Ice, Ice, Baby

View from the schoolroom

50mm Lens

Just having fun!

They may look sweet...

but I wouldn't mess with them...

Things look different...

through the lens...

Happy Homemaker Monday

Thanks to Sandra for hosting!


The weather in my neck of the woods:
It's sunny and cool this morning.


One of my simple pleasures:
Morgan fell asleep while snuggling on the couch a few days ago. It's been a long time since I snuggled one of my babies to sleep.


On my bedside table:
My new CAMERA manual. YAY!


On my TV:
No TV here.



On the menu for tonight:
After so much sickness, I'm thinking we need some comforting homemade chicken and noodle soup tonight.



On my To Do List:
Chores and work.



New Recipe I tried last week:
Nothing new.


In the craft basket:
I finally finished my crocheted bag, but I haven't taken any photos of it.



Looking forward to:
Is it too early to look forward to Spring Break? LOL


Homemaking Tip for this week:
I am tapped out on tips.



Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
I haven't been reading my blogs in depth the last couple of weeks.


Favorite photo from last week:

Lesson learned the past few days:

Open communication may seem more painful, but in the long run, is one of the least painful things you can do for your marriage.



On my Prayer List:
Friends
Family
Fellow bloggers
Our military, specifically, a friend leaving for boot camp today.



Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

Guess who had a birthday...

ME!

Musings

It's Tuesday again. This is our busiest day of the week. We have school, of course. But the girls also have a 90 minute art class in the afternoons. I pick them up with just enough time to get to work.
Today, however, is busy plus. My day was all planned. I had everything down almost to the minute, and still do, with one exception. Morgan won't be joining us for any of the fun stuff. She's sick again. This seems to be a recurring theme for her this fall and winter and I'm so tired of it. I feel bad for her not just because she feels unwell, but because today was a big day for her.
Our martial arts school has a demonstration team, and Morgan is a member. Tonight there is a health fair at a local elementary school and it was going to be Morgan's first demo. But since she awoke with a fever, naturally that is no longer an option.
I still have to go. I coordinated the demo, and am the only adult from the school that will be there. Morgan is so disappointed. And I'm disappointed for her. I've held her while she cried and comforted her how I can. A little homemade ice cream, some Finding Nemo...She'll be staying with her granny while the rest of us go on with all the things that must get done today.

Life seems to be passing me by lately without much participation on my part. This is the first moment I've had in several days to sit and just spill out some thoughts. And I shouldn't even be doing it now. I should be checking and re-checking, packing up stuff for the day and sitting with my girl while I can. But I needed this. Just a few minutes venting it out.
I haven't been able to spend much time browsing my blogs lately. I've missed all my blog friends and what's going on with them. I may read one or two a day, but I haven't felt that like I've had the time to ponder them, to encourage and be encouraged. I miss that a lot. I keep thinking, "when we get back to our normal schedule.." but I'm starting to believe this just might be our normal schedule. Lol.

So, dear friends, I've missed you all. I hope everyone has a great day and week. I, for one, am looking forward to a wonderful birthday dinner on Saturday night. I can't believe it's time for my birthday again, but there's no way to stop them from coming, so I'm determined to enjoy it!

Project: Homemade Gifts

One thing I would like to do in 2010 is to make more homemade gifts. Not to pat myself on the back, but I'm a pretty good baker, can crochet, and, when the mood strikes...can bang out a darn good craft.

Now with all that said, I must add that most of time I'm lazy. I'd rather just run out and grab something for gifts, but I'm going to try to turn that around this year.

I got off to a pretty good start! Some of my bestest, favoritest people went to California for the entire two weeks of winter break. Since I didn't think to stow myself away in one of their suitcases until it was too late, I set to work making them things to show them how much I missed them. And hopefully, now that they've seen some of my talents, they won't ever want to go back to California...or anywhere outside of my little radius.

Everything I gave them was handmade by me, usually with help from one of my kiddos. The first thing I set to work on was a cookie mix in a jar. I, unfortunately, cannot find the pictures I took of this. I'm sure I didn't forget to take them in my excitement. That would just never happen.

I give all the credit for both the recipe and the idea to Bakerella. If you've never visited her website you need to do that...SOON.

Photo Credit: Bakerella

My cookies had regular colored M & Ms and so I called them "cowboy" cookies. I used blue bandana fabric and twine to tie it on. Here's the link to Bakerella's page: Mix Things Up.

My next gift was also a creation from Bakerella. These things have become very popular so I decided it was time to try my hand at them.

That's right! Cake Balls! These were actually very easy and fun to make. A little time consuming...but worth it!

To wrap up those beauties, no ordinary box or bag would do. I set out to make a gift box worthy of  them. I searched google and saw lots and lots of neat boxes. But I finally settled on this one from Project Girl. She has so many great crafts and projects to make. I can't wait to go back and try out some more.

She used a Cricut cutter to make here templates. I had to download the PDF and cut it out by hand, but it was still easy. The other thing I did differently was to put my template on cardstock, then glue scrapbooking paper on with some adhesive spray. Her boxes are just adorable, and probably neater than mine. But mine didn't turn out too shabby.

Everything was a huge hit and I think I probably had as much fun making everything as the recipients did eating them!

So, dear readers, what do you plan on crafting this yeat?

A Texas Blizzard

It has now snowed twice here this winter. Snow is very unusual for our area. We get ice, but not snow. And it never, ever sticks. So when it started coming down pretty good a couple of weeks ago, the kids and I bundled up and headed out. It was the kind of snow that can literally happen only once in a childhood, and we weren't about to miss it.

Here are some fun photos we took that day, in no particular order.

New Year's Eve

This year for New Year's Eve we attended a gathering at our meeting hall. Most new year's celebrations there have a theme, and this year it was "game night." Lots of people came dressed as characters from games or something game related.

The highlight of the evening, I think, was the life size games in our gym.

Candy Land:

Sorry:

And the most elaborate of all, Clue:

Everything was a big hit!

Now, if I could just remember if it was Mr. Green in the ballroom with the lead pipe...or was it Miss Scarlet in the library with the revolver...?