Pile of Yarn

6/365

 I got to be Starting Something.

It's that time of year, when I have to have yarn in my lap. 

I finished a big project, I knit a Hufflepuff Scarf for Emily, and have recently started a Green Slytherin one for Sam. But it doesn't build fast. 

And sometimes I need to mix it up with something that builds fast. 

The Photo of the Day is My Happy Place.  My Happy Place is on my couch with a lap full of yarn. Bonus points for being fireside (not in picture) .  Then it's Really my Happy Place.   And the fire was on in this case.  Shh... it's a surprise.  It's going to be a baby blanket for one of Eric's coworkers, just a simple design of double crochets in a row as long as my arm, using two skeins, and I'll be trimming it in pink.  But on this day, it's thicker than a tie, but not long enough to be a decent scarf.  It's getting there though.  

Stacked

5/365

This is the stack of papers that Christopher didn't do over break for his Kumon homework.  

I found out about it from my friend Kelley who runs the Kumon Center.  She wrote asking if Chris had told me that he lied about getting his stuff done this week. She wanted to know if I wanted him to redo the work, apparently, he'd skipped 1 week of the 2 weeks worth of work.  Ugh.  

So I swung by, and she handed me this giant stack.  

The theme of the day from my photo challenge was Stacked. 

This bunch of Math and Reading work sure is stacked.  

I can't decide who I'm more upset with, Chris? Because he lied.  Or myself, because I didn't babysit him and check that he did all his work.  He's flipping 12. Yeah, I guess this one is mostly on him.  

He got himself grounded for the weekend, at least.  And he's going to be my Beck and Call boy for a long time if we chose to let him out.  So much for earning privileges, and being ungrounded.  That lasted all of 5 days. :(  My heart is sad.  

As my friend said, it makes for a Rough Mama night.  Yes it has.  

Connor Prairie

I have a friend from College I recently hooked up with through Facebook.  She has a son a little younger than Jacob, Austin who acts a lot like Chris.  He's a bit high maintenance too.  He's needed a little help from First Steps, and just recently started Developmental Preschool.  He and Jacob got along swimmingly.  We decided to meet up at Connor Prairie. They had a plus 2 membership and they got us in, to play at their holiday indoor festivities, which were still going on strong. 

The boys got right in staring at their Gingerbread House displays.  

They both wanted desperately to eat all the candies. 

Apparently, me getting a picture of Austin looking at the camera is a super rare thing. 

He went for it, for a brief moment.  

Too bad Jacob didn't do so at the same time.  Goofball. 

They did have a lot of fun with the trains.  

My sweetboy playing House. 

Honestly, the set up and house looked just like a dollhouse version of Little House on the Prairie. 

He found he could be the tallest sweetboy on the playground pretty easily.  

Suddenly, he seems so old.  He's only 4 1/2! 

There was a surprising amount of Science goodies on display to play with, the boys loved building propellers and making the wind blow.  

Science! 

When they left the playground, Austin said he wanted to go "Play Circus".  That sounded like a good time to me, it was how I talked Jacob into leaving that area willingly.  Though as it turned out, Austin meant Circuits, not Circus.  Doh.   They still had a good time.  

But I think Jacob was looking for the Ringling Brothers for the rest of our journey. 

Instead we found a Snowball Fight! 

A Civil War soldier was in charge of the Snowball fight game. 

They were supposed to get hit once, and go down like a good soldier.  

Our boys didn't. 

They were vicious attackers.  

It was Awesome.  

The Soldier went down like a superchamp though. 

Hazelnuts. 

They had a nifty display of local tree  nuts.  

I got to taste a Hickory nut. Now I know why the squirrels are so happy in our yard, they are Tasty! 

And it turns out Indiana hazelnuts are small and grown/harvested in clumps.  But European ones look like Chestnuts.  I wasn't tasting either one, as I'm now allergic.  

My Lunch Date. 

Laura and Austin didn't get to stick around for lunch, so I had a nice date in the cafeteria, which was not crowded at all, there was only one other family.  So I got a nice date with this Sweetboy.  

After he ate, he popped over to the window to look out. 

This photo turned out amazing! 

This was the view we saw from the cafeteria.  Somewhere out in that field is where the ISO -Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra plays in the summer.  That's the last time I was out here. 

I may have to come again when it's not snowy and freezing.  We had a good time.  

Plain - The plain plain is mainly... covered in snow.  

Plain was the theme of the day.  

And I loved this. 

4/365

This is the farm at 900 and 700 in the Burg.  It's a sea of snowy field, and with the sky so blue, it just spoke to me through its Beauty.  

Too bad it has to be so cold to be so Beautiful. 

On the floor

 3/365

Jacob should have gone back to school with his brothers.  

But he didn't.  He wasn't able to go because the heat broke down in their classrooms. 

So it was going to be just Jake and I.  

Jake was being extra sweet looking on the floor for a toy ball that rolled underneath the couch. 

My theme of the day was On the Floor.  

Meanwhile, this sweetboy broke a spring on his braces, and I had to run him in.  

Unfortunately, I always have to put him on the bus before making the appointment.  So I have to snag him later.  This morning after his appoitment, it was so cold, we all needed drinkies.  

Chris has grown, he now drinks an adult size Tall, but still at Kid's Temperature. 

All Jacob needed was a Child's Hot Cocoa.  It hit the spot.  He finished it before I even got home.

On the Floor for GrandmaMusik. 

After sending Chris back to school, we popped down to Mom's for GrandmaMusik class.  Now that she's retired, she teaches Jacob a smidge about music, like dancing, songs, how to play sticks.  This week, we were waving scarves.  A big hit.  

It's a bit of a workout, chasing sweetboys all over the floor. 

So I chose this photo to be our snap of the day.  Seemed good.  Mom's leaving for FL for the rest of winter next week, so it's good for Jake and Grandma to get their fixes in while they can. 

Mom made she and I Ningxia Cocktails after lunch.  

She puts Ningxia Red, Sparkling berry water, Tart Cherry juice, and a splash of Green juice. 

Then we added whatever Oils we wanted before adding ice. I chose Lemon and Frank, but I think it would be great with Orange or Tangerine too.  Can't go wrong with citrus oils! 

Dumbo the Great

 It is our last day of Winter Break, and it was a Pajama day.  

The kids opted for jammie day, and I put a fresh round of jammies on, because my friend Kathy was coming over to work on our Challenge.  We're working our way through the entire list of Disney full length feature film cartoons.  We started with Snow White last fall, knocked out Pinocchio and Fantasia a while back, and on Thursday, we knocked out Dumbo.   

Dumbo isn't a very long movie.  

But that Baby Mine thing gets me every time. 

Did I mention that it's Freaking Freezing?  Still.   

So I broke out the yarn and snuggled up with my Jedi Snuggie.  

I've started a present for one of Eric's coworkers, she's having a baby girl.  I don't get to work girly baby blankets very often anymore. 

It was so cold, even Christopher broke out his yarn.  He's almost finished with his scarf.  I suspect he'll be wearing it sometime this winter. 

 I also warmed up today with my Challenge photo 

2/365

My photo was zoomed in, and focused more on what's in my hand.  It's a squirt of Relaxation Massage Oil, that is Yellow because of the orange and tangerine oils that are in it, and I squirted into a mitful of Epsom Salts.  It makes for a perfectly moisturizing bath.  Nice! 

A Tale of Ice and Cold

1/365

Happy New Year!  

We started the New Year off right with shots of Ningxia Red! 

It had been the first White Christmas in a while. But on New Year's we got Slammed with a Arctic Wall of Cold.  Suddenly, it was so cold the kids didn't even want to go outside and play.   It was -15 when we got up, but it got up to a balmy -5 during the 'heat' of the day.

But it motivated me to do some Experimenting.  

I showed the kids what can happen if you throw boiling water out the door when it's -10 (in the -20s with wind chill) degrees outside!  It turns to snow instantly.  So Cool! 

Sam was ready to play! 

Meanwhile, the boys were Perfectly ok playing indoors!  Chris was so crazy to finally be not grounded, he played in the basement most of the morning.  

But he did venture up to play in other ways.  

The Family Band!! 

Yes, it's Loud.  Yes, they are Crazy.  

But for once, they are doing something, the same thing.  Together. 

And I love it. 

We resumed the semi-regular performance of 

Star Wars: The Crazy Wars. 

But even Chris got bored with being indoors. 

So I recruited him to come outside and blow bubbles with me, for Science. 

He blew bubbles, and let me try to photograph. 

As the sunset.  

It was Beautiful. 

For about one minute.  Apparently, that's all he could handle. 

However, in that one minute time, though I didn't get any photos of the bubbles freezing, I did get this one, (with my cell phone of all things!) of a bubble deflated and crystalline after popping and blowing into the snow.  Very Cool.  It ended up being my favorite shot of the evening.  I put this one up for my themed photo of the day.  

I Am Here. 

I am crazy enough to go outside when it's -10 and take pictures of bubbles.  

And then Chris had to go inside.  

But it was ok, I had another volunteer helper. 

Eric volunteered (sort of) to help me go outside and photograph bubbles.  

And he did a great job.  The first ones didn't even come off the wand! 

See the frosty edge of the bubble, it was freezing before they even left the wand.  

The kept popping so fast.  

If you look closely, you can see the lines of crystallization.  

See how the bubbles get foggy or cloudy.  That's the bubble freezing! 

These bubbles couldn't even retain their shape they were freezing so fast. 

This was the neatest shot, you can see the crystals swirling on the bubble.  So Cool. 

This bubble hit the ground and didn't pop immediately.  

The frozen crust of bubble, just kind of changed shape with the air, like 

I loved the way the bubble rolled, I was actually able to chase this one a bit. 

Can you see the concrete print in the bubble?  

So neat. 

The Bubble cracked down the middle.  And still didn't disintegrate.  

But these last four photos, I took though I didn't know if I got the shots, because I couldn't feel my fingers at all.  It was time to go inside.   

Talk about suffering for my art. 

I curled up on the couch, and got serenaded by the cast of 

Star Wars: The Crazy Wars.  

It looks like it's going to be an Amazing Year!  

2018 New Year's Resolutions

2018 Goals

A. First of all, I'm going to get thinner.  Over the holidays Eric and I were doing a Challenge for the Y, simply to not gain weight.  I think we're going to meet that.   I am currently 250 maybe less according to my scale once last night's bloat is gone. ;) Provided all the leftover cookies don't end up in my belly.  And I'm doing a Ningxia Red Challenge with Young Living.  Actually, all 5 of us are.  We need to drink this amazing red juice blend to stay healthy.

Cheers!

2. Fat Mum Slim put out there a Photo A Day Challenge.  So I'm going for it!  Day 1 is I Am Here.  

So Here I am. 

D.  2018 is a big year for Eric and I .  20 years of Marriage!   We're at a phase of life where a vacation away from the kids just can't happen.  We can't afford to run away for an Anniversary trip.  Every time we've tried to run away for an Anniversary trip, things happen.  For the 5th Anniversary, we went to Memphis for a weekend, right before Eric started a new job.  And I was pumped full of hormones for infertility and cried most of the time.  Not as much fun as one would hope.  For the 10th, Christopher ended up needing Feeding Tube surgery 2 weeks prior, so we were only able to get away for one night downtown, we were gone for 16  hours barely one meal.  We fed him dinner withe Eric's Mom, and grabbed him before lunch.  For the 15th, Eric's Grandfather died, and his viewing was our Anniversary, so we just had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise, with the boys.  Jake was 6 weeks old, nothing was gonna happen anyway. Nowadays it's harder to find folks that want to borrow 3 sweetboys.  But I'm hoping that we can sneak away for a night, here and there, and stay close in case there is a problem.  So Eric and I decided to do 20 Dates for our 20th Anniversary.

Anyway, we came up with a Date List -
1. Symphony Orchestra
2. Makers Mark Distillery with Chihuly exhibit
3. Picnic in Brown County
4. Children's Museum at Night
5. Downtown Bike Bar
6. IKEA and Portillos for Hot Dogs
7. Stay/Brunch at J.W. Marriot
8. Brunch/Night at the Conrad
9. Kids Slumber Party at Grandma's and we Sleep In
10. Walk in the Holcomb Gardens
11. Date at Arni's Pizza
12. Steak and Shake Date
13. Ride the Elevator at the Hyatt
14.  Local Broadway Show, Les Miserables?
15. Stay a night at the Pink Embassy Suites
16. A Night at the Not Cantebury (now known as Le Meridien)
17. Carriage Ride on the Circle
18. Palomino Dinner
19. Sushi
20. Tour of the Indy Catacombs


Big Doin's for us this year.  How about you guys?!  Anyone out there still reading?