Books!

After school tonight Robbie rushed in the house to get his snow pants on so he could play in the fresh snow. I quickly grabbed my after school kiss and hug.  I asked him how much homework he has…

Robbie:  Book Buddies (with his thumbs down).  Book Buddies are four books that he keeps at home all week to read every night.

Mama:  You know how smart your Papa is.  He loved to read when he was little.  You get smart from reading!

Charlie: I bet his Papa showed him how to use the computer.

Mama: There weren’t computers in people’s houses when Papa was little.

Robbie: How did they look up stuff?

Mama: BOOKS!!!!!!

Project 365 Week 4

Project 365:  Take a photo a day and see your life in a whole new way.

1/23/11 (Sunday) – Henry making a cup of tea for Mama.  Jack took these photos.  I spent most of the day on the couch with an ear ache and a bad cough.

1/24/11 (Monday) – No school today (record keeping day).  We introduced one of Robbie’s friends to cross country skiing.  Other friends joined us, unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo with them.

 

1/25/11 (Tuesday) – Henry rode on my back while I skied with a friend.  When we were done skiing it was Henry’s turn to ski!

1/26/11 (Wednesday) –  Henry loves spray bottles.  He helped me clean the window on the stove, and the sides of the stove and the inside of the stove!  Only the inside of the door needed to be clean so I could re-glue the seal (notice the seal hanging from the bottom of the door).

 

1/26/11 (Thursday) – I finished this mother/daughter apron set for one of my book club friends.  These aprons will be a wedding gift for her friend who is now a step-mom.  Pockets and straps fabric has “jimmies” on them.  I can’t take the credit for the fabric selection.

 

1/28/11 (Friday) – I spent the early part of the morning sleeping/resting on the couch.  I was beat from the previous night’s book club meeting and from coughing all night.  Charlie was my big helper today…

“Mom!  Henry is making his own cereal and it is all over!”

Charlie built this house for them to play together.

 Jack and Robbie camped outside in woods.  Charlie decided at the last minute that he wanted to sleep in the house with me and Henry.  This is Jack’s photo again, this time I wasn’t sick on the couch.

 

1/29/11 (Saturday) – Today we skied in the morning with the youth ski program.  In the afternoon we attended Robbie and Charlie’s first piano recital.  We didn’t take any photos, just a video of each boy playing their part.

My photo for today….During my book club meeting another friend fell in love with the cupcake aprons.  Her daugther recieved a cupcake maker for Christmas and asked me to make an apron for her out of the left over fabric of the mother/daughter set.  I added the “jimmy” print as trim around the sides and bottom to make the apron a little wider and longer.

I couldn’t wait to save these photos for next week’s entry.  So here they are…

1/30/11 (Sunday) – A beautiful day for skiing with three boys.  Two on skis and one in the sled napping.

The boys and I skied for 1.5 hours this afternoon.  I made this happen by enticing them with treats and drinks of water at the top of the hills and the promise to take them to my favorite downhills that they have never seen before.  Charlie told me, “I was really scared on two of them!”  He sure didn’t act like it.

One of the hills is called “Nose Dive”.  Robbie fell on purpose at the bottom and told me he was doing a “head plant”.  I am not sure where he got that from, maybe from Charlie calling the hill “Nose Plant” instead of “Nose Dive”.

This hiker is in “the field” where the Ice Age Trail http://www.iceagetrail.org/ crosses through the Iola Winter Sports Club ski trails.

Project 365 Week 3

Project 365:  Take a photo a day and see your life in a whole new way.

It seems like we didn’t accomplish much this week.  I know I fed everyone every day, swept the floors, washed the dishes and did the laundry.  I woke up early every day to get one or two boys on the bus by 6:50 AM.  None of the boys suffered from any major injuries.  What else did I do? I really have no idea!  I guess I should have taken more photos!

 I do know that I  skied last week four days in a row and then my horrible cough set in and then an ear ache.   I missed two good nights of moon light skiing, one night was due to my bible study and the next was because of my cough.  I hope to catch the full moon in February!

1/17/11 – Charlie’s shirt is almost done!  We haven’t had many opportunities to work on the shirt.   I have also lost interest in helping him complete this shirt, after finding out that he wants to turn it into a Packer shirt and wear it to school.

 

1/17/11 – Robbie’s pillowcase is completed.   Robbie’s friend loved this pillowcase that he made for her birthday.   It was so easy for him to make and a great birthday gift.  I was so relieved to not have to go shopping.  Robbie asked, “Can I test it out tonight?”

 

1/18/11 – Snowflake earrings.  My Aunt Anita makes beautiful jewelry.  I took seven pairs to the gift shop in Iola called Sole to Soul – Unique Gifts from Head to Toe.  I love them.  I think I may purchase a pair for myself.  Some were multicolored like these or just white.  They are all unique and beautiful.

1/19/11 – Mystique waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.  My great supply of hay is disappearing quickly.  I am thankful I only have a horse and cow to feed this winter!

Project 365 Week 2

Project 365:  Take a photo a day and see your life in a whole new way.

This week I missed a few days of taking photos.  I made up for it by adding more than one photo on some of the days.

1/10/11 – Robbie laid-up with double ear infection, a cold, a horrible cough  and no energy to move. We went outside for a little fresh air!  He was out of school this week for four days.  We are fortunate that this is his first time taking antibiotics and he waited seven years before getting an ear infection.

1/13/11 – Robbie sitting up after the antibiotics started working.

1/14/11 –  (Two photos) During Henry’s nap time Charlie and I planned to do some sewing.   We always plan to do something together that we couldn’t do while Henry is awake.   Today Charlie’s idea was to make a shirt.

Charlie is creative and can design anything with paper ( I will include a photo of one of his creations another time).  So when he said he wanted to make a shirt I thought it would be possible if I let him tell me how to do it.   So we went with his ideas, my slight ability to follow directions, my limited visualization skills and my knowledge on sewing straight lines.

Note:  I don’t make clothes because patterns and directions scare me.

1/15/11 – I didn’t have time to take a picture of the boys today because I was too busy cooking and preparing food for Robbie.  He was STARVING all day!  I should have taken a photo of him eating.

The photo I have for today is  of  my homemade rice pudding.  I have been searching for a recipe for many months.  A friend introduced us to Cozy Shack’s Rice Pudding this past summer.  Oh so yummy!  Rice pudding is one of the foods I know Henry will eat when he isn’t interested in anything I offer him.   I am so cheap it kills me to buy the Cozy Shack, so I needed to find a recipe.

Once I figure out how to do fancy things with this blog I would like to have a section for recipes.  This will be one of them!

1/16/11 –  There were multiple photos I took today that I had to include, it was impossible to pick one or two.

Snowboarding on our sledding hill.  Thank you, Uncle Steve, Aunt BJ and Kale for giving this snowboard to Robbie for Christmas!

(Robbie)

(Charlie)

During Henry’s nap time Robbie started sewing a pillowcase for a friend’s birthday party this coming weekend.

Project 365 Week 1

 Project 365:  Take a photo a day and see your life in a whole new way.

When I first learned of this idea I thought this would be a great idea.  I wasn’t sure if it would be possible for me to do.  I rarely have the camera with me and when I do take a picture my photos aren’t great (especially when I compare them to my husband’s).

I wasn’t interested in posting them on the Project 365 website so I wasn’t sure how I would record my photos.  Then I remembered I have been wanting to start a blog for many months – finally this was the reason for me to blog and to take more photos.

I will try to do this on a weekly basis, so these post will be filled with photos and hopefully a minimal amount of writing.

1/2/11 – Henry’s outfit of choice for the day.

 

1/3/11 – A beautiful morning of snowshoeing with Java and Henry riding on my back in the Ergo.  We had a fresh snow the night before.  The light breeze would blow the snow off the branches so it looked like it was snowing again.  The snow would sparkle like diamonds in the sunlight.

1/3/11 – Snow making for the ski jumps at Iola Winter Sports Club.

1/5/11 – I made this tooth fairy pillow for a friend’s son.

1/6/11 – A shell-less egg that I collected.

1/7/11 – Aprons I made for a fundraiser – to help a friend with her international adoption expenses.  They sold for $20.

 

1/8/11 – Iola Winter Sports Club Cross Country Youth Ski Program.

1/9/11 – Back country ski & snow shoe to Grass Lake.

Hello world!

I have finally committed to starting my own blog.  Yikes!

I have wanted to  start one for many months.  I have had many excuses…what name to call it, what would I write about,  who really cares about what I write, will anyone read it and do I really want the whole world to have access to my life?

I have been inspired by a cousin and dear friend, Jessie, who has been blogging for a while now http://behindthewillows.wordpress.com.

The final push to get this started is when I heard of Project 365.  A photo journal for a year.  I didn’t want to use that website, so I thought I could do this in my own blog.

It will help me remember what has happened in our lives in one year.   I probably won’t post a photo everyday, but I will try to post 6-7 photos once a week.  And it will make me take more photos.  I have relied on my husband and mother-in-law to document our lives  with their photos.