Thankful for a salt, sand, and a safe home

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It's funny how I can get the kids off to school and my days are Quiet. 

I made a good dent this morning with a warm Cuppa Cuppa and my Diamond Dot Christmas project.  My nails were even still looking good, with my Crantastic Color Street.

They match my mug!  Ha Ha.

 

Then we got some more snow yesterday. 

Yippee. 

They were only predicting rain. 

Even though the old stuff hadn't melted yet. 

Being snowed in is kind of lovely.  

This snow was ok enough to be managed by salt on our steps and sand in the street. 

I choose to just stay home... and maybe blog.

New Year's Eve - 2020

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Ahsoka has the right idea. 

New Year's Eve is a good time to relax and chill. 

It was a little weird this year not to have any fam come over. 

With the Pandemic, we opted to stay in, and just put on a spread by ourselves.

It ended up being quite nice. 

I did my nails with some Colorstreet from my friend Jess.  

It's Berlin It To Win It with a Coming Up Rose God overlay. 

Now I'm ready to PAR-TAY! 

Grandma and Grandpa got the kids a Drum Set for Christmas.  

And it is loud.  We put it together yesterday, and the kids couldn't wait to play. 

Thank goodness Santa also brought headphones. ;) 

The kids played hard. 

We also watched Avatar: The Last Airbender 

The movie isn't nearly as good as the tv show. 

Though New Years' is always about food. 

Since we were staying in, and just being home by ourselves, we put out quite a spread.

As on any special occasion, Eric started the day with a special breakfast. I love how we do this as part of our regular routine. We used the leftover Christmas bacon to put on egg, cheese, and honey flakey biscuit sandwiches. Oh My Goodness! They were heavenly. 

Our Charcuterie tray (s)

Since we were going to be home by ourselves, we put out a Charcuterie tray... or 3. 

Honestly though, we've been doing fruit/cracker/cheese/meat trays for years, we just never called them Charcuterie. 

These were pretty "cute" though, weren't they?  

And more importantly everyone ate!  

As a treat for me, and a nod to Mom W, Eric got me some shrimp cocktail. We picked up a small pack of frozen shrimps and had some St. Elmo's cocktail sauce from my Dad on hand.  Dude.  That sauce packed a punch.  

As another nod to Mom and Dad, we included veggies. We don't often remember veggies, that's usually Mom's job on New Years to make sure we remember to eat veggies. We did do a good job on our own. 

Eric found some toasted treats, some Brazi Bite Brand Empenadas. 

They were a little different from my traditional Brazi Bites.  I think I prefer the originals better.

We got a sprinkle of snow, and that made Ahsoka go nuts. 

She loves to bound and leap in the snow. 

And she insists we always go out with her. 

She's a maniac, but she's really been a great joy for our family this year, she really refreshes our lives, and makes us laugh every day. 

Like when she does stuff like this. 

She's a nut with a frisbee. 

Or when she sleeps like this. 

It's not the most flattering shot of the kids, but the dog is hysterical.

Or this. 

If you're getting tired of pictures of Ahsoka, I'll stop now.  

We stayed in, stayed up, and simply watched the Ball Drop together. 

Cheers with our Sparkling Grape Juice.  

The kids love it and so do I! 

Cheers! 

Happy New Year! 

Finding Joy Wherever we Can

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The theme is 2 p.m. 

Christopher had a Therapy appointment, so I had to pick him up at school. 

 

A tree on Odell called to me. 

As I was driving, to pick up Christopher, I spied this bright beautiful tree.  

Of course, I was driving and it would be slightly illegal for me to pause on a busy street and take a picture of a tree. On the way back however, no one was coming, and I had the stretch of road to myself for a moment.  It was a sign.  So I leaned over Chris, and we both juggled the phone out the window, I tipped it until it looked right.  I needed that slight bit of sky with the gorgeous golden tree. 

It got warm today, quite warm this afternoon, in the high 60s.  So when I went to get Chris at school, I was able to put some sandals on.  It was not a sock day, even if it was November.  I didn't think these toes would see the light of day, however, the weather says otherwise.  

I had to dress in bright happy clothes today, and find the beauty and joy where I could. 

My heart hurts and is heavy for all my friends who are afraid of how the election is going. I'm afraid too, but for them.  I recognize my privilege.  I want to be an ally, a friend, and a support more. 

And no matter what the election results, I'm going to do that. 

In my Spare Time

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My Spare Time I like to photograph my day to day life.  I am sitting in on an online Nail Party with my friend J.  She's selling Colorstreet Nail Wraps, and I hosted a party for her last week, and then this week one of my friends who attended is having her own party.  Jess asked tonight, what we like to pin on pinterest.  For me,  I like to play on Pinterest, dream of projects I am going to make, and create things with yarn.  But it occurs to me, I collect all these pins, and rarely do much about it.  I love to get nail ideas, but don't do much.  And don't even get me started on my gardening or crocheting ideas.  Still, I love keeping my hands busy, so this helps.  

I applied a new nail color from Jess last night, and it looks fantastic now that it's cured. 

It's a creme called London Calling.  I can see it being very British. 

You know me, I love to photograph flowers too. 

This is my new nails holding the flower the vet sent us last week as Princess passed away.  The flower arrived on the same day as her ashes.   So the flower has stayed on the kitchen table.  

Meanwhile, just a bit ago, I wrote to my little sister to show her progress on a crochet blanket I'm making.  Do you know who I'm making it for? Me neither.  I guess it must just be me.  Because I had to start trimming it, because the thing is HUGE! 

Here's the light blue and darker purple yarn.  It easily picks up the colors around it.  It is fuzzy and soft. 

I think I'll be keeping this blanket. 

Meanwhile today's theme was Collection.  I collect projects: yarn projects, watercolor projects, this week, room cleaning projects.  I made progress this weekend just doing a bit each day.  I put away more laundry than I wear, and I make some great progress.  Still, there's a lot of work to do, and Eric and I don't really feel like doing it. It reminds me of Christopher and his Merit Badges.  He has such a pile of incomplete Merit Badges for Boy Scouts, that we joke that he should sign up for the Collection Badge and send a picture of his Collection of Unfinished Merit Badges.  But if he did that, he'd actually finish one... Hmm... 

 

Fall Break Trip, Day 1

Last Friday night was technically  the beginning of our Fall Break!  

 After my Book Club meeting fell through, and the boys all went off to Haircuts, we came home and had Pizza and did a little prep by watching SpaceCamp, the classically awesome 80s movie.

Saturday morning, we hit the road!  

After gymnastics of course. 

We packed up the minivan, and got the boys to their classes.  Although that was close.  Sam's class starts at 10, and only he was ready, so I ran him up in Eric's car, got back just in time for everyone else to be ready, and we headed up just in time for Jacob's 11 oclock class.  

At high noon, we hit the road. 

We crossed into Ohio for a few minutes! 

Then we hit a bigger state, Kentucky! 

We stopped at Rest Stops, and Starbucks for drinkies and to add to my Mug Collection. 

It was surprisingly chilly in the hills/mountains of Kentucky. 

Jacob conked out in Kentucky, so he didn't get to learn about the horses, or see much of the horse farms. Even big boy Kindergartners need naps on occasion. 

My special project.  Sam asked for a Green Harry Potter Scarf, not exactly because he loves Slytherin, but because he loves Green. I started it in January.  I'm just over halfway done. My goal is Christmas.  This trip I want to finish this pair of gray stripes on our drive down, work on during the next green patch during our journey.  

The hills of Kentucky.  

They are getting some Beautiful color! 

Eric is doing a great job of driving through the mountains of Tennessee.  They roll on in the background behind his window.  

The view from our Comfort Inn Suite in Knoxville.  The boys love being in the hills/mountains. 

We walked around the corner to Puleo's Grille, a place that said they specialized in "southern and Italian" food.  Um OK.  I got this Shrimp and Grits at the recommendation of the waiter, and it was so good.  I've never had Grits this good!  They were like cheesy mashed potatoes with a hint of corn.  

And the sausage and shrimp sauce was so good even Eric liked it.  

I've set the goal of some sort of seafood or southern food every day on our trip. #Goals

My nails for the Trip.  They are Jamberries, of course.  I'm so hard on anything else.  I brought a backup polish, but on my toes is a Hostess Exclusive from June 2015, that I had a pedicure left from last time I wore it.  I wore it on my toes when we visited the beach in 2017 too. On my hands is a new one from the IT Girl series called Blair, a pale pink to purple ombre which looks great, even blurry.  

Then we did, as we do, we watched The Disney Channel in our hotel room. 

Big Hero 6 was on.  

We've seen it a million times, but it was wonderful to watch, just us, on vacation, on the Disney Channel. My kids are out of the groove of watching shows with commercials, which was kind of funny.  And it was a Good Way to end the first day. 

Olympic Fest

Let the Games Begin!!!

On Friday, the 2016 Olympics in Rio began.   To celebrate this, the Julius family got together.  We started this trend accidentally back in 2008 when the Olympics were being held in Beijing.  We got together for a slumber party and to watch the Opening Ceremonies. The kids were small and it was only Chris and Emily.  So we ordered some Chinese, and watched the Opening Ceremonies.  Chris was small enough to sleep in a pack-n-play in their spare room.  Eric and Mike crashed before the Parade was over, while Kathleen and I watched the whole thing.  And a Tradition was born.

The morning of the Opening Ceremonies, I did my toes.  

Jamberry recently released some Olympic themed Jams, like this Rio Vibes, that also donated with each purchase to pay for Olympic women to get to Rio.  I was down with supporting that.  So I did.  

Then we had to figure out what Brazilian fare we were going to eat.  I decided that rather than try to duplicate some of the amazing Brazilian meat dishes, we should just go have lunch at Fogo de Chao.  

I love that place.  We have taken the boys a couple times.  But this time they were in school, so Chris and Sam had to miss out.   

We chose to go to Fogo with the kids that were available, minus the three oldest.   

So we have Sarah, Jacob, Kristin, and John.  

Here's our whole crew by the map of Brazil, or Brasil.  

We had a lot of time for photos, as the restaurant took over 50 minutes to seat us.  And that was With a reservation.  Eric had a meeting at 2, we'd booked for 12.  At 1 they sat us down.  We complained.  A lot.  

I didn't think to get any pictures of our piles of meat as we ate.  I guess we were just too hungry. 

In exchange for our trouble, they brought us free desserts.   

That was nice.  I love the Papaya Cream.  One waiter told us the papaya has some magic enzymes that help to break down the protein so we don't feel the bloat or discomfort.  I tried not getting the papaya once... I was miserable all the way home.  I eat it every time now.  This time Eric only got a chance for about 2 bites, before he had to go to his meeting.  Though Fogo took another 30 minutes to get our bill. It was the first time I seriously considered walking out on my bill at a nice restaurant.  Like Seriously Considered it.  Since we'd picked up Eric, he opted to call in to his meeting from the quiet of the car while we finished dessert and checked out.  They took So Long, that Eric was done with his meeting and picked us up out front by the time we got all checked out.  We should have left.  

How sad is that?!  It took us almost 3 hours, to eat at a buffet.  A good buffet, but still.  We won't be back at lunchtime, the service was Terrible.  

Meanwhile, when I got home, I prepared for our Party. 

For each of our Olympic Parties, we try to drink a Festive beverage from that country.   For example, when the Olympics were in Vancouver, we learned that they provide cranberries for Ocean Spray, so we drank Cranberry juice, as well as ginger ale, and Crown Royal, all Canadian beverages.  But Brazil took a bit more research.  They like fruit, and juice, and sugar, and all the permutations therein. We learned that their national drink is called the Caipirinha.  It is a lime beverage that uses an alcohol called Cachaca.  Cachaca is distilled from sugar cane, much like rum, but rum is sugar cane cooked into molasses first.  Cachaca is a fermented distilled straight sugar cane beverage.  And it will put hair on your chest!   

                             Sooo Mommy made Caipirinhas.  Very Limey, very refreshing.  

I found they needed a lot of ice.   The Cachaca was too strong straight up for me.  Eric thought they just needed a lot of stirring. 

One of the other things we made were Brazilian chocolate truffles known as Brigadieros.

These fabulous little carmelized chocolate balls are made with mostly cocoa powder and sweetened condensed milk.  It turns out Brazilians love sweetened condensed milk, they put it in all kinds of things.  

My Sam helped me roll up the Brigadieros. 

Since the colors of the Brazilian flag are blue, green, and yellow, I thought he'd have a great time rolling in sprinkles with me.  We chose to go with those sprinkle colors because all of them have no Red 40, which means they are just fine for my Sams!

The final product.  

It's not as fancy as pinterest, but they were really tasty.  

They were a big hit with the kids.  And the perfect sweet break for all the limey tartness we were having, and cheesy bread that we were enjoying for supper.  

The other drink I made was Brazilian Lemonade.  

I found a recipe online.  Turns out Brazilian Lemonade has no Lemons!  

It's Limes and Sugar.  Literally. They love them some Limes and Sugar! 

And sweetened condensed milk. 

It's pureed sliced limes with sugar water, and sweetened condensed milk.  It's so Refreshing!

When Eric tasted it, he said, "It tastes like liquid lime sherbet."  

It really did.  

We got right down to business with Olympic Opening Ceremonies as soon as it got started.   

6 kids, and all kinds of crazy!

My three patriotic sweetboys.  

The Opening Ceremonies started before I remembered to take pictures.  

So, as is usually the case with my sweetboys, if there's a screen, they won't look at me. 

I found these great Carnivale style flowers on sale, and picked one up for every child. 

The kids thought they made great swords.  Doesn't everything?

During a break of the Parade of Nations, we held our own Parade.  

Emily and I rock our festive Olympic nails!

Jamberry had some really cute Olympic themed nails. Even Chris put some on  his toes.  

Sarah didn't make it through the Parade of Nations. 

Kathleen was still awake, but she was having a hard time with a sweet little hotbox on her. 

Eric didn't make it through the Opening Ceremonies.  

His snoring was a only a bit disruptive though, not as bad as usual. 

Oh, and Jose Carioca is from Rio.  He's a Disney Character from Saludos Amigos.  

Though anyone from Rio is a Carioca. 

Kathleen and I wore this shirt the next day. 

We'll be supporting our Olympians and the Cariocas for the next two and a half weeks!