Projects and the Like

Juliet helped me make a loaf of bread to start off our new year!  We couldn't bake it until the 2nd, since it has to sit for 18+ hours, but we did start it on the 1st. = )


And, I got to use the wax covers that Sarah got me! (She found them at the dollar tree!) I'm still trying to find a good way to store them.

Juliet made a fancy wrapped box for Billy's birthday.  = )

I saw a video on the internet, that said if you put a piece of bread on the counter next to your onion while you are cutting it, your eyes won't water.  So, I thought, why not try it.  And it totally worked!!!

The loaf of bread that was the fruit of my & Juliet's labors! 

The Helterbrands bought Emily and William wireless headphones for Christmas, and sent them stickers so that they could tell them apart.  William was quite excited to get his labelled!

Emily's friend Abby came to spend the night during the break.  They wanted to make gluten free cupcakes, so they used some of my potato flour!!!

They ate round one like muffins, without frosting, and they must have been good enough, because they all had a second one, with icing!!!

I am working my way through a puzzle book, and this style of puzzle has me stumped.  I don't have a good way to do it.  I'm considering building an excel document.  It's hard in that most of the clues are related to other clues.  I tired doing it like a logic puzzle first, but there were not enough clues.  Does anyone have any suggestions.  The tilted names were superfluous.

After a thwarted attempt at Menards, after Sarah's failed kiosk attempt,  I ended up at Ace Hardware to get each of the kids a key cut.  They worked!!!   So Emily's life is now fully improved: everyone has a key, so she's no longer solely responsible for unlocking the door afterschool, her Eb Alto Saxophone has been cleaned and repaired, and her new phone* has a much longer battery life!

While placing my BJs order, I noticed that Cocoa Pebbles cereal was on Clerance for $3.98, for the double bag box!  While I'm sad that I think this means that they will no longer carry it, we eat a lot of cereal, so I put in an order for 15 boxes!  While at Gordons I did some price comparison, which validated my purchase. That's an 11oz box for $3.99, as opposed to the BJs 38oz (split into two bags) for $3.98.

The tower of cereal!  The kids were really excited, and helped me find a place (behind the coats in the laundry room) to stash it all.  We have until August before it hits the expiration date, so I don't think we'll have any issues with waste.

Grace wanted a tablet stylus, and found some on Amazon. I told her to see if she could find a DIY tutorial.  She found one, and it worked!


She hasn't used it since the first night, so I'm really glad she didn't spend any money on it!

Last week, Juliet came home with a blank VIP poster!  She wanted to get started right away.  After she picked out some pictures, I helped her print them, and she designed her poster.  I helped with the word search, on which she wanted to add some Easter Eggs, so she hid Kennedy, Luna, Grace's names as well as the teacher and para's names! = )

To keep my daily caffeine consumption low, I've been filling only the very bottom of my tea ball with my Scottish Breakfast Tea blend.  One day, when one of my herbal teabags ripped (the tag glue was too strong) I took the opportunity to see how much tea is actually in a tea bag!

Not that much actually!  It is a little more than I put in each morning, but not by much!

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings I ended up shovelling the small bit of snow that we got before Billy and I drove on it.  Then would finish up after taking the big kids to the bus stop.  Well, on Wednesday, our power kept flickering off for just a few seconds at a time, but would always come back on.

I went to Carl's straight after dropping off the twins, to get Billy's birthday cake.  Well, Carl's had some pumpkin bread mix in their clearance area, so I bought 3 boxes, because it's out of season and I really like it.

Anyhow, I came home and made myself a pot of Lemon Loaf tea, and mixed up a box of the pumpkin bread.  It hadn't been in the oven 5 minutes when the power went out and didn't come back. = (  I left it in the oven, since it had already started.

While sitting in a dark, progressively colder house, I attempted to heat up my lunch using the heat from my hot tea.  It might have been wishful thinking on my part, but I felt like the bottom was a little warmer than the top!

The power was out for about two hours, and about two minutes after it came back on, we got the email from Grace and Juliet's school that they were going to have an early release.  I dropped what I was doing and was the second person in the pickup line!

The pumpkin bread only needed 30 minutes at the correct temperature to finish, and it came out alright!  In fact, the kids almost finished the loaf before bed!

The plant light makes a cool pattern of light through the water bottles that we set on the counter each night, in preparation of school the next day.  The green water bottle seems to create most of the colors!

Next week is Kristy's birthday, so I made her a water bottle carrier!  Since I haven't given it to her just yet, I won't be linking this post on my facebook. = )


It came out cute enough that Grace has asked me to make one for her!  I told her, maybe for her birthday. = )

later days
 *I don't know if I've told the story, or the conclusion, but Emily got a "new" phone, because getting a replacement battery in her current phone was going to cost more than replacing it.  Granted, we shop for phones on 'swappa' so they are new to us, not necessarily brand new.

Other Tidbits

Grace and Juliet wearing their dresses from Christmas that Avia found (NWT) at a yard sale.  They look straight out of the 90s to me, but they both really like them! = ) 

I don't know if my RTIC cup is losing heat, or if there was just ambient heat from the house, but one morning after shovelling, this melted ring was on our porch table!

I binged watched a show, School Spirits, for which I was clearly not the target audience.

What is the most comfortable place in the house to watch your tablet? On top of your twin, obviously.


Same show as above, but she had a very similar case to Alice's old case (she got a new phone & case for Christmas!)  The show left me disappointed, because they didn't' play by the classic rules of a murder mystery (I had my money on the principal.)  I have lots of shows that I 'need' to watch the next season, and watched this new one over them, so, depending on when it releases, I may or may not watch season 2.  


Grace helping me show Kristy the pile of egg cartons that I've saved for her, now that her chickens are laying eggs!!! = )


I pulled these out of the projects folder, where I'd originally sorted them, but now that I'm done I feel like this post is a little on the skimpy side.  I don't really have anything else to add though, so I guess I'm done!

later days

Billy's 42nd Birthday!!!

Thanks to Sarah's generosity in watching the kids, we celebrated Billy's birthday in two parts this year!  

First, the two of us went back to East Lansing, and stayed at the Wild Goose Inn again, in a different room.  We loved the room we had last time, and this one was just as good, if not better!






Our first stop was a Taco and Tequilla bar that Billy wanted to try the last time we were there, but couldn't fit in.  I didn't much care for my taco (no tomatoes, and I had to ask for the sour cream that I had marked on the checklist) but the marinated beef was really tasty.  Billy really liked his, and the queso was pretty good!  He liked the tequilas in the flight that he tried.  I'm not a huge tequila fan, so I didn't enjoy my drinks much, but I'm really glad that Billy was pleased.



Our next stop was at a Mexican restaurant, whose awnings we had once taken cover beneath, creating the background for one of my favorite family pictures during BATYOT!

I enjoyed this place more.  We sat at the bar (Billy's favorite thing to do) and once I found out that they had more than just Tequilla (what is the deal with East Lansing and Tequilla?) I enjoyed my drink much more! = )

The queso here was even better. That's the only food we ordered, since we had just eaten.  The chips were really good, and I found two that made me think of animals, so I took pictures for the kids. = )

The first looked like a bird head to me!


The next was an elephant foot. = )


From there, we went to the Tin Can, since the last time we were there, it was at occupancy, and we couldn't go.  It was definitely the least posh place we visited, but not nearly as busy since classes weren't back in session yet. 

Canes was our last stop.  We shared a meal with extra bread. = )  And since we're old, that was the end of our evening. 

The next morning, breakfast ran from 8-10.  Our room was out in the guest house, with one additional room.  We heard our neighbors go to breakfast at almost 8 on the dot, so were very surprised that we were the second ones to arrive almost 45 minutes later!  


Billy ate the oatmeal, and I had the eggs and toast. = )

They had a visitor, Yogi, who must have known that we would be easy touches when it came to table scraps.  We didn't want to get in trouble, so we didn't share, though we really wanted to. ; )


Since we'd had canes the night before, and No Thai wasn't yet open, we skipped out on lunch and just headed home to our dear ones.

Our second celebration of Billy was on his birthday, which fell on a Thursday this year.  Everyone got up 10 minutes early so that we could since and enjoy a cookies and cream ice cream cake for breakfast.  Despite having everything ready to roll, including setting the cake out to defrost, cutting the cake was really tricky, and I had to get out my biggest knife!


After dinner, he got to open his gifts, mostly gift cards, since that's what he requested, and lots of handmade cards from his children! = )

It was another fun year of celebrations, even with a looming snowstorm.

later days

123123: NYE 2022

This year, we were invited to the Cornishes to ring in the new year!  We haven't gone out to celebrate nye in a long time, so we were all very excited!

We spent the day prepping food to bring.  Juliet and Grace helped make orange cookies.  Grace juiced the oranges and Juliet rolled the cookie balls.  They came out soft and sweet and really good!  (Which was a relief, because the oranges themselves had been picked too early and were not very good to eat fresh.)

I also made some chocolate chip banana nut bread and sliced up a bag of apples! 




We arrived sometime between 5pm and 6pm.  We played several rounds of 4 different games: 

  • One Night Ultimate Werewolf 
  • Forbidden Island
  • There's Been a Murder
  • Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt

This took us to midnight!



The kids were so excited about the fireworks!  Billy lit one of the roman candles with a sparkler. lol.


I got pictures of some of the crew, but not everyone.  And a few didn't want to participate, so watched from inside the sliding glass door.







Natalie lit the remaining roman candles with the lighter, and then we had to fight to release the fuse of the Tik Tok firework, but it was really cool when it lit up! = )

It was very cold, just above freezing, so once we finished burning things, it was back inside to toast the new year, and then out the door and into the car to go home and get to bed! 


It was really nice to welcome 2024 with friends, but I assure you I am tired today!

For future me: I would rebuy the sparklers (they were huge, and bright!) the roman candles (easy to light and fun to watch.)  And the Tik Tok was really fun too.  I would not spend the money on the poppers again.  They tried to make them too fancy with extra packaging, and they didn't work very well.  The snappers worked fine, but it was too cold, and there were too many other things going on.  So, I guess I'd buy them again, but I'd give them to the kids to go get some of their excitement out while we get the other things ready to go. = )


Happy New Year everyone!!

later days

Temperature Record 2023

 A new year, a new list of daily temperatures!

January 

1st- 44F cold, but still, so not the worst walk from the back corner of the parking lot into church.

2nd- 42F a very cold and foggy day, no wind though.

3rd- 43F rainy and dreary all day 

4th- 44F cold and foggy. 

5th- 38F rainy and a snow mix, all day.

6th- 36F still rainy, but less rain and more snow for a shopping day with Sarah.

7th-34F cold with a mild breeze.

8th- 31F cold but mostly still.

9th- 40F cold, but the sun peeked out and it was exciting.

10th- 37F cold, and a bit of snow/sleet, but no accumulation.

11th- 43F a little rain in the morning, but a sunny afternoon.

12th- 36F cold, grey, dreary.

13th- 31F cold, dry cold snow, but very little accumulation, not enough to affect the road conditions in any case.

14th- 31F cold, bit sunny!!

15th- 39F cold, but still and sunny.

16th- 40F cold and breezy. Rain as the sun set.

17th- 44F a humid and seasonally warm morning, but the wind came in and cooled us back down.

18th- 38F cold, a light breeze and wet, but not rainy, somehow.

19th- 44F cold and rainy. I'm thankful for the rain, since it's been so dry, and thankful too that's it's warm enough to just be rain and not snow.

20th- 36F rainy, cold and drizzly morning, but the sun shone just a bit in the afternoon.

21st- 33F cold,  no rain but expecting a little snow tomorrow.

22nd- 33F cold and a little snow accumulation.

23rd- 30F cold and icy morning, a clearer, still cold afternoon for our Grand Rapids trip.

24th- 38F it was sunny, like real sun, at least for a portion of the day!

25th- 33F we woke up to a phone call that they had called a snow day for the big girls, sadly, the little ones still had to go, but the roads within the village were not terrible during drop off.

26th- 32F no snow day for anyone, but plenty of overnight snow. The primary and secondary roads were pretty good, but the tertiary roads hadn't been salted very well. The day ended with a break in the clouds and a little sunshine.

27th- 32F the high happened early in the day, and it just started getting colder and snowier as the day progressed.

28th- 28F a little overnight snow, but mild (cold) most of the day, then the start of overnight snow started around dinner time.

29th- 27F more overnight snow, but with all 7 of us clearing it away, it took very little time.

30th- 20F a few snow flurries today, but a sunny enough afternoon for wearing sunglasses!!

31st- 17F was the high today, and it was -1F when we went to the car this morning! But, the skies were blue and we had both a beautiful sunrise and a beautiful sunset.

February

1st- 24F a cold, but very sunny day!

2nd- 32F a cold, but sunny day. Another beautiful sunrise.

3rd- 12F a cold, less sunny, but much windier day.

4th- 31F Warmer, by a lot, than yesterday, but cold and windy. Sunny too!

5th-30F cold, clear day.

6th- 35F cold and dreary. I heard on the radio today that the first Monday in February is the most likely for workers to call in sick. A very sunny afternoon and we hit the high!

7th- 38F warm enough to melt the snow, but no sunshine.

8th- 45F sunny and even warmer than yesterday!

9th- 52F expecting a high of 52F, but rain all day.

10th- 36F a wet cloudy morning, but the sunshine put up a good fight as the wind blew the clouds away, then back in.

11th- 45F sunny, but windy.

12th- 51F sunny, not as windy. They shot down a third "UFO" balloon today, this one was over lake Huron. (1st was in the Carolinas and the 2nd was over Alaska)

13th- 45F sunny, a little windy.

14th- 56F sunny again (my body doesn't know what to do with all this vitamin D!) Not very windy. There was a mass shooting at MSU last night, so WGJ didn't have school. It was a weird, sad, valentine's day, especially after being sick yesterday.

15th- 53F sadly, we hit the high in the morning, then it was just windy and rainy and colder the remainder of the day.

16th- 36F grey and expecting lots of snow from midday until tomorrow.

17th- 28F an icy morning, so the kids, who would have had school, had a snow day, and we all shovelled, except for Billy who had to drive to work on it. = ( The sun did come out in the afternoon, so between that and the salt his drive home was less slippery.

18th- 42F a cold morning, but sunny and no new precipitation.

19th- 50F cold, but sunny and still.

20th- 43F cold, but another mild day for late February.  The twins enjoyed an afternoon with Zoey.

21st- 31F not even above freezing today, and looking at warning for icy storm coming through tomorrow morning and into Thursday.

22nd- 31F school was cancelled (for Alice and Emily, as WGJ are currently on break,) despite no ice on the ground this morning, but midday we started getting accumulation, and anyone at Billy's company who could work from home, was sent home.

23rd- 46F which is quite a swing from yesterday's brutal cold, but it was an icy morning, and as such AE were issued and other snow day, and Billy was given leave to work from home as well.  The warm afternoon has done a good job of starting to melt the ice.

24th- 27F cold, so cold, but the ice is off the roads and sidewalks, with just a few slippery spots remaining.  We won't have any melting today between cloudy skies and low temps.

25th- 34F cold with a dusting of overnight snow, but a little watery sun in the afternoon.

26th- 43F cold, slight wind, but sunny and no precipitation.  Really the best we can expect this time of year.

27th- 37F was supposed to be our high, but with the pelting ice rain this morning, I am surprised that we made it that high. I couldn't even feel my fingers after loading the groceries this morning.

28th- 45F was a cold overcast morning, but the sun came out and warmed up the afternoon.

March

1st- 51F cold, but a sunny day!

2nd- 39F cold, a little sun, mostly cloudy and cool.  They said it was the "calm before the storm."  It's strange though, I declared winter over after the last storm, so I'm not sure what the weather is thinking.

3rd- a happy, snowy birthday for our Emily, well, snow at the end of the day, in abundance.

4th- 44F a snowy morning, but only in the shovelling, turned into a very pretty day for Emily's party. = )

5th- 48F a sunny day, melting more of the wild snow we got on Friday.

6th- 35F a slushy start to the day, but it dried out a little (at least on the raods), only to have rain in the afternoon.  Not particularly warm, and we're expecting more snow overnight. = /

7th- 43F A little ice overnight, made for slippery sidewalks, and some slippery spots on the roads, but we had a brilliant son by mid-afternoon!

8th- 43F sunny and pretty the day through, but still cold.

9th- 45F sunny and pretty and still, the calm before yet another snowstorm system, that is moving in tomorrow.

10th- 35F several inches of overnight snow, made for a snow day for all 5 of the kids, but a warm enough afternoon to clear the roads by evening. Billy and I spent our 16th anniversary at Nico's.

11th- 38F chilly, and mostly overcast, but no new snow.

12th- 36F it snowed most of the day, but just made things wet, not slippery. I am still annoyed by daylight savings time.

13th- 30F a cold, snowy, slick Monday after the time change... It was a brutal day with lots of snow, a glimpse of sunshine, then more snow as the temperature fell.

14th- 34F cold, but lots of sun.  A still morning, but the drive home from shopping looked like West Texas with drifts of snow, instead of dust.

15th- 44F sun and very little wind made for a good change from yesterday.

16th- 53F sun and warmth felt so nice!

17th- 48F was the high, unfortunately it was first thing this morning and it just got colder and windier all day.

18th- 24F cold, and at times sunny, and sometimes blindingly snowy 

19th- 37F a dusting of snow early this morning, but sunny and clear in the afternoon.

20th- 47F a little windy, but at least it was sunny.

21st- 52F a nice enough day, still some chill in the air, but a sunny start to spring.

22nd- 50F gray and cold, a reflection of the general mood in our family, with the loss of Seven.

23rd- 45F gray and rainy, but the sun came out as we arrived at Emily's optimist award ceremony.

24th- 46F sunny and cool, one final day of school for AE before spring break!!!! WGJ started their break today.

25th- 42F wet and cold and windy.

26th- 51F cold, but sunny and still, then a rainy afternoon.

27th- 45F cold, wet morning, but a sunny afternoon!

28th- 48F a sunny day, and warm enough to make me want to put away our outdoor winter Tools and get out the hose. Hope it doesn't snow again...

29th- 41F a little snow (my fault) but a sunny afternoon.

30th- 43F cold, but sunny. Today we did a group stick collection and burning.

31st- 59F is supposed to be the high, but not until midnight! Rainy morning, cloudy day.

April

1st- 40F a cold and wet start to April

2nd- 49F chilly, but a bit of sunshine.

3rd- 60F a very pretty morning and rainy afternoon.

4th- 55F a rainy day, with evening thunderstorms.

5th- 70F warm! But stormy and wet most of my day.

6th- 48F sunny, but a cold wind 

7th- 48F almost a perfect copy of yesterday.

8th- 56F a sunny and pretty day. The girls even broke out their bikes!

9th- 66F a beautiful Easter and birthday for the twins!!

10th- 67F it was a pretty, sunny day!

11th- 73F a warm day, especially getting the dirt into the garden!

12th- 79F another warm, sunny day!

13th- 80F sunny and warm!

14th- 82F another beautiful day!

15th- 83F our last of the pretty, sunny days until summer comes.

16th- 66F cold, wet. Our free trial of summer expired.

17th- 38F cold and snowy and quite unwelcome after the past week of beautiful temperatures.

18th- 46F cold and overcast and windy.

19th- 60F cold morning, but sunny, so the afternoon was not unpleasant.

20th- 78F but that's a misleading number, it was breezy and cool and rainy, so not warm at all.

21st- 57F cold and rainy, but a nice day at the museum with Grace and Juliet!

22nd- 48F cold, but not a bad day to be inside at chuck e cheese for the twins' birthday party!

23rd- 47F another cold, gray day.

24th- 47F a cold and snowy start to William's Field Trip week!

25th- 46F more cold and snow/rain for William, and today I was out there with him! = O

26th- 51F cold, but sunny and clear. Kind of felt like the weather was mocking me.

27th- 62F still chilly but sunny and clear! A pleasant time to attend William's Field Trip.

28th- 52F rainy most of the day (and glad I was rummage sale shopping instead of outside with William ; ))

29th- 64F warmer and sunnier than expected!

30th- 51F cold with a cold wind, but the sun peeked through the clouds a few times.

May

1st- 46F cold with a rainy overtone.

2nd- 43F cold and dreary.

3rd- 55F partly cloudy, but trending warmer!

4th- 61F warm enough for a light jacket!

5th- 71F sunny and fair, and everyone was outside today!

6th- 70F a pretty day, but we spent it inside playing board games. The kids went up to help Avia for church clean up day.

7th- 76F rainy morning, but turned into a pretty afternoon!

8th- 64F not as warm as we were expecting, and a little rainy, but not a super cold day!

9th- 70F sunny, clear and warm (well, at least the afternoon was.)

10th- 77F a beautiful, sunny day!

11th- 80F sunny and warm again!

12th- 80F a pretty day for a fun run!

13th- 69F overcast and a slight drizzle, but an overall good day to clean out the shed.

14th- 66F sunny and beautiful, a wonderful Mother's Day!

15th- 72F a sunny and warm afternoon, but a cold cold start to the day!

16th- 77F another pretty day.

17th- 61F a sunny, but chilly day. Spent time on foot, since they tore up the road to resurface it all along our street.

18th- 70F a nice day to spend at the park with William at his safety picnic!

19th- 72F an overcast day, with rain just in time to collect my professionally detailed car.

20th- 62F very cold, gloomy day, but Melony coming to visit with Alice was a bit of a bright spot.

21st- 76F a pretty day to weed the garden, and open my car doors to let my car finish drying.

22nd- 77F another warm, pretty day.

23rd- 79F sunny and warm, and I even got to spend time outside today with one of the classes at the big girls' school!

24th- 64F so cold and windy today. AND my poor plants are expecting another frost overnight!

25th- 73F a warm enough day.

26th- 76F a pretty, clear day.

27th- 79F a pretty day to visit the laingsburg festival. (Year two!)

28th- 78F a nice warm day to celebrate Jessica with a murder mystery party!

29th- 85F a pretty day for a memorial day parade!

30th- 89F a nice warm start to our week!

31st- 88F nice and warm day to finish out May!

June

1st- 90F nice and warm, but it's dry, so I've started to water the garden.

2nd- 90F a fun day to walk a neighborhood yard sale!

3rd- 80F pretty, warm and dry.

4th- 86F another beautiful day for a Horrocks date!

5th- 83F warm and sunny, but a low visibility day.

6th- 75F a little cooler than it's been!

7th- 74F another chilly day.

8th- 76F an uncomfortably chilly morning, but pleasant enough afternoon.

9th- 78F a warm, beautiful day for a field day!

10th- 83F a pretty day for gizzard fest!

11th- 65F rain!

12th- 65F cold and overcast.

13th- 69F sunny day, but wet and cold evening.

14th- 76F sunny and warm, beautiful day for the fourth grade celebration! And our first day of setting up until pool.

15th- 76F rainy morning, but cleared out in time for a summer party!

16th- 76F chilly, but a nice day for yard sales, if a little chilly 

17th- 80F a pretty day for early movie for A&E, and yard sales for Mutti,G,J,&Avia! Then a sleepover with Abby for Emily!

18th- 81F pretty and warm! Started watering my garden daily, again.

19th- 84F warm and pleasant.

20th- 86F warm and sunny.

21st- 87F warm for our first day of summer schedule!

22nd- 80F some clouds, so felt cooler than it has lately. Juliet helped me clean the porch siding while the big girls were at camp!

23rd- 83F still cooler than it's been, but sunny and dry.

24th- 85F sunny and warm for the olive burger festival!

25th- 83F a sunny warm morning, but a little bit of rain blew in in the afternoon!

26th- 69F a light rain the day through! Not the worst day to sleep through after having a tooth extracted.

27th- 77F but it was overcast and felt really cold.

28th- 80F warmer and brighter than yesterday, but smoke from the Canadian wildfires is clouding the sky.

29th- 87F a chilly, smokey, morning, that turned into a warm, smokey, afternoon.

30th- 90F a very warm day to set up a yard sale. Sunny, but still smokey.

July

1st- 84F warm and sunny for Emily's yard sale, rainy and stormy in the evening.

2nd- 76F rainy, but pleasant.

3rd- 84F sunny, but still smokey; no rain.

4th- 89F sunny and fair. The kids were delighted by the fireworks they could see from our front yard.

5th- 90F sunny and warm, a great day for me and Billy to explore Detroit.

6th- 80F despite the past two weeks calling for all day rain, we successfully saw our first Tiger's Baseball game! It did rain at the Garbage concert in the evening, luckily it was a covered venue.

7th- 81F a warm day to slowly meander home.

8th- 73F it was warm early in the day, but rained dropped the temperature fast!  

9th- 80F sunny and pretty.

10th- 88F sunny and pretty, WGJ started swim camp with Zoey this week 

11th- 85F sunny, pretty and warm 

12th- 78F Sunny morning, rainy afternoon.

13th- 76F rainy, overcast morning, sunny and warm afternoon.

14th- 78F- sunny, but a bout of rain in the morning.

15th- 77F a little sun, a little rain.

16th- 79F sunny, but pretty sure we got some overnight rain.

17th- 78F a pretty, but chilly and windy day, for the beach.

18th- 78F a very nice day!

19th- 82F a pretty day for painting and celebrating Avia's birthday!

20th- 81F a pretty morning, but a hail/rainstorm came through in the afternoon and knocked out power for a few hours.

21st- 80F a pretty sunny day to go out yard sale-ing!

22nd- 80F a sunny day, with a brief rain, while we were putting together the pergola.

23rd- 75F woke up to rain, then the sun came out, then another spurt of rain in the evening.

24th- 84F sunny and warm for day 1 of EGJ summer camp! A light shower when I picked them up.

25th- 86F sunny and fair.

26th- 80F sunny morning, stormy afternoon and evening.

27th- 88F sunny and warm!

28th- 86F and the rain stayed away until well into the night, after our murder mystery party!!

29th- 81F a warm pretty day to walk down to our neighbors for a party.

30th- 78F a pretty, sunny day!

31st- 78F sunny and warm, after a chilly night!

August

1st- 81F a pretty day to go to Ann Arbor, a state park, and be stranded at a rest stop with my dead car!

2nd- 83F a nice day, and I got my car back!

3rd- 86F warm and fair.

4th- 82F warm and sunny.

5th- 79F pretty and sunny, but I've taken to watering my garden again, since we've had no rain this week.

6th- 67F cold and rainy.

7th- 74F rainy morning, turned beautiful day, a great start to jellystone!

8th- 77F we spent a sunny and bright day enjoying jellystone!

9th- 78F a beautiful day at jellystone.

10th- 81F a sunny warm day, to mark our final full day at jellystone.

11th- 77F for our check out and drive home day. My tomatoes are finally red!

12th- 80F rain overnight, but a pretty day.

13th- 78F sunny and the day warmed up nicely!

14th- 77F sunny day, rainy evening for meet the teacher night for the twins!  

15th- 68F a cold rainy day, but Avia made it back!

16th- 80F a warm start to the twins' school year!

17th- 72F cold and rainy in the middle of the day. Sunny and cool morning and night.

18th- 73F chilly morning, but a sunny day for a hospital visit, then adventure!

19th- 79F a chilly, but sunny day to visit the Cornishes.

20th- 87F a pretty, warm day to celebrate our favorite Alice turning 14!

21st- 81F a nice day for the big kids to start school!

22nd- 76F cold this morning, but turned into a pretty, sunny day.

23rd- 90F sunny and really warm for Michigan!

24th- 87F a warm, humid day. Right at bed time a storm came through that downed trees and power lines!

25th- 83F not as warm, but a muggy day for cleaning up the aftermath of the storm.

26th- 73F a sunny, pretty day for Alice's birthday party!

27th- 72F chilly day! Played some Pokemon go, and saw the storm destruction first hand.

28th- 75F sunny, but a definite chill in the air!

29th- 74F we were expecting rain, but the clouds were empty.

30th- 70F cold. Already.

31st- 75F a c-o-l-d morning, sunny afternoon, but fall is here.

September

1st- 79F a pleasant day for a rummage sale and visit at Zoey's house!

2nd- 82F a pretty day to gather the first of the pumpkins from the garden.

3rd- 89F a nice warm Sunday before Labor Day.

4th- 88F a pretty, productive, labor day!

5th- 89F warm and sunny.

6th- 80F a little sun, a little rain, but we got back our Internet!

7th- 70F rainy off and on all day!

8th- 66F overcast and chilly, but no more precipitation.

9th- 70F sunny and fair.

10th- 68F cold and chilly, watery sunlight.

11th- (Deutschland) 83F warm and beautiful! Very hot inside stores.

12th- (D) 78F beautiful and sunny. Today I traveled to Berlin.

13th- (D) 71F a little rainy, but a pleasant day to walk around Berlin!

14th- (D) 70F mostly sunny and warm for my train ride back to Freudenstadt.

15th- (D) 74F a sunny and pretty "errand" day. Warm enough to enjoy an ice cream cone!

16th- (D) 74F pretty day to explore Freudenstadt with Billy!

17th- (D) 78F perfect weather for the trip to München and then to Neuschwanstein!

18th- (D) 68F cloudy and a little rainy at Oktoberfest, but still a good time!

19th- (D) 72F a sunny, pleasant day, though we spent most of it on the train, or so it seemed.

20th- 76F sunny and pleasant for our return to Michigan!

21st- 77F a warm, fair day.

22nd- 80F a very pretty!

23rd- 80F a warm day to start rearranging the porch furniture!

24th- 75F a pretty day to admire my garden, after a long absence, and have Alice's BFF Melony visit.

25th- 67F cool and a rainy afternoon. = ( it wasn't supposed to be rainy, so my spray paint might not take. 

26th- 71F a chilly day to curl up and read the latest CB Strike book.

27th- 64F a chilly, grey, rainy, long day.

28th- 65F cold, rainy and grey.

29th- 77F an overcast, but warm day, perfect for solving the murder of Neville Aster-Night!

30th- 76F sunny and pretty, and Emily beat her personal record at her cross country meet today!

October

1st- 79F sunny and pleasant!

2nd- 83F warm and pleasant day for grocery acquisition.

3rd- 86F warm and sunny, took a rest day, since evenings are in high demand this week!

4th- 80F the last of the warm pretty day. = (

5th- 64F rain all.day.long.

6th- 63F party cloudy and cold.

7th- 54F a cold day to start building raised bed number two!

8th- 53F another chilly day, but a good one to solve a masquerade mystery!

9th- 52F cold and windy but sunny.

10th- 48F cold and wet and overcast.

11th- 59F warm enough to winterize the outside.

12th- 60F chilly but mild sunlight for the twins' playdate with Heleena.

13th- 52F cold and rainy.

14th- 53F rainy and cloudy, so no eclipse views for us. = (

15th- 54F watery sun, but still a cold day.

16th- 53F a little sun, but cold.

17th- 54F some sun and some clouds, not as bad as it's been.

18th- 63F mostly sunny and slightly warm.

19th- 57F cloudy and wet and cold and a crazy day subbing.

20th- 53F cold and rainy and dreary, but at least it's Friday!

21st- 50F cold and rainy, but it cleared up in the evening for our trip to the Phantom's Feast with Kristy and David!

22nd- 50F not rainy, but cold and Emily shared her illness with me. = (

23rd- 57F chilly, but sunny.

24th- 74F a sunny, pleasant day for Billy to finish garden bed #2!

25th- 61F a rainy day, not much of a temperature swing.

26th- 69F rainy morning, but pleasant enough afternoon.

27th- 73F a cloudy morning, but a beautiful afternoon and evening to decorate a trunk during trunk or treat at Grace and Juliet's School!

28th- 51F chilly, but sunny. Not a terrible day for leaf raking.

29th- 47F cold, rain came in after dark.

30th- 40F cold, cold, cold.

31st- 38F a cold and snowy Halloween night.

November

1st- 38F a cold start to the month! I had to salt the stairs this morning!

2nd- 50F a cold day, but at least there was some sun!

3rd- 59F a cold, windy day. But pleasantly sunny for a morning of thrift store shopping with Kristy!

4th- 53F it looked like a nice enough day out, but I finally found the time/motivation to update my poor, neglected blog and spent the day on the computer 

5th- 54F chilly, but not the worst.

6th- 62F windy! Also sunny and cloudy and somewhere in between!

7th- 49F chilly and windy. An early morning with the Cornish kids.

8th- 45F cold and rainy day. All the kids feeling a little under the weather, after yesterday's shots.

9th- 54F cold, but sunny 

10th- 49F cold, really cold and windy. Spent today working on the Advent calendar.

11th- 46F a frosty, early start for the big girls bus, as all 4 girls had robotics tournaments today! William got to play on his computer most of the day, so I think he was pretty happy. = )

12th- 52F a cold morning, but mostly sunny. Found the key piece of our murder mystery party decor today!

13th- 59F cold most of the day, though sunny. Really warm in the classroom.

14th- 56F chilly morning, sunny day. A long drive for no news from the doctor.

15th- 64F frosty morning, but the sunshine turned it into a pretty afternoon.

16th- 65F still chilly in the morning, but a pretty day!

17th- 44F cold.

18th- 49F sunny, but cold.

19th- 49F sunny, cold, but a nice day for the tree lighting and Enisi and Edudi to visit!

20th- 41F cold day for an Ann Arbor trip.

21st- 46F cold, rainy day, but we enjoyed celebrating our family Thanksgiving today!

22nd- 43F cold, a little sun.

23rd- 45F a cold day to decorate for Christmas! 

24th- 32F cold day for thrift store shopping.

25th- 35F cold day, but we spent it relaxing indoors.

26th- 33F cold with sticky snow!

27th- 26F so bitterly cold, and snow all day. (But not anywhere near enough for a snow day.)

28th- 28F cold, but sunny.

29th- 34F glad to get above freezing, but so so cold.

30th- 51F the tiniest reprieve at the end of November, and it was sunny too!

December

1st- 39F rain all day long. Busy day of church sales, William orthodontist visit, and concession stand volunteer for the basketball games.

2nd- 38F a cold day for a night parade.

3rd- 40F cold, rainy, and dark.

4th- 38F cold, watery sunlight most of the day.

5th- 38F cold and rainy!

6th- 38F a cold Nikolausstiefel, with snowflakes trickling down here and there the entire day.

7th- 47F cold, some sun, not too windy.

8th- 53F cold, but sunny and warmer than it's been.

9th- 58F rainy morning. Spent the day inside tackling big projects.

10th- 39F back to colder again 

11th- 34F cold and watery sunlight for my implant surgery.

12th- 37F cold and a strong wind.

13th- 37F cold, but sunny.

14th- 50F cold, and took forever to warm up.

15th- 56F cold, but pleasant enough for mid-December!

16th- 48F cold and a little cloudy.

17th- 46F cold and rainy and grey.

18th- 31F cold and snowy.

19th- 33F cold, but the sun came out!

20th- 40F cold, but a pretty day for a moms party!

21st- 41F still cold.

22nd- 42F cold, but very still, so with warm gear on, it wasn't miserable.

23rd- 45F pretty sure that Christmas is going to be warmer than Halloween this year!

24th- 49F a foggy, chilly day, but not freezing when I braved the stores for cherries!

25th- 54F cold with a little sun. A very pretty Christmas day!

26th- 54F not the worst day to take down outside Christmas decor!

27th- 43F colder than yesterday, but I didn't have to spend as much time outside. Very gray.

28th- 43F cold and rainy, but we made Emily's life better with cellphone purchase and saxophone repairs.

29th- 41F another cold and rainy day, with a few more errands, but a cozy pizza lunch in the car with Billy.

30th- 39F still cold, but drier and a little watery sunlight.

31st- 37F a cold NYE! And there's a 40% chance of rain at midnight. I will be so sad if we don't get to set off our fireworks!

later days

Books

Each year I see people posting their list of books that they read for the year, and so at the start of last year, I added a 2023 tag to each of the books that I read through the app.  

Most of these were audiobooks that I can enjoy while folding clothes or making dinner, but a few of them I could only borrow as a digital book, so I did read words on a 'page' for a bit of the year.  And every now and again I had to check out the digital book, so that I could find a spelling of a name, in order to research it (mostly in the Mary Russel books.)

I listen to the books on 1.25x speed which works well on almost all of them.  However, on some of them that are read by the author, they will get excited about part of their story, and I'll have to slow it down because it sounds funny. = )  Some of my favorite non-fiction books were the ones read by the author.

Fiction

1. The Rebel Beneath the Stairs* (#2) EE Holmes

    Currently #4 in line for the final book, but can't wait for the conclusion!  I liked this one better than the first installment.

2. David Copperfield Charles Dickens

    I loved this book.  I don't know if I've just read too many mysteries, because the ending was clear to me in the beginning, he gave so many clues, or if it's just part of reading these books as an adult.  Either way, I can't wait to watch a theatrical adaptation!

3. What the Ladies Maid Knew (#1) EE Holmes

    I will forever think of the Lego Advent calendar when thinking about this book, since that was my project at the time.

4. Iron Flame (#2) Rebecca Yarros

    No better than the first, I'm so invested, it's so good, and I'm still embarrassed.  When does #3 come out?

5. Little Lord Fauntleroy Frances Hodgson Burnett

    One of the homeschool books we never read, but such a sweet story!  I thought of my Grandmother the whole way through, she would have loved this book (but she may have read it, I don't know!!)

6. Fourth Wing (#1) Rebecca Yarros

    Hooked. So embarrassed.

7. The Ink Black Heart (#6) Robert Galbraith

    reread.

8. Troubled Blood (#5) Robert Galbraith

    reread.

9. Lethal White (#4) Robert Galbraith

    reread.

10. The Running Grave (#7)  Robert Galbraith  

    So, this one just released, and I absolutely could not help myself and read this in the middle of my re-read because I have no self-control when it comes to the Strike series.

11. Career of Evil (#3) Robert Galbraith

    reread.

12. The Silkworm (#2) Robert Galbraith

    reread.

13. The Cuckoo's Calling (#1) Robert Galbraith

    reread. Strike's London is one of my favorite places to be, so I reread all the existing novels once every year or so, and any time that a new book comes out, or a new episode is released. = )

14. Beekeeping for Beginners (#10.5) Laurie R. King

    I felt like this one was a great read, and love her internal portrayal of Sherlock Holmes! 

15. Castle Shade (#17) Laurie R. King

    An awesome installment of the Mary Russel series. It's about vampires.

16. Back to the Garden Laurie R. King

   Not a part of the Mary Russel Series, but a solid stand-alone read.  Would recommend!

17. Please Report Your Bug Here Josh Riedel

    This one had an unsatisfactory ending, so I still feel like it's been left unfinished.  Despite being a fictional story, I learned the 'magic' of how touch screens actually work!

18. Mary Russell's War (#0.5) Laurie R. King

    I love all the Mary Russel stories, and just found out that I can expect a new installment 13 February 2024.  All the Laurie R. King books below were so enjoyable.  It's no wonder that I finished so many books this year.

19. Riviera Gold (#16) Laurie R. King

    A super enjoyable continuation of Mrs. Hudson's backstory.

20. Island of the Mad (#15) Laurie R. King

21. The Murder of Mary Russell (#14) Laurie R. King

    This one was a super enjoyable detour into Mrs. Hudson's backstory and such a great story!

22. A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens  

    Was my Dickens reading a direct result of my non-fiction selection? probably.  But I really enjoyed it, particularly in light of the upcoming Napoleon movie.

23. Secret Adversary Agatha Christie

    reread.

24. Partners in Crime Agatha Christie

    reread.

25. A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle

    Reread, but it had been so long I didn't remember any of it.  I read it along with Emily, so we were able to discuss it as we read. = )

26. Dreaming Spies (#13) Laurie R. King

    I think I read this on the heels of Ikigai which made it all the more enjoyable!!

27. The Enchantress (#6) Michael Scott

    I liked this series.  It was kind of predictable, but a solid story!

28. Garment of Shadows (#12) Laurie R. King

29. White Sand Blues Vicki Delany

    I barely remember this one, it was a very short book, but I remember the murderer being so obvious that I got it wrong!!!

30. The Warlock (#5) Michael Scott

31. Pirate King (#11) Laurie R. King

32. The God of the Hive (#10) Laurie R. King

33. The Language of Bees (#9) Laurie R. King

34. Nothing More to Tell Karen M. McManus 

    I really enjoyed this one, I loved the other books that she's written, despite the fact I am far from her target (teenager) audience!

35. The Necromancer (#4) Michael Scott

36. Locked Rooms (#8) Laurie R. King

    My favorite (or very close second**) of the Mary Russel series.  

37. The Sorceress (#3) Michael Scott2

38. The Game (#7) Laurie R. King


Non-Fiction - My 2023 New Year's Resolution was to read one non-fiction book a month!  Sometimes I read more than one, if they were short or particularly well written. In the case of Aletha Gibson (Serving Herself,) it took me months (and a trip to Germany) to finish, but I met my quota!!!

The way I picked each non-fiction was to select "audio books" > "available now" > "non-fiction" and to choose the top pick that I hadn't yet read.  It made for quite a variety, and a really enjoyable year of reading.

39. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry  Neil deGrasse Tyson

    I snuck this one in at the very end (just finished it today!)  It was over my head at times, but mostly he made the contents really relatable and interesting.  The bit about the composition and naming of the periodic table elements was my favorite.

40. Dare to Lead Brené Brown

    I felt so inspired after reading this one! I even found a few nuggets that could be used in my daily life.

41. In Light-Years There's No Hurry Marjolijn van Heemstra

    This one felt very much like poetry or prose, not my favorite.

42. Heirloom Rooms Erin Napier

    A very sweet room by room of life stories!

43. Spare Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

    Very good, I finished it quickly!

44. Serving Herself Ashley Brown

    This one was written by an academic, and took me months to finish! So hard to read, though I'm glad I did finish it and still learned something.

45. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning Margareta Magnusson

    A lovely, quick read.

46. Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer

    I learned so much about native culture from this, and it was an enjoyable read.

47. Ikigai Hector Garcia, Francesc Miralles

    I don't remember too much of this one, but I liked the perspective and all the tidbits that have stuck with me about aging gracefully.

48. Educated Tara Westover

    This was such a good read.  Would recommend.  I am hoping that she'll write a follow up in a few years.

49. Dickens and Prince Nick Hornby

    I would not read this again, but it apparently influenced my life to a point I read two previously unread Dickens novels this year, and possibly listened to a few extra prince songs, so definitely a book that influenced me!

50. Finding Chika Mitch Albom

    I cried, but it was good.

51. The Total Money Makeover Dave Ramsey

    Motivating and affirmative!!!

52. Soundings Doreen Cunningham

    This one I refer to as the 'bad decisions' book.  I enjoyed it, and learned something, but as a mother I hope my children make better decisions.

53. The Unspeakable Mind Shaili Jain, M.D.

    This one is not for children, but was unexpectedly good! I found it very interesting the whole way through.

54. Becoming Michelle Obama

    An excellent read to start my non-fiction journey!!!


I think I will continue to read non-fiction along with my beloved fiction, I am definitely a fan!

later days

*and (probably) ::spoilers:: Eli is so obliviously Jessiman's brother, or at least that's what the clues have pointed to. I mean Eli could definitely be short for his name William Elias Hollowell, and Jessiman finds him very familiar looking, and it was clearly Eliza's mom that brought him to Sully.  

**I didn't read it this year, but I think my absolute favorite Mary Russel book is O Jerusalem. 

After Christmas

After Christmas I felt productive.  Very productive.  I finally broke out the rust/lime remover and got our shower tile to be a lighter shade of orange (I've ordered more to get the rest off.)  And I used a towel covered broom to clean the upper tiles of the shower.  While I was there, I cleaned the toiled (even though our cleaning lady was coming the next day) and polished the sink countertop!  Alice said the chemical smell was burning her lungs (drama) so we left the door open, but the final product was a much-improved bathroom!!!





Grace made a very fancy banana/waffle breakfast!

I cleaned out Billy & My closet, though there wasn't much, there were a few things!





Then I tackled William's closet and drawers and nerf guns!  He got rid of two bags of clothing!  And my complaint about not being able to find replacement clothes in this post was kind of dramatic, he had so many pants in his closet, he just wears the same ones over and over!  So, we cleaned out things, and moved the unused pants to the pile he uses.

Next, I tackled the twins current and upcoming clothing!


One of Billy's undershirts looked like he rubbed up against a brick wall.  So many holes, large and small!!!  I found an old shirt that I'd cut up, but not really used for a rag to repair it.  It turned out much better, but took one large patch, 2 sleeve patches, and several hole repairs.  I don't know if he'll wear it, since it will be a little thicker, but I feel like a repair should at least be attempted.

(it was inside out in the first picture)

Before Ms. Charlie came, we went through the twins' laundry baskets, making some tough choices (they only have 2 weeks worth of pants each now) and pulled out another two bags worth of clothing!!! Since the pile was so large, instead of dumping it in my mom's car for her return, she sent a message to her friend to collect it for the love closet at the church!

On I.E.L.D. (improve Emily's life day) we took her Eb alto saxophone to the music shop to be repaired, and went by the phone repair shop for a new battery (since hers was dying every time she took a picture.)  We also went by Sarah's, the church, Aldi, Edru (to redeem all of the tickets that we'd saved, since they've now transitioned to a card system, and the sweet lady totally helped us count 1900 tickets!!!) and Zoey's to drop off some fun Great Wolf Lodge items for their upcoming trip!

While we were there, they lent me their copy of Muppet Treasure Island, because of Tim Curry, so I watched it last night. It was really good and has stood the test of time quite well!  Now I kind of want to read the source!


Today I had lunch with Billy (little Caeser's pizza in the car) on his new fiber plates!!! They will be on sale next year some time, but he got an advance supply, and the kids were really excited. = ) 

After I left him, I went to the thrift store, where I got a jump on next year's gifts, then by the music store to discuss the Eb Alto Saxophone repair, then on to the fireworks store.  We are celebrating the New Year with the Cornishes this year, so we get to set off real fireworks!!!  (And some kid friendly ones of course!)  This is $40 worth of fireworks, somehow???  I don't usually buy fireworks, my daddy was not a fan, so we only did sparklers and poppers when I was a kid. 

Hopefully New Year's Eve pictures are coming!

We had a fun, productive, clean week! 2023 treated us well!

later days