Back to blogging, and being together in the snow

It's been a while, hasn't it?  We got snowed in this weekend, and my oily things took a much needed break to just hang out with my Boyz.

Saturday morning, we watched the snow fall.   It was Perfect, we didn't really need to be anywhere.  The storm hit early in the morning, so that it was still blowing and bustling when we got up for breaky. Jacob stood in the doorway of the front hall talking to the snowstorm, a lot of Woah, and Oh Yeahs.   It was pretty adorable.   

The big boys had been hoping and praying that it would be the snowman kind of snow.  Alas, it was not.  It was too dusty for that.  We spent the morning, and early day snuggled up by the fire in the living room watching cartoons and movies.  But once the snow stopped, and sun started to shine, nothing could stop them from going outside after quiet time to play in it!  This cracks me up, they took their snowshovels out into the yard and just played with them.

And Jacob wanted to go too.  

Demanded, actually.

Sam was spinning around in circles with his shovel.  Pure snowy joy.  

I did talk them in to coming over and snuggling up with Jacob.  

He didn't have to work too hard to make a snow angel. 

He is one. <3

After I came out with Jacob, the boys decided to go get their sleds, and go zipping down the small hill in the backyard.  It's not a huge sledding hill, in fact, we've never had good luck on it before, until this weekend.   Then they finally figured out how to work it.

Sam sled down first, didn't even wait for the rest of us to get up to the top. 

I had bought Jacob a long sled a few days prior, and when I pushed him down it, he went flying.   

The two of them had started down at the same time.   

Sam surrendured, being cold enough, and went inside.

But Chris decided to go down with Jacob. 

And thus began a new era....The era of brothers playing with each other! 

They must've gone down together 10 times, with Chris pulling Jake back up the hill each time.  

Jake would grunt, and Chris understood that it meant, Come on, let's go again! 

My view from next to our sledding hill. 

We have a line of beautiful fir trees, that goes down a fir piece. ;) 

And they were catching the light, so beautifully Saturday night.  

Chris and Jake were having such a great time sledding down that hill! 

Chris was so self sufficient that I was able to go back up towards the house.  

Somebody had to start the cocoa - but imagine my surprise when Eric already had!  

The boys went down a couple more times and joined me.  

Me and my pajamified cocoa buddy.  Jacob decided he likes cocoa too. 

I spiked his chocolate milk with a little hot cocoa, so it was like warm milk, and he was perfectly content.  We all dig our hot cocoa after playing in the snow! 

On Sunday, the boys went to church, and when they came home, they played outside for a bit again. 

This time, I'd been sleeping, and missed the memo.  So I tossed some tea together for them. 

Turns out they love hot tea almost as much as Aunt Lisa and Mommy.  

There's just something about drinking a warm beverage that warms you from the inside out.  

The Birdies are back

Eric was kind enough to refill the Birdfeeder for me the other day, and we got a little dusting of snow.  And the next day, we had visitors.

This was an unusual one for me.  

I hadn't seen this one before.  

But I looked it up on Whatbird.com, and come to find out, it's a Tufted Titmouse. 

Now that's just Fun to say. 

Tufted Titmouse. 

The Juncos go for the scraps.  

A House Sparrow and a Goldfinch at the buffet.  

The Juncos get scared off pretty easily, but they stay close. 

Mr. and Mrs. American Goldfinch. 

Ah the nutty Nuthatch.

And the Titmouse is back. 

Teeheehee.

The Nuthatch looks quite large next to the Goldfinch.  

But he likes to grab a snack, and then zip elsewhere.  

Eric took this.  During naptime, while he was working from home, he spotted this squirrel who figured out how to get into the Squirrel-proof feeder.  My camera was still out.  So he snapped this pic, and then set Princess loose on him. :) 

Last but not least, one more Tufted Titmouse for the road.  

Yes, I'm 12. 

Tufted Titmouse. 

Bwahahaha! 

A Wonderful Long weekend

Our weekend started early, and really, isn't that the best kind?   The boy's had their Valentine's Parties at school on Friday afternoon, so I had reserved my mother in law to watch Jacob while we both participated in the school parties.   Then I'd taken on Piper.   And when discussing the gig, she offered to take her on the 13th in advance, so Eric and I could still help out at school.

I forget if I'd mentioned this before, that Eric and I are Co-Room Parents for the boys classes.   We agreed back in the fall, since we'd be off for the parties anyway, if we could round up a third party to Jacob sit, then we could go to the class parties.  One of us would go to 3rd grade, and the other to kindergarten for the Christmas party, and then at Valentine's we'd switch.

This time I got to go to Christopher's class.  Third Graders are something else! 

God Bless those teachers.  There were a couple kids who were so disrespectful they were talking like teenagers.  All of a sudden, they went from 8 to 18! Nope, I didn't like it.  

But I did like their teacher.  He commanded their attention, in a loving way.   They didn't always talk respectfully, but if their teacher got stern, they snapped to it.   It was a great class.  We divided into groups. We had the snack station, a card/flower station, and a game/bingo station.  And we just swapped out every 20 minutes.   I brought strawberries, and sparkling grape juice, and pretzels.  Another parent brought chocolate covered strawberries.  It was rather special to have the sparkling drinkies in class.  I'd even found those plastic wine glasses.  Way cute.  I got beads for prizes at the bingo game.  Mr. J put them all on and distributed as necessary.  He was cracking me up.   

I manned the craft station - we made Bling Rings.  This was mine, an upside down hershey's kiss, wrapped in pipe cleaners, and wrapped around a finger like a big clunky ring.  The kids all got a kick out of it.  I was worried the boys wouldn't like it.  But they did.  Chocolate is everybody's favorite kind of jewelry! 

After school, we came home to find that though Jacob hadn't napped, Piper did, and she had gone home already.   We invited the Julius family over to play.  They brought heart shaped pizza.

I love having pizza from Monical's.  

Lots of yummies, and we played, and the kids played and it was fabulous. 

The kids were so good together, they let us play half a game of Shanghai Rummy.

The kids played in the basement for a while.  Then they curled up and watched tv with Jacob.  

Turns out everybody loves Yo Gabba Gabba and Octonauts, just like he does.  

 After our friends had to hit the road, we got the kids all dolled up in their winter jammies and put them to bed.  Miles to go before they slept.

But they actually slept in a bit.  They must've been Worn Out!  

And we made a special holiday breakfast.  

No holiday is complete without honey flakey biscuit egg sandwiches.  

Daddy opened his present - a Young Living USB diffuser for his computer at work. 

I got him some oils to help - RC for breathing, Peppermint, and Orange for focus.  These should perk him up, as hard as he's been working.  He seemed happy about it, I'm excited to hear how this diffuser works.  

For each other we got a new coffeemaker, and a new coffee grinder. 

The old one had died.  

But if you get a Daddy a coffeemaker for Valentine's Day, he's gonna need some coffee to go with it.  I found Meijer had bulk beans, including my new favorite Michigan Cherry.  Yeah baby. 

My house smells GOOD when that stuff is brewing.  

The boys got a Cars table.  Literally, it's Disney/Pixar Cars.  

And it has holes in the table where they can drop Hot Wheels (or Cars cars) into the center of the table, and watch as they shoot out down a ramp and across the floor.  It's a big hit! 

There were also chocolates and light up pens for the boys.  

Chris liked the pen. :) 

Chris and Jacob just played for a while. Together. 

Played Cars.  Played swordfight with their lightup pens.  They just played, together, and it was good.

It was unusual, a first, but a great first.

This was my present from Eric. 

He had to hunt pretty hard to find me a rack for my oils for our bathroom.  He wanted it to be less than 12 inches wide, so that he could fit it on the bulkhead next to my sink.  It worked!  

The boys decided they really didn't feel like doing much fancy for Valentine's.  I thought they'd like to go to the Museum. Maybe go to Steak-n-Shake for dinner?  Nope they wanted just hang out at home all day and play.  OK.  That's fine too. 

Actually, Christopher wanted to read.  He was almost done with the third Harry Potter book. 

Sunday morning, the boys were singing with the other Sunday school youth. 

Pastor is going on sabattical this spring, so we're going to be doing a Ancient Greece/Paul's times, VBS for the whole church to learn about it.   And the kids are getting a head start, doing greek dances and some songs that sound very Greek.  

They actually got to sing at all three services.   They did a Great Job!

They sang about Loving your neighbor as yourself.  

Eric said he got really dizzy watching this dance.  I could totally understand why! 

When they went to sing for the Grace contemporary service, I had a better place to stand. ;)

They were so cute singing at both services.  It's easy to spot the boys in their matching red sweaters. 

I put the boys in matching sweaters on purpose, so they are easy for me to spot.  

But as it turns out, it's not easy for others.  Sunday night, the church had a Valentine's Party for the kids at the church.  It was a dropoff thing, so that Eric and I could go for a date, from 5-8, all by ourselves!  They took all three kiddos and played with them, sugared them up ;) , and gave them back.  It was Awesome!  

Eric and I decided to make the most of our Valentine's date night, and we drove down to Greenwood to Thai Spice.  It's been so cold lately, sunny, but stone cold, all we wanted is some good Tom Yum soup.  I love that fresh limey and lemongrass taste, with just a bit of heat.   Oh yeah.  

Some thought we were crazy for going far, but we did.  And it was Good. 

It was a Harry Potter weekend! 

Chris finished the book, and we watched the movie.  And then both big boys just Had to play the video game too. They spent most of Monday doing that.  Sam hadn't seen the movie, but it didn't matter, he digs a good video game. 

Sorry, no one can take this kid serious.  

But this was what he was doing, while his Bows (brothers) were playing video games.  

Meanwhile, I broke out the camera, and did some picture taking in manual, of the beautiful bouquet of roses that Eric got me for Valentine's Day.  

This was a beautiful red/orange rose that opened up on Sunday morning.  Still Gorgeous Monday.  

Lo, roses ere blooming. 

What a beautiful bouquet. 

And a beautiful weekend.  

The Loaner

Here we finally get a day off, President's Day, and I'm up early, not even regular time, Before regular time.  So I figure I should do some catching up on blogging.  This week, I took on something new.  A little girl!  It's kind of a hard chain to follow, but Mom and Dad Willman's Pastor's son's family lives in Ft. Wayne.  The dad travels some for work, and her mom just got a new job promotion.  The promotion involves 6 weeks-ish of training in Indy.  Luckily they can crash with Pastor, but they needed some day care for Piper, who is 2 1/2 years old and adorable.  Supposedly, she's got some special needs, but I don't see it.  But they asked if I would watch her, and I was rather honored, and I said Yes.  So this past week was her first week with us.  Well, she fits in just fine around here.  She and Jacob get along swimmingly, actually playing with each other.

This was from last weekend, when she and her Mama came over to meet us.  We'd actually not meet in person yet.   Since this was her first time with us, I vowed to take a lot of pics of her to send to her Mom while But Piper had a great time meeting all the boys, and getting to play with all their toys.  I had picked up this sled for Jacob a couple weeks ago, when they were threatening us with a blizzard.  Well, I call this sled insurance. By buying a 5$ sled, I assured us that there would be no blizzard.  You are all welcome.  The boys were crushed though, so they've been playing with the sled all over the house.  

It was 50 degrees outside, but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to play sled in the house! 

When she showed up on Monday, the first thing she wanted to do was play with the plastic sled in the house.  And she loaded up all her baby dolls into the sled and dragged them all around.  Jacob did not know what to do about that.  He wanted her to pull him!   The only argument they had on Monday was when he wanted to ride, and she didn't want to pull him.  Well, they are only about 6 months apart in age, and though she's Sam's size, she is just barely strong enough to pull Jake around.  He wasn't down with her disapproval.  That's what it would be like if you had a sister kid!  

Having her around has actually been good for him.  

She plays but she also makes him work.  

They love all the musical instruments we have around the house, and I was getting serenaded all over the place!  They love to play the drums all the time!  

By the end of the day Monday, I was getting serenaded by slide whistle and recorder. 

Piper has a Gift, she picks up a new instrument and just figures out how to play it!  

Good thing she's in Kindermusik.  She was doing it in Ft. Wayne, so she gets to come with us, even the same level class as Jacob, and she can attend and participate with us.  The first time she heard the songs, she could sign along with the choruses before the song was done!  Special needs, my aunt fanny. She's got mad oral skills!  She talks all the time, I'm not used to having someone around that repeats back everything I say, in English.  Having her around is good for Jacob. 

Sometimes they broke out the big boy toys.  

They were cracking me up as they played Rock Em Sock Em robots together. 

Wednesday we had a friend come over with her son to play and talk oils.  

The three of them found my stash of Christmas hats.  I called Piper one of Santa's elves.  She told me, "I not Santa, I just cute."

Totally.

Like I said, EVERY Musical instrument in the house. 

They actually play together.  It's adorable. 

And she naps.  Regularly!  I can tell time by her. When 1 oclock comes, if I say Piper let's go take a nap, she'll run right upstairs, grabbing loveys on the way.  She goes down so easily.  And she sleeps, for 2 hours exactly.  It's weird.  I'm not used to having such a good sleeper!  She loves story time, she and Jacob both like to pick stories to read.   They never seem to settle on the same one.  But Piper's new favorite is this one Workin' on the railroad, probably because we sing.  Again, music all the time.  See how well she fits right in?

Friday was the Valentine's day party at the boys' school.  So in the morning, Piper and Jacob made Valentine window decorations for their mommies.  I let them paint.  With acrylic paint.  I know, a crazy wild hair.  But they were adorable, they had a great time, and I have something to hang in the window.  I don't get artistic very often, but when I do, I don't regret it.   And I haven't regretted saying Yes to borrowing this sweet girl.  

Drinking like a Ningxia

I mentioned earlier, that for one of our New Year's goals, we were going to do the Ningxia Red Challenge, as put forth by my upline.  Eric and I drank an ounce or two every day through January.  We didn't really notice a difference.   Until the third week.  At that point, the only claim I could make was "Well, we haven't gotten sick this winter."  That doesn't sound like much.  But then I looked around me, at the people who Weren't drinking it, who Were getting sick.  And thinking back to winters past, and remembering how often we got sick then.  And I started thinking, next year, we need to start drinking in November!    

Well, when I mentioned to Eric that we could stop drinking daily, (it isn't exactly the cheapest beverage), he said to me, in his infinite wisdom, "It's a habit now."  And that's really it.  But the more I thought about it, it is pretty amazing that we haven't gotten sick in January.  Especially Eric.  He's been keeping terrible hours the last few weeks, not getting any kind of decent sleep. He should've gotten sick.  And then me.   But we haven't.  Frankly, it's rather amazing we haven't.  I guess he's right.  We gotta keep drinking, at least through the winter.  This stuff really is boosting our immune system.

I've been making the greatest little daytime 'cocktail' for Eric and I.  Since he gets interrupted a lot at work, and it's crunch time for a big project, thus the not sleeping, he's been working a lot from home.   If he hasn't slept, I've been making him this little drinkie.  It's Dynamo juice blend from Trader Joe's, a pineapple blend that is happy, peppy, and orange.  Then I spike it with an ounce of Ningxia Red.  And depending on the time of day, I'll spike it with a shot of Ningxia Nitro.   The Nitro has wolfberry puree like the Ningxia Red, but also Green Tea extract with a bit of natural caffeine.  That's the punch I'm looking for.  But I've learned in the last couple weeks, I can't do the Nitro, entirely on my own at 4 in the afternoon.  Just like the effects of coffee.  But if I split it with Eric, then we're both ok.  Plus, it's a tasty beverage.  I've heard folks freeze the Ningxia packets in summer, like a popsicle.  I might need to try that when it's not winter anymore.  This is good stuff.  I'm not sick! It must be working.