Weekly Summary ~ 12/28/14 - 01/03/15

Happy New Year!

Thus ends another week.  And another year!  They do seem to fly by as I get older.

Here's what last week looked like ...

{December 28:  Book}

My kids love to sit and look at a scrapbook from time to time. Usually they look at their own books, but occasionally they will pull out one of their siblings' books so they can snicker and giggle over the photos inside.   :)

{December 29:  I need less of this ...}

I need less gray, cloudy skies and I need more sunshine!!!!!

{December 30:  Us}

Our most recent photo ... A friend took this photo of us (with my camera) on Christmas Eve. The wise man pointing at Doug's ear cracks me up. I should edit it out, but it makes me chuckle.

{December 31:  My best bit of 2014}

It is so hard to narrow down 2014 to just one photo! I don't wish to minimize any people / places / accomplishments from this past year. But since 2014 was my best year to date in raising Monarch butterflies, I chose this photo. This was one of the last butterflies to leave my care. I successfully raised and released 172 Monarch butterflies in 2014. That just blows me away! My best year prior to this was 2010 when I raised 34. I'm excited to see what 2015 brings!

{January 1:  Sky}

The sky at dusk - the view from our deck.

{January 2:  Something yellow}

Cute, little Woodstock who hangs on our Christmas tree. He'll probably get put away tomorrow.

{January 3:  Me today}

Alex and I went on a date to the movies this afternoon. I had intended to take our picture together there but forgot all about it, so this was taken shortly after we got home. (phone pic)

I'm still participating in Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge.  I wasn't sure I would continue in the new year, but I really enjoy it, so I'm sticking with it for now.  Maybe I will complete a full year (I started in April 2014) and then call it quits. Then again, maybe not.  :)

Not much happened here last week, which was great!  Lots of relaxing, watching movies, doing nothing.  I did leave the house a couple times just to get out of the house.  Moms need to do that sometimes.  :)  I picked up a new pair of sneakers for Nick who seems to go through shoes like crazy these days.  We had our New Year's Eve party at church.  Just food and a movie, but it was fun.  Got home in plenty of time to watch the ball drop on TV.  On Friday I took Nick to Chris's house for a sleepover.  He is like one of the family there.  Then Alex talked me into getting Subway for dinner.  Saturday Alex and I went to see Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.  It was pretty good.  And we watched our Steelers lose to he Baltimore Ravens in the wild card playoff game Saturday night.  Boo!  

That was pretty much it!  Everyone is back to school today.  It snowed overnight (just a coating) and is really windy today.  But the sun is shining now, so all is good.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

Linking with Tamar:

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Our Week in Review 2014 ~ 12/21 - 12/27

Another week bites the dust!  

Continuing with Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge, here are last week's prompts ...

{December 21:  This is interesting}

We have no "generic" ornaments on our Christmas tree. Every year the kids and I go pick out special ornaments to add to our tree. It is interesting to see how their interests have changed over the years. This year we had one made for our dog, Honey. I thought it was interesting that we never got her a special ornament in the five Christmases that she has been with us. I actually feel bad about that. But she has one now and I guess that's all that matters.

{December 22: 'Tis the season to ...}

'Tis the season to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(This is the front of our church - decorated for Christmas.)

{December 23:  Tree}

Our tree as seen through Keira's starry glasses.

{December 24:  Color}

Something that has been a bit elusive lately - the blue sky and golden sun.  It was so nice to se them both today even if they didn't stick around long.  It is now very windy and raining.  Though I hear both the sun and blue sky may come out of hiding and make an appearance on Friday.  Here's hoping!

{December 25:  Celebration}

Alex was pretty excited about the Christmas pajamas that he got to open on Christmas Eve.  It was quite a celebration.  :)

{December 26:  Animal}

Honey decided to help me open one of my Christmas gifts yesterday.  She was so fun this year!  She was so curious about everything.

{December 27:  I like ...}

I like to play around with my camera.  Especially this time of year when there are sparkle lights everywhere.

Linking up with Tamar:

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Fun times at the school Christmas party on Tuesday afternoon.  The kids have been off school since Wednesday and will be off until January 5.  Keira played a song during the Christmas Eve service at church.  I was hoping to share the video but I'm having problems getting the link.  Here is my video share on Facebook ... hopefully you can view it that way.

We made lots of cookies and treats.  Too many, in fact.  Doug's parents came to visit on Christmas morning while we were all still in our jammies.  Doug visited with his dad while his mom helped Keira make more treats.  Once they left, the kids enjoyed their gifts while I prepped for dinner.  My mom and sister came in the afternoon.  After a yummy dinner (if I do say so myself) we opened gifts and played UNO, something that has become a tradition when we get together.

On Friday I had planned to do absolutely nothing.  I slept in until almost 11:00 - I guess I really needed some sleep.  I'd hoped to spend the day in my yoga pants but our neighbor passed away a few days before Christmas and visitation was on Friday.  So Doug and I went to pay our respects.  We decided to go get a few more things for the bathroom while we were out.  Did I mention we are remodeling our bathroom?  It is the first room we did when we bought our home 17 years ago and is badly in need of updating.  Doug was going to go get some of the bigger items on Saturday morning but ended up having to go to work.  His plant shut down and needed attention.  It as a decent day weather wise so I took Honey for a walk.  It felt so good to be out in the fresh air!  We hadn't been for a walk in a while because of hunting season.  The boys played some hoops while we walked.  Then we went home and did nothing.  :)  Watched movies, ate popcorn, and snuggled on the couches.

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Our Week in Review 2014 ~ 12/14-12/20

Last week started out with my birthday.  On Sunday I turned 29.  Again.  The rest of the week pretty much consisted of me helping make candy to give out to our church family.  It was a lot of work but it was fun.  We managed to get it all finished up and boxed on Saturday morning.  Just in time to hand out on Sunday morning.  Whew!

Tuesday we had a Christmas party at Bible study.  I had to leave right after I got there to deliver Keira some ibuprofen for her headache.  She ended up asking me if she could just go home because she felt so bad.  Migraines stink.  So I took her home and got back to the party in time to make a pretty ornament craft.

Wednesday night at church we had our kids' Christmas party.  We sang Christmas songs, listened to Pastor tell a story, had pizza and veggies, and played a gift exchange game.  It was fun.  Mostly.  :)  We are on a break now until 2015.
Our Youth Pastor left on Saturday.  He got a job offer at another church and decided to take it.  The kids are bummed.  They all really liked him and his wife and kids.

Now that things are slow on the business front, I have been enjoying some down time.  I discovered the show New Girl on Netflix.  It is really hard to just watch one episode at a time.  I find myself staying up way too late watching just one more.  :)  I don't really watch TV so I don't even know if that show is still on.

During Christmas break I plan to do some learning.  I bought a couple classes on Creative Live that I really enjoyed when they were broadcast - but I missed parts of them - so I will be watching them again.  I also want to learn more about lighting and camera flashes.

Anyway, here are the photos for last week's prompts from Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge ..

{December 14:  Drink}

Since I am celebrating yet another anniversary of my 29th birthday today  I figured I'd better incorporate a photo of myself in today's prompt. So here I am.  Drinking a nice cup of hot cocoa after tucking the boys into bed. I'll probably be up all night now, but oh well.  

We had a really nice day today. After church this morning, we went to the science center where there were a bunch of train displays set up. My youngest LOVES trains. Then we went to the botanical garden because that's what I wanted to do. Lastly we stopped and picked up dinner because you shouldn't have to cook on your birthday, right?  Keira wasn't feeling well so she stayed home to rest.  :(

P.S. I hate selfies!

{December 15: Super!}

There were some super-sized Christmas lights on display last night at Phipps. If I could have gotten one of my boys to pose by them, you would have a better idea of their super size. But, alas, they would not cooperate.

{December 16: Beautiful}

I may be biased but I think my girl is beautiful. Inside and out.

(Archive photo as she's still not feeling well today.) 

{December 17: Sunshine}

This is the closest thing to sunshine that we've seen here in about a week. A Dale Chihuly chandelier in the Desert Room at Phipps Conservatory. Oh, how I miss the sun. I hope it makes an appearance again very soon!

{December 18: Sign}

This sign was on the bathroom stall of the science center. It made me chuckle. 

(Archive photo as I was making candy all day and didn't get to take the photo that I had in mind.)

{December 19: Something to be happy about}

Monarchs make me happy. Planning my butterfly garden for next summer makes me happy. Thinking about all the butterflies I will raise makes me happy.

This is obviously an archive photo. Now that business has slowed down I am able to get caught up on editing personal photos so I'm slowly working my way through - starting with my gazillion Monarch photos.  :)

{December 20: Food}

Chocolate - the 5th food group. 

So that was my week.  We are gearing up to celebrate Christmas on Thursday.  The kids have school tomorrow and then they are off until January 5.  I hope to have a nice, quiet, relaxing break.  A girl can dream, right?  :)

Have a great week!  And a very Merry Christmas!  
And Happy Hanukkah to our lovely host, Tamar!

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Our Weeks in Review 2014 ~ 11/30-12/13

So, yeah, I missed last week's post.  Doug was on vacation from work and we spent a lot of time shopping.  Not all Christmas shopping though.  We are remodeling our bathroom.  Again.  It was the first room we did when we bought our house 17 years ago and it is due for an update now that the rest of the house is done.  If I wasn't shopping with him, I was shopping with someone else!  :)  I tagged along with some ladies from church to Kraynak's (Christmas and toy store) and Daffin's Candy (chocolate!) again this year.  We went last year and had so much fun, I guess we are making it an annual thing.   We also made some Christmas candy.  Every year the deaconesses at church give out small boxes of candy for Christmas.  It is a lot of work making it but it is fun getting together.  I will probably be helping with that again this week.

Since I didn't post last week, you get bombarded with two week's worth of photos.  Sorry!

{November 30: I bought this!}

Recently I bought a package of sparkley, glittery washi tape to use in my scrapbooks and for crafting. Because one can never have too much washi tape.  True story.  :)

{December 1: Fruit}

This is the only sunshine we saw here today.  :)

{December 2: Grass}

Back in July, before the maintenance folks mowed the Far Meadow at our favorite park, Honey had a fun time running through the tall grass.

{December 3: Pop!}

Alex was excited to finally be able to open this apple-cinnamon lolli-POP from Halloween. I knew we were saving it for a reason.  :)

{December 4: Free}

Gazing at the moon is free. However, taking a trip to the moon is anything but. It is estimated that NASA spent $20-$25 billion (in 1969 dollars) sending men to the moon. That would be about $150 billion today. YIKES!

{December 5: Me}

Me ... with the birthday boy. Alex turned 9 officially at 5:12 a.m. today. My baby is growing up too fast! {sniff sniff} We got a little silly taking pics with my cell phone.  We were messing with the different modes on my phone. This was taken on "beauty" mode. My skin is not that smooth.  :)
If you missed it, I posted about Alex's ninth birthday.

{December 6: Joy is ...}

Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child.  

Alex was so excited to (finally!) put the tree up today. He helped his dad get it up, string the lights, and put on the star. Then my in-laws came over for a visit, so Alex was even more excited when his grandma helped put ornaments on. He loves having the tree up!

{December 7: Weekends are for ...}

Worshiping Jesus and celebrating Christmas with our church family. (We had our Christmas dinner today). And enjoying the beautiful sunshine, which felt especially good as the sun has been a bit elusive lately.

{December 8: Simple pleasure}

A few years ago I decided to start collecting snow globes. It is a simple thing that makes me happy. This guy was my first and is still my favorite. He's just so cute!

{December 9: Decoration}

One of my favorite decorations at Christmastime is our tree because having it up enables me to play more.

{December 10: Closed door} 

Just one of many decorated closed doors we saw today during our walk through Kraynak's Christmas decorations.

{December 11: Something red}

I loved the Snoopy lights in the Peanuts display yesterday while visiting Kraynak's. I would have bought some of these lights if they had any in stock. Snoopy and I go way back. 

{December 12: Skyline}

This is the view out my front door ... my neighbor's mulberry tree. I love that tree. I think it has so much character.

{December 13: Much loved}

After thinking all day what I could take a photo of that is much loved, I finally decided on Honey. She's been our girl for almost 6 years (we adopted her in January when she was just a pup) and I couldn't imagine life without her.

Linking with Tamar:

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Our Second Week ~ 2014

Happy Monday!  Time to recap last week's activities.  Which, I'm happy to say were few.  My schedule is less filled and I am enjoying the down time.  

The kids had school cancelled both Monday and Tuesday due to the 'polar vortex'.  At least that is what the weather experts are calling it.  I just say it was too stinkin' cold!  :)  After a 2-hour delay on Wednesday, they finally went back to school.  This week we (and by we, I mean I) are hoping for a normal 5-day school week with no delays or cancellations.

On Saturday indoor soccer started for Alex.  His first practice started at 9 a.m. so Doug let me sleep in and took him.  He said only 3 kids showed up and one didn't want to do anything.  He just stood there are watched the ball roll past him.  Should be an interesting season.  All but one of his games start at 9 a.m. this year.  No more sleeping in on Saturdays for me for a while.  :)

Once they got home, Doug and I ran a few errands and ate lunch at Red Lobster.  Sans kids.  (I love having a teenage daughter who can keep an eye on the boys!)  I had a Bar Harbor Salad with grilled shrimp.  YUM!  It had "sun-dried berries and honey-roasted pecans with a blueberry-balsamic vinaigrette dressing" on it.  Loved it!  The only thing I wish is that they would use real GREEN lettuce instead of iceburg.  Spinach would be much better.

I also learned how to knit recently.  I made a few ruffle scarves and decided to try my hand at using "real" yarn.  I finished my first scarf on Saturday night.  It took a while for me to do, but I enjoyed the process.  You can check out yesterday's Scavenger Hunt for a peek at it.  Now I'm trying to make a hat with the same yarn.  And after that maybe some mittens.  We'll see.  

Anyway, on to last week's photos ...

On Sunday afternoon Terri brought the girls in so we could exchange Christmas gifts.  Terri goes to her family's on Christmas day, so we usually get together after the holidays.  I wanted to get a photo of my three kids and her two girls together.  No easy task, let me tell you.  Silliness always ensues.  But I love these fun shots that show their personalities so well.

  

Christ showing off the gift card and bike Grammy and Aunt Linda got her.  And Jordan trying out the Spirograph we got her.  She couldn't wait to open it and start creating!

Nick had gone out and made some snow people on Sunday while the temps were still reasonable and the snow was very packy.  He was avoiding the camera when I went out to photograph them though, so Alex stepped in.  He had used the snowman kits we got for Christmas.  I shared more pictures of the snow people on Thursday.

Monday I made some homemade chicken noodle soup to have during the cold snap.  Keira made the noodles while I was out running some errands and I made the rest when I got home.  I wish I would have picked up some spinach or kale while I was out to put in it.  It was still yummy though.

  

When I fired my laptop up on Tuesday morning, the weather app showed -8 degrees.  I guess the official low was -11.  Alex was having a hard time understanding the negative temps so I grabbed a piece of paper out of the recycle bin and drew him a diagram.  He understands now.  :)

  

Doug bought me some gift cards for Christmas.  (Even though we agreed that my new 24-70mm 2.8 lens was my gift for the next few holidays.)  He had them in stacking boxes.  He said he woke up one morning around 3 a.m. with the idea and jotted down the notes on wrapping paper, so please excuse any spelling errors or bad handwriting.  :)  

Peppermint Mocha from Coffee-Mate.  If you haven't tried it, you must.  It tastes really good in hot chocolate (for us non-coffee drinkers).

Thanks for stopping by my neck of the woods!  Be sure to go give Tamar some love with her new weekly link up!  Make it a great week!

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Better Late Than Never, Right?

We bought a gingerbread house kit sometime in December.  And then forgot about it.  Until January 2.  Too many other things to do, I guess.

So instead of pitching it, we broke it out and made it.  The kids had a fun time making and and eating it.  Even if it was a little late.  They didn't care.


You can tell which sides the boys decorated and which Keira did.  :)


It came with a packet of green fondant.  I think Nick called this his alien guy.


  


  

The gingerbread was prebaked, which made this super easy to whip up. 

Next year, if we make one, we will have to try to do it BEFORE Christmas.  :)

Linking with Tamar's new weekly link up ...



Go show her some love, won't you?

Happy Monday!

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