Mike & Heather and Family

It’s that time again.  Life renewing itself.

For the Blue and Gold Banquet there is a cupcakes frosting activity to celebrate 100 years of scouting.  This is our finished product.

My friend BA is always so full of ideas and craftiness that I am feeling guilty for not using my time more creatively.  We needed a card for lots of children to sign, and I volunteered.  I think it turned out kind of cute.  The flower flaps are signed by individual older children so they could each write a message.  The inside is scribbled with signatures and random drawings from younger children.  It’s not too bad.  I definitely need to do more fun stuff. I’m getting rusty.

For many years I have been in love with food. Sometimes my passion comes and goes, but I always enjoy a new delicious recipe even if I don’t plan on making it soon.  My pleasure in the actual cooking of  the food comes and goes as well. I definitely love learning new techniques and cooking styles.  We had a professional chef teach a class for us at church.  She is so fun to watch and listen to. Lately I have been a bit overwhelmed at all the abundance of fabulous options.  Simple, gourmet, ethnic, healthy, etc.  The combinations and possibilties are endless.  Which is both wonderful and terrible because I want every meal to be amazing with minimal planning and on a budget….and sometimes (often) I am a bit lazy.  Anyway, my new favorite place to find recipes in williams-sonoma.com.  They have a massive selection of recipes.  I search through them and print pages and pages of things to try.  I have yet to be disappointed with any of them.  Give it a try-I dare you!

I was searching through cookbooks trying to decide what I’d like for dinner tonight.  M requested something special because it’s Valentines, but all she could find was desserts.  I couldn’t resist this delightful display.  Not the most delicious and fancy dinner, but fun enough for my kids.

Octopus and Seaweed

Oh, and add the heart jello, and we are all set.

We had fruits and vegetables too, but they aren’t as fun to show.

We are now melting and leaking.  What to do?

The bathroom is dripping from the frame.  I’m not sure what to do about that.  If I could magically melt all the ice in the gutters, I’m sure that it would help.

We survived!  Blizzard 2 and we are all alive and still warm.  Hooray!

We have the oddest problem.  Multiple times throughout the day there are ladybugs in M’s room.  She is terrified of bugs.  She started vacuuming the dead ones, but the last few days they have been alive.  We can’t figure out where they are coming from and why they are alive.  I sprayed bug spray around the edges of the room, but it’s not helping.  Last night she paid E a dollar to catch the one crawling on the curtains.

School has been canceled for the week, and Monday is President’s Day.

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight

The shoveling started yesterday afternoon.  Luckily it was somewhat light and powdery so each lift of 2+ feet wasn’t too heavy.  I’m sure we’ll be feeling it today though.  Neighborhood roads aren’t going to begin to be plowed until major roads are cleared which isn’t scheduled to be completed until Monday around midnight.  There’s another snow headed in Tuesday/Wednesday.  We need to get to the airport today.  Could be a problem.