my best to not talk about politics, at least not today, so here's what else is happening in life.

Chocolate cake. Cake is good. Free cake is even better. 

We celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary with a sans kids lunch out and free chocolate anniversary cake. Yay us!

The kids are trying to get back into the school day routine after winter break, but January is a little rough on new beginnings. We had no school due to an ice day declared last Tuesday, though in actuality the black ice on Wednesday,  was worse, then were off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday followed by a two hour delay for professional development on Tuesday. Go to school already so that I know what day of the week we're on, people!

The weather has been crazy too, reaching about 51 yesterday. We have had enough rain that the neighbors' pond tries to include our yard despite the treeline between them. The kids call this area The Leak. It is the same area where some of the geothermal piping went last fall, and yes, that post is mostly done but needs edited by someone with more working brain cells than me and he's very busy this week and next. Hold your horses.

The Leak. Damon came in from school last week proclaiming that he had "glass from The Leak". This was the first time I'd heard of The Leak but as we'd been playing 52 pickup with the recyclables a few days earlier I figured out what he meant. Now, one can't intermingle glass with the rest of the recyclables here where we live. It must be taken to a certain destination separately. So I knew there was no glass in the 52 pickup we'd been doing. 

It turns out his "glass" was actually a slab of ice that he'd set down on our kitchen counter. From my chair, I called to Carrie, "is that ice or glass?" She glances at it, "ice." "Then can you please put it in the sink so it doesn't melt all over creation?" "Too late." Insert eye rolls *here* as she dutifully scoops up melting "glass" and cleans up.

There looks to be about 15 pickup now in The Leak. 

Karate continues. In three weeks we have another graduation and if all goes well Damon should be bumped up to a brown belt, which means all 3Thingz will be in the same level of classes. That probably means nothing to you, but it means that we can drive up, sit through one class (well, I'm the one sitting- THEY will be participating) and drive back instead of one kid waiting while doing homework whilst the other two are in class and then reversing positions. Come to think of it, we'll need a new homework plan, too. Hmm.

The big kids are officially "candidates" which means they can go to just about any class they want to and will be testing throughout the spring in order to receive their probationary black belts in May. That will be a really big deal, so for those of you in the general area who want to come see that, pencil in May 13. Testing starts in March, so this is, again, a really big deal for them. Black belt testing only happens twice a year, and it makes for really exciting graduations. 

I'm still listening to first graders read on Thursday mornings and I love every second of it. It's incredible to see how much improvement they've shown since the beginning of the year. It's also awesome to see little people who are being well cared for by their villages, haha. There are quite a few I'd like to sneak home with me, but it's not because they're needy like when I was student teaching. It's more because they're so adorable and funny. It's a high point in my week. 

Dada's workplace is going through some changes and not all of them are good, which is how change works sometimes. We have some friends who are job hunting and we're all working on the faith issue called trust. It's hard when loyalty to the company is not reciprocated in equal measure. To quote Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."

Our elderly Newfie is still holding down the floor between the kitchen and dining room, so all is right with the world there. Our gopher-sized squirrels are still being a nuisance with the suet. The kids are- dare I say it because here comes the jinx- relatively germ free and I'm hoping it stays that way, though with the dipsy doodle weather I know that's not reality. 

How has 2017 begun for you? Did you make resolutions? Are you keeping them? The karate parking lot is full of overflow parking from the nearby gym as the resolution makers flock in. I should be glad for them, but I'm selfish and wish there were enough places elsewhere so that those of us doing homework in the SUV could also keep an eye on those of us in karate lessons. 

And what's with the fruit flies in the dead of winter? Don't these little buggers EVER die?

Time for me to get off my keister and accomplish something in the realm of food. Have a wonderful hump day!

Is it just me or are they a red and blue two headed monster?

Grouchy AND angry cuz it's Oh-Butt-Frigid out...

Thanksgiving 2016

We are blessed with incredible neighbors who watched Triskal for Thanksgiving so that we could travel over the river and through the woods to Uncle Kelly and Aunt Becky's house. Thank you SO much, you guys. 

We headed out there Thursday morning and there was hardly anyone on the road. It's not a bad drive by any stretch of the imagination, and we had small cousins waiting on the receiving end.

There was far too much food for 7 adults and 8 kids, and everything was yummy. I think one of my new favorites was a simple 3 ingredient dish which consisted of sliced strawberries with sliced green grapes and chopped mint all mixed together. It was sweet and simple and summery and I couldn't get enough of it! Kind of like the cucumber, tomato, feta cheese salad I had the other day while on a lunch date with Dada, "but that's another story, never mind" ("Into the Woods" reference). 

We had a great time catching up with cousins we hadn't seen since March. Sweet Rosalina is mobile and charms everyone she meets. The cousins played games inside and out and even had a night together with babysitters plural while the adults headed out for the Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith Christmas concert, which was amazing. We had an excellent dinner and enjoyed every minute of the concert while the kids watched "Finding Dory" and had popcorn and played more games. 

Uncle Kelly took all the boys and Carrie on a hike at nearby park to burn some of the stink off. It was cold but it was perfect hiking about weather with several six year old boys, including a classmate we picked up en route.

It was fun to have hills in Indiana, hehe!

Aunt Becky enjoys directing the raising and decorating of the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, so we got to be part of that this year. Here's the mostly finished result, including Pap:

We headed back home Sunday morning and again had very little traffic. We didn't get dumped on with awful weather, there weren't accidents blocking the highway, everybody was on good behavior and we all made it home safe. Thanks for hosting, Kelly and Becky, in your lovely home, and for doing all the work. Hehe. We had a super time! We love you all and hope you have a blessed Christmas and New Year!

I told you so

See? I told you our Elves on the Shelf were cooler than yours. Unless you have the same set, that is. Then you're set. Or as my roomie Brenda used to say, "Eh heh. I said, 'eh heh!'" I forget which show that was from, but we've used it ever since.

Sorry for the Saturday snark. I'm trying to focus while a frustrated Resident Six Year Old is griping to me about his lack of time on the iPad and I'm awaiting the arrival of one of Carrie's friends whose parents will be out of town until tomorrow and I've only had two sips of my coffee...

So, on to The Geothermal Post! 

Whew, I gotta sit down

Yes, I know. There are no Thanksgiving pictures or stories up yet. Neither are there the same for the work holiday party. Tis the season to not blog, apparently.

Tis the season to chase groundhog sized squirrels out of the suet we get for our birdies. I've already chased them out of there several times and decided it was time to put the dog out to go potty and help deter the fatties. I felt bad when I heard a mad scrabbling under the grill cover and some tiny, cinnamon colored birds took off. Sorry, guys. The friendly beast won't even notice you, so eat all you want. And peck the squirrels as you please!

Tis the season for getting every school test in before the Christmas break. Liam has a book talk on Flush by Carl Hiaasen and a math test today. Carrie has a math test today, as well. Damon? Well, Damon's job today is to bring home all his lost and found in addition to bringing home everything he wore TO school today. He's missing one glove (because I found the other one in the lost and found at school yesterday) and one hat (which he wore yesterday). He came home without his mittens yesterday afternoon and Liam found them in the driveway when he went out to fetch the mail. The kid is a PigPen of belongings these days...

Tis the season to finally box up the warm weather clothes. Three weeks ago I was hanging out laundry while wearing my tank top. I prefer that. This Arctic Blast stuff is, one again, less than desirable.

Tis the season to bring out all the remaining Christmas decorations that haven't been up since Christmas in July. Don't judge. It finally happened. I was so far behind that I came out ahead. It can be done, people!

Tis the season to bake. Or, I would, if I could find my kitchen. The table (and floor) are strewn with math practice papers, Christmas decorations, cookbooks, gum wrappers, receipts waiting to be entered, and a stray nail polish bottle. Not to mention the remains of a tortilla Carrie started munching on several days ago. And Liam's dessert wrapper from last night. And Liam's breakfast dishes. And, lo and behold, my unfinished mug of coffee!

Don't get me started on the contents of the kitchen sink or the kitchen counter. Let's just say there's crock pot innards involved. Maybe I will go ahead and bake and clean up the mess all at once...

Home group is tonight, so I've already tidied the Old Lady Room which included vacuuming up popcorn of which I did not participate in the partaking. Hmmm. There are also colorful throws and pillows on the couch, awaiting our guests. There is a red fleece with snowflakes festooning it somewhere in this house, or maybe the playhouse, that I can not find to save my life. Don't feel sorry for me- we have others in spades- I feel a bit embarrassed to be searching for one when we have a ridiculous amount of others. 

Feeling a little convicted here, so I may or may not come back to that later, but we'll move on for now.

I am not cleaning this kitchen table by myself, so I'll move on there, too. 

Still no squirrels. Triskal can stay out a few more minutes.

Thanks to PaPa and Grandmama for cleaning out their attic and bestowing excess Christmas decorations on us. In one of the boxes I discovered, to my great delight, a set of the NOEL elves which never spell out NOEL in our family. My grandparents had a set that somehow ended up spelling everything possible but NOEL when we visited. When we called them to let them know we'd made it home safe, someone would mention in a faux-perplexed voice, "I don't understand how those crazy elves are spelling LEON. I know when I put them out they said NOEL..."

I put mine up as high as I could, spelling LEON, with a random plastic elf I found tucked arm-in-arm with the N elf. Our elves on the shelf are better than yours.

Tis the season for heat, thankfully, and that is another blog post not done yet. Yoiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. We've been cozy inside while it's been in the 20's outside. Thank you, Lord, for holding off on the horrid chilliness while we were dependent on only our fireplace. The 70 degree days were definitely a gift, and I'd take them any day of the week. Any week. 

Tis the season for Christmas music. Dada has created a Pentatonix holiday station on Pandora and he enjoys it, loudly, as often as he's home. I'm warming up to all the Christmas everythings, but continue to play non-holiday music when it's my turn to choose. I won't tell what's blasting right now while I'm cleaning (and taking a break from cleaning)... but it rhymes with Fit Pull. Don't judge. It's excellent cleaning music. "Fiiiiiiiiiirebaaaaaall!"

Tis the season for germs. Damon has had a cough for about 6 weeks and only now has a full-blown cold. Judging by his holiday zest, it isn't slowing him down much, but his poor little nose is red like Rudolph and we're going through tissues like nobody's business. I'm choosing to be thankful that he's using the tissues instead of his arms and sleeves. Upon entering the elementary school office yesterday, I heard the secretary mention they'd sent nine kids home with fevers before lunch the day before. Wash those hands.

Tis time to get back to work. Have a wonderful weekend! Be safe if you are anywhere that it's supposed to storm and that white scourge comes down from the sky. Stay warm!