Maycember

Grace made a nifty multimedia sign for Juliet using the 'marquee' letters in the mudroom

Grace also painted her hand very vibrantly.

Kennedy's mom, bravely, hosted a sleepover party at a hotel for her 11th birthday!  I hung out a while, waiting for Emily to finish up her final track meet of the year, and it was easier to leave the party than to leave our house. lol.

A bunny outside of the pool.

Hot tub time!

About a year ago now, the blog printing service that I've used for all of my blogs announced that they were going out of business.  Naturally, I ordered As many blogs as I had published, which got us through the end of 2023, possibly halfway through 2024.  Either way, I needed to find a new publisher for 2024, and I am so happy with this new blog!  I import the whole year and it divvies it up into equal volumes, and makes it look super sleek and modern!  But, I just know it's going to look so dated in 15 years. lol.

The posts below were chosen because I was texting with Kristy, so both of them are because she is featured in them. = )

Old and New.

Cynthia sent me the most beautiful collection of classic German wood cuts!  I did have to ask Christin for assistance because I couldn't translate it and the internet failed me on at least one of them, but they are beautiful books, and I love them so much.

Billy has finally talked me into doing the nerdiest thing that I've ever done: make a DND character.  Honestly, I'm excited, but I know, deep down, it's so nerdy.  Oh, so nerdy.  I'm a dwarf with a two-handed axe, btw.  Steve is going to be our DM at our next meetup with the Cornishes, in July.  We decided to set up our characters at the conclusion of our last get together.

Emily made baklava for Avia! (Finally! The ingredients have been collecting dust since February!)

William was invited to spend a Sunday afternoon with his friend Jacob, so we stopped in at the Looking Glass Brewery, where I got some of the amazing Crab Rangoon Nachos, and took a picture of a flower that looks as though it has been spray painted!  His friend lives five minutes away, so we collected him and headed home afterward.

William made his teachers some goodbye cards for the last day of school!

Picking out and making dinner every night during summer is so hard.  So, I had Grace and Juliet each pick out a meal to make last week.  I liked it and 100% will do again. = )  Juliet made a beef and pepper dish that everyone enjoyed!

Grace made a crockpot meal that we also enjoyed!

While the twins cleared out their American Girl Doll toys, I emptied their "upcoming" closet, reclaiming space and hangers!  We now have room in both closets, and a huge box of get rid of clothes for their yard sale this weekend!

Latin practice has looked a lot like homeschool this summer.  On the first day, they wore swimsuits in anticipation of a playdate with Heleena, and on day four, they worked in a box full of 'garage sale' bound clothes. <3

William recreated a picture from last year at the orthopedic doctor.  He's a little taller this go round. ; )

His hat had a little bit of a face going on at the same appointment. = )

So, what this post told me is that we have been super busy with big things, and not much going on in the catchall post.  This year is the first year I've heard the phrase "Maycember" but just know, it may be here to stay, as it is so a propos!

later days

Cooking and Crafting, Crafting and Cooking

The crossbody bag I gave to Emily was no longer working for her, so I had my mom pull one that I'd purchased for later from Sarah's basement.  Once Grace saw it, she wanted one too.  So, when I found one in the clearance room of one of my favorite thrift stores, it was an easy dollar to spend.  

However, when I got home, I saw why it was in the clearance area, as it was fraying along the connection between the strap and purse.  With my sewing machine, it took me less than a minute to reinforce, and she didn't even notice until I pointed it out to her!

I broke out my vinyl cutter to add a personalized decal to my mom's free find for my cousin Acea.

I had to repair another rip on my favorite jeans.  And sadly, it's currently back in my repair pile, but I'm going to need a large donation piece from some ripped jeans to repair along the side that my purse rubs up against, as there are many small holes as well as thin spots.  Luckily, rummage sales are starting to surface!

This year, so far, the rule has been, that if you have a snow day, you get to plan a meal to cook!  Emily chose a thai dish to make, and it was liked enough by everyone that I made it again a few weeks later!

But, we don't eat fancy every night, lest you be deceived, spaghettio night gets 'dressed up' with a basil leaf, but they are still spaghettios.

Alice and Emily's eye appointment was pushed back from December, thanks to our changing insurance, to January.  While we were there, I was telling them about an impactful meme that I'd seen.  Pretty much that the internet was a 'place' we would go, while on a pc or laptop, but then we would turn it off and go do something else.  It wasn't always avialable in our hands.  

Anyhow, the same article mentioned the quizzes we'd take then, and so I was telling them about how we would take and make all sorts of dumb quizzes.  The example I gave was "what kind of toast are you?"  So, we spent the rest of our visit taking quizzes for each other to figure out what type of toast we are.  Turns out I'm condensed milk toast.  

Well, I'd never heard of such a thing, so at home, I looked up a recipe for said toast, and made some.  I can now say that it's not bad.  It's not my new favorite, and I'd rather just eat the straight milk, but not inedible.

A second repair on William's pants.  Sadly, this embroidery floss was cut into tiny strips, big enough for only a single stitch per needle threading, so it was slow going!  But, I've started bringing my mending to my weekly mom's meetings, and so it's really pleasant to chat and repair simultaneously!  = )

Grace checked out a cookbook, and really, desperately wanted to make the cupcake recipe.  I was in and out of the kitchen, but she did it almost entirely by herself!

Her biggest issue was that she didn't know that there was a difference between sugar and powdered sugar, so her icing was kind of crunchy.  Aside from that, they came out really tasty. = )

William's snow day recipe called for a rotisserie chicken.  Sadly, my Kroger delivery did not contain said chicken, so I ran by Carl's on my way to collect the twins after school, and they had one single one left!!!

So, William was able to make the pizza for dinner afterall!

I still have two, very productive, Basil plants producing copious amounts of basil on my counter, so I've been drying it and bottling it up.  Well, we didn't use much of the fresh cilantro that we bought for last week's snow day meal, so I looked up to see if I could dry it in the microwave, the same way as the basil, and I can!!!

I didn't get through it all, because cilantro leaves are much smaller than Basil, so it's far more tedious, but I'll try to dry a few platefuls a day, so as not to waste it!

If luck holds, we'll have another snow day Thursday, with a new child made meal! ; )

later days 

Christmas 2024

On Christmas morning, Alice was the first up, and had the gifts sorted into piles before she woke everyone just after seven.

We were all moving slow, but the kids quickly woke up as they went through their stockings.

William and I found this big pack of Reese's on one of our adventures, and it started a 'wow' candy trend for everyone.  I tried to get a giant quantity of candy for each of them, that they didn't have to share with anyone.  I think everyone ended up sharing or trading anyhow, but they didn't have to!  So Alice had Reese's, Emily got Haribo, William's was a giant container of peanut butter M&M's, Grace got the largest container of Ferro Roche that I could find, and Juliet got an entire box of Kinder Beuno.

A wheelchair for their American girl dolls was one of the few gifts that I bought new, but it was definitely a favorite!

Emily didn't get any needles or yarn for Christmas, but found the inspiration to start crocheting Amigurumi.

Not a bad first attempt!

Much to Emily and my disappointment, when I opened the freezer to get out green beans for Christmas dinner, we had none. = 0  So, no Christmas green beans for us.  I also neglected to order bread, but that was easily remedied.  They weren't amazing, but they were pretty good for a quick job.

The pressure was on my kids now to start eating the contents of their candy canes, so that I can use them again next year! = )

Once the bread was finished, we sat down, popped our Christmas crackers, and ate a ham feast!  The jokes were as corny as ever, and I think mine had the best trinket, a tiny screwdriver set!

It was a lovely Christmas for sure!  Merry Christmas y'all!

later days

12-30-24 backdated for continuity.