Crafts, Repairs, and Cooking

I knocked out some small repair jobs on holey pants, but finally broke down and bought a set of 5 new black pants for the twins.  I think 4/5 of their pairs had holes, and they were all pretty small.  But we gave away the repaired ones for the 'free box' at the love clothing center.  Hopefully they will be good laundry day, or outside pants for some little girls!

William's pants needed a second round of repairs.  So, over the break I went through his closet in search of pants that had hung there for a while.

Alice wanted to help coat the fried chicken one night.  It took a lot of time, but everyone really liked dinner that night!

At Grace and Juliet's school, students could bring in a cardboard 'setting' from a book that they enjoyed.  Grace decided to make the log cabin from Little House on the Prairie using the dishwasher box.

It was tall enough for her to stand in, almost.

My favorite jeans were wearing where my purse rubs against them, so I needed some jean material for a large patch job.  Just after my mom found some pre-cut jeans in a free box, I had time at my mom's meeting to make a good start on it!   That was the boost I needed, so I was able to finish it a few days later.  Sadly, they are currently back out of commission, as they ripped on the knee, in between two previous repair jobs!

I was able to make some sweet and sour meatballs (turkey) to bring to a friend and her family, while she recovered from eye surgery!  I included some fresh rice and delivered it hot.  I also froze a beef stew for a later dinner.

Today Alice called me from school, because her sandals (that she got for Christmas) broke!  = (  I brought her some shoes, and repaired the broken one as best I could.  We're going to let it sit overnight to cure.

In addition to delivering shoes to Alice, I brought a water bottle to Grace, and a Saxophone, straight from the repair shop, to Emily!  So, I visited all the schools today! = 0

Hoping for a less exciting day tomorrow!

later days

Fun Moments to Remember

This is the collection of all the events that are too small to merit their own post, but are beloved memories none the less.

Juliet's bff, Kennedy, gave her a big bag of goodies for Christmas, but her favorite was the Flounder Squishmallow that is a perfect match for her Ariel Squishmallow!

Juliet recruited Grace, or maybe Grace volunteered to help her craft the gnome decorating kit, and once they finished the craft, they used the leftover as nail stick-ons and bracelets. <3

I found a more appropriately sized bin for our water bottles, and repurposed one of our food safe buckets to hold the chips!  It's a snug fit, but I was happy to use something that I already had.  Looking at this picture I realize how badly the inside of these cabinets need repainting, but I have a much more pressing list before we get to that!

Over the break we got to have Zoey over for a night.  I keep an ear out for trouble, but for the most part, I don't see much of my children when we have a guest over. = )

We went with Avia to the MSU surplus store and to the bargain basement at a consignment store!

On a different day, while out thrift shopping, we found some boots that made me think of Kristy, so she absolutely got a text!

We went out for a sushi(ish) lunch after shopping.

Grace and Juliet split a big bowl of Ramen!  Sadly, this is like the 90s over here, and this was the only picture that I took!  

Emily and I split a lunch bento box, and everything was delicious!

Update on my sandals, they came back with plenty of time to spare, and are beautiful!!!  Here's the before and after:

I'm waiting until it's time to wear them before resetting the straps, but I'm so happy to see how fresh they look!

One short Wednesday, we also got to bring Renae home with us for a few hours.  Grace was a happy little girl. = )

Last year, when my sister Sarah's insurance was rolling over, she had a lot of HSA money to spend, so she recruited us.  Amazon allows you to search for such items, and one of the items that I selected was a heating pad.  Let me tell you, it has been a favorite all winter!  In fact, I'm using while typing this up.  We'll put it away once the weather turns, but right now it's a favorite. = )

Not necessarily fun, but for the sake of posterity, I also filled out our yearly CSHCS paperwork.  Sadly, it's carbon copy paper, so I can't use my traditional cheat of filling out all of the common information and running copies. = (

Also not super fun, Billy has repaired this key at least twice, possibly three times with JB Weld, but this break was the final straw, and my mom came and picked me up from the dealership while they reset my key.  It took a couple of hours, and cost almost $200, but I do have a new key!

However, if had needed to wait in the lobby, it wouldn't have been too bad of a wait!  They had a very fancy coffee machine.

And popcorn, with toppings!  But it was way more fun to go thrift shopping with my mom.

Emily and William had a "conversation heart" theme during their spirit week, so I got Emily some special socks for the occasion!

Billy's been eating a lot of Broccoli lately, in the form of meals from Factor.  His first order, however, he over ordered, and a couple of the meals were going to go bad, so the kids and I ate them.  This one was pretty good, though I personally would have preferred a chicken protein instead of tofu.

I wrapped up a birthday gift for Kristy, but then we ended up having to cancel our day out because of the weather.  Luckily, we were able to make it up last week, and she really liked her book of herbs and uses.  And she gave me back the paper and ribbon to use another time! = )

After the twins' field trip we went to a rummage sale.  They knew exactly what to do in front of the photo op!

In December, the latest CB Strike videos came out in the UK.  I thought maybe now that HBO, an American company, is involved, I wouldn't have to wait the extra month for release.  But I did.  It was sad, but a few weeks before Christmas I marked the release weekend (it released on a Thursday) on my calendar, so as not to have any conflicts.

During my rewatch, I was reading an article that said they were releasing one episode a week, for four weeks.  I was soooooo disappointed. I know it's silly, but I feel like I went through all of the stages of grief! = (  So, on my calendar, I struck out Strike.

In any case, this coming Thursday (today is a Tuesday) the final episode of the four drops, so Billy took off Friday, since we already had Saturday plans, and we are watching it Thursday night and Friday!  I do already know what happens, since I read the books, but I'm super excited again.  Only two more wakeups!

Avia picked out a Dimondale shirt for Emily, and she wears it weekly!  Also, I had been reading the numbers as the zip code, not the date established.  Ironically, it's only missing one number from the zip code (48821!)

One of my favorite songs, Texas, by Blake Shelton, was playing in the car when I went to get a rotisserie chicken from Carl's; who knew what a good luck charm it would be!

Grace and Juliet were making up some bracelets, and made one for me!

Grace stayed home sick from school yesterday, and so when Juliet got home, she was tending to her, and stayed close to her, closer than usual, the entire evening!  Grace was feeling better today though, and went to school

And I thought, I love old-timey pictures of when buildings are being built, so why not snap a picture of the new elementary school as it's going up?  I figure the cars will just help give it that je ne sais quoi when it's a hundred year's old!  When the weather is better, I might take another one outside of the car.

What a fun time to be alive!

And one more story from our day, with no picture to accompany it.

Billy and I went on a coffee date to our local ice cream store a few days ago.  I saw on the menu that they had boba, and knew Grace would be delighted!   She was not home at the time, and I forgot to tell her until last night.  So naturally, today on the way home, Juliet asked if we could stop, but they didn't have money on them.  When we got home Juliet was pouty, but I had dinner to make, and several other immediate tasks (like hand washing the dishes, since our dishwasher doesn't arrive until Monday.)  So, I struck up a bargain with Grace and Juliet, if they would make dinner, tacos, I would take them to the ice cream store.

So, we loaded back up, and I drove them over and sat in the car while they went in.  While I was waiting, I saw that I had a missed call from Emily.  Apparently, the activity bus at her school failed to run, again.  = (  Therefore, I needed to go pick her up.  So, as soon as the twins came out with their boba, which wasn't quite what they wanted, but it was good enough to drink apparently, I turned the car around to go grab Emily.

When Emily got in the car, she was surprised that the twins got boba, because she thought the ice cream store only carried bull boba (red bull with boba balls.)  Queue my panic!  I told the twins to stop drinking, and attempted to remain calm the entire way back to the village.  Once at the ice cream shop, I went in and asked if they had given boba to the small girls who were in just a few minutes before, and apparently they won't sell the red bull to the children.  whew. thank goodness! I had visions of off the wall twins at 3am.

Next time, the twins are going to bring a picture in, so that they know more of what they are expecting, and I might just go in to make sure that there is no red bull boba. 

later days