Sunday, January 15, 2012

Snowy Sunday

Today we were chased by a sunset in the snow. How was your afternoon? :)



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Today

Outside my window... I keep having to remind myself that we're smack dab in the middle of January; it's been so bright and clear! This is what we lived under just yesterday:



I am thankful for... a house that will soon - very soon! - be free of rats. The best exterminators ever prowled in, around, and under our house yesterday and reported things that made my naive little self cringe. But! By this time next week I will cringe no more!

I am learning... that taking high doses of iron on an empty stomach does not do me any favors. None at all.

From the kitchen... I can tell you what is missing from the kitchen, and that would be pop and dessert! January is the month of zero Coke Zero (ha!) and not one cupcake or marshmallow (even though we have a huge pile left over from the New Year's Eve S'more gorge). Damage control from the holidays, you know!

I am wearing... sweaty exercise clothes, an old fleece jacket with a missing zipper, and a blanket on my lap because I'm cold but too lazy to change. Look, though, at one of my favorite things to wear (when I bother to change out of sweaty exercise clothes) and while I putter around the house - my cozy Christmas slippers, from my husband the very good gift giver:


I am creating... lists. Lists and lists. A list of who might like to join us for a mud run in June (it's never too early to start planning for these things!), a list of what to make my Jan Michael for Valentine's Day, a list of house improvements as the new year gets underway (paint! a new gate!)...

I am going... to my dear friend Tonya's house tomorrow for a morning of crafty projects. Probably lots of tea, too :)

I am reading... There are four books-on-CD ready and waiting on my phone, if I can find it. I just used it yesterday; it must be around here somewhere. Anyway, I can't remember 3 of the 4, but one is Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale.

I am hoping... that our friends Craig and Christina call us post-haste so that we can meet and love on their days-old baby. I suppose, though, that we are not quite at the top of their priority list just now :)

Around the house... are all kinds of things waiting to be put into the yard-sale box. Out with the old!

I am hearing... just the dryer working away.

One of my favorite things... about Pinterest is the recipes. So many recipes (lemon poppy seed pancakes, teeny chicken pot pies in muffin tins, for goodness sake!) calling my name!

A few plans for the rest of the week:
- Bible study
- A trip to Target
- Mopping our filthy kitchen floor
- Basketball for Jan Michael
- STRUGGLING through the 3rd workout of Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 DVD - it's a struggle, but so fun!
- A teriyaki/sushi date on Friday, just the two of us
- A date on Saturday with our friends Isaac & Natalie

Monday, January 02, 2012

January valley

Yesterday I decided that today would be just the day for exploring around a waterfall. Jan Michael was agreeable, and this morning, off we went.
Our exploring turned into take-two-pictures-from-the-observation-point and go-back-to-where-we-came-from because the trail leading to the bottom of the waterfall is closed for maintenance until 2013. 2013! I pouted for a few minutes and then bucked up when Jan Michael said he would take me to a park on the way home. Sometimes it doesn't take much :)

I don't care what anybody says, winter is not all death and gray and yuck! Between now and spring, I'll do my fair share of grumbling - 'WHERE is the SUN?!!' but today - and lots of other days, too, I know - winter is quiet and peaceful and beautiful.


Sunday, January 01, 2012

A New Year's Eve glimpse

First, I love this picture. Second, New Year's Eve is not New Year's Eve around here without pigs-in-a-blanket. What you see above is the very beginning of our wild goose chase yesterday morning in search of Little Smokies. Three grocery stores later & we found them :)

The party officially started when Eric, Tessa and Miss E arrived, and we commenced with the eating. There was a vast amount of cheese - enough to make a person lactose intolerant, I think; there were also White Christmas cupcakes (on my new cake stand!) and S'mores (in my new toaster oven!) with homeade graham crackers (so easy, and so much better than the old store-boughts!)



There were games and the mention of fun things in the new year and a good-night, sleep-tight to Miss E. And then, we decided to have a very serious discussion about very serious things:



Somewhere after the clock struck midnight, we hugged each other goodnight and the three of them rode off into the night while the two of us dragged our happy selves to bed.

And so 2012 begins... :)