New Year's Resolution

Res·o·lu·tion /ˌrɛzəˈluʃən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[rez-uh-loo-shuhn] –noun. A resolve or determination.

* * *

I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, mostly because I know myself well enough that I will not follow through. This year my resolutions are simple.

1. Read The Daily Bible by F. Lagard Smith.

I started this last January, and I did really well. I read into September. I didn't read every single day, but I could catch up if I fell behind. I really enjoyed reading this way, a set number of pages all laid out for me. I was surprised that the only time I really felt bogged down was Leviticus/Numbers/Deuteronomy. I love the commentary in this particular book, and I appreciate that it's in chronological order, not Biblical order. I like everything to line up just right, so the chronological aspect is very appealing. (Yes, yes, we all know I'm anal retentive.)


I really need to commit to a specific time each day to read. Mornings are definitely the best, but they seem to get swept away in my original routine. I need to adjust my routine to fit this in.

2. Spend more time with my kids.

That might sound funny since I am with them all day long. But we often get wrapped up in the nitty gritty, must-get-done things. When school work is done, we tend to separate. Time passes far too quickly, and I don't want to regret this down the road. These are times I can't make up--if I don't do it now, it's gone. Forever.

3. Read more

Yes, I read a lot. I read oodles of books out loud to the kids, and I read a lot of books to myself. But I used to read more. Up until two years ago, I was reading 100 books a year. It's easy to keep track of; it's two books a week. Several years ago, I began keeping my own book log. I figured I kept logs for the kids, I should be keeping one for me. It doesn't have much info, just the title, author, and usually a brief comment, just a couple of words, with my thoughts on the book. Two years ago, I dropped down to 60 books. This year, I'm back up to about 90. It's not bad, but I can do better. And I want to do better.

As I'm typing these three things, it comes down to me managing my free time a little better. Hmm. Simple resolutions. Great rewards. They don't seem that hard.

* * *

We don't usually do much for New Year's Eve. I think the last time Robert and I went out was in 1994 (really). We usually have some sort of poppers or noisemakers on hand and the kids go out at 8 or 9 p.m. to set them off, bang pots and pans, etc. Sometimes they have friends over to join them. We don't have much planned for New Year's Eve this year, mostly because I've been trapped in the house since Thursday morning.

The AdAmAn Club sets fireworks off from Pikes Peak at midnight. They spend Dec. 30 and 31st climbing to the top of the mountain. It must have been cold this morning, but at least it was beautiful! Sometimes we can see fireworks, sometimes we can't. It's really something to see.

Holly has stayed up for the past few years. She stayed up late tonight (Saturday) too, and I wasn't thinking that she'd probably be up Sunday night. Last year, I fell asleep on the couch before midnight, poor kid. Oh well. It's time for someone else to take over the midnight watch, and it might as well be her. As long as she wakes me up to see the fireworks at midnight, I'm happy!

What a difference a day makes!

I'd posted a picture from mid-morning earlier, and these two are from about noon and 2 p.m. Our weather forecast said we'd get 8-12" of snow today/tonight. As midnight approaches, the sky is still clear. Now you can see why I prefer forecasts predicting 'a dusting or a blizzard.'


Seeing blue sky had an amazing effect on my mood. I so take our weather for granted. I never braved trying to get my car out. (I would not be happy to have to call Robert at work to tell him I'm stuck somewhere, and I don't think he'd be too happy either!) When Robert came home from work though, we all went out. Getting out was rejuvenating, and I feel like I'm back on track!

We also finished three of our read alouds today. Perfect timing. I'm not sure exactly when we'll start school back up. It will be at some point this week, probably just to complete a chapter of history. The ps's go back at different times, and I'm expecting Holly to be gone two or three days visiting friends. No matter. The stories are done, one more reason to feel back on track.

Oh, yippee!

I don't know how long this lull will last, but I'm not complaining. I can see the mountains!!! (Or part of them anyway!)


Now I can fantasize about getting down my street today. Unfortunately, my newspaper guy never made it, and he gets here on time even when the post office shuts down, or Robert can't get to work. Not a good sign.

Back to my fantasy . . .

Fun with Picasa!

I am having so much fun with this! Here are pics of the kids that I've played with.

You Might Be a Coloradoan If . . .

One of my friends sent this today, giving credit to Jeff Foxworthy. I've edited it down from the original 50.

1. You switch from "heat" to "A/C" in one day.

2. You know what the "People's Republic of Boulder" means.

3. Your sense of direction is: towards the mountains and away from the mountains.

4. You're able to drive 65 miles per hour through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without even flinching.

5. You take your out-of-town guests to Casa Bonita even though you would never go there otherwise.

6. You design your kid's Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.

7. You think that sexy lingerie is wool socks and flannel PJs.

8. You can never figure out why your out-of-town guests faint from altitude sickness on a picnic to the mountains.

9. You know the correct pronunciation of Buena Vista (and Uncompahdre and Cache la Poudre).

10. April showers bring May blizzards.

11. You know what a "Rocky Mountain Oyster" is.

12. You know what a "fourteener" is.

13. But you don't know what a "turn signal" is.

14. A bear on your front porch doesn't bother you nearly as much as a Democrat in Congress does.

15. You know who Alfred Packer was and what he did.

16. SPF 90 is not out of the question.

17. People from out of state breathe five times as often as you do.

18. Thunder has set off your car alarm.

19. A sudden loss of cabin pressure is not a big deal.

20. You think a red light means three more cars can go.

21. You know where Doc Holliday's grave is.

22. You know where Buffalo Bill's grave is.

23. You know where the real "South Park" is.

24. You've dressed in shorts, sandals, and a parka with a hood all at the same time.

25. And the most important: You get a certain feeling of satisfaction from knowing that California and Texas are both downstream.

* * * * *

And it's still snowing.

Snow stats

Average seasonal snowfall = 42"
(The last five years have fallen far short of this number, with anywhere between 15.9" and 30.6" of snow.)

2005-2006 snowfall = 17.4"

2006-2007 to date = 16.7"

These are official numbers measured at the airport on southeastern side of town. We get quite a bit more snow where I live.

* * * *

Nothing to report. Nothing has changed. Contrary to what my mom has always said, no news is *not* good news! When it stopped snowing last night, it really was absolutely lovely. The wind blew all night long though and continues. I don't think it's currently snowing at this minute. My driveway is covered with several inches of snow. As in almost every storm, I can look across the street at my neighbor's driveway, which is so windswept that I can see 30% concrete--it's just the way the wind blows.

(There is a plus side to that, as my house faces the south, which makes shoveling much, much easier, often unnecessary. My neighbor faces north, so if he doesn't shovel, the snow lasts a lot longer.)

So what's our weather saying, something about, if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes? I'M WAITING!

These happy little house finches outside continue to fly around, chirping. It's 20 degrees outside. I think their brains are half frozen. Their cheerfulness is beginning to drive me insane.

'Sno Joke

It's 5:00 p.m., it's been snowing all afternoon with no end in sight. Robert just got home from work, reporting that cars are littering the roads everywhere, and I've read that DIA (Denver Int'l Airport) is cancelling flights all over.




I think I'm turning into an Eskimo.

Oh no, not more snow!

It's snowing here. Again. More and more and more. Apparently, our average annual snowfall is 42", and we're making up for the years we don't get that much. Usually I like the snow, I appreciate it, and I love to watch it falling. But we still have so much snow from last week! I don't live in Michigan, Ohio, New York--the places where the snow stays around all winter. With 250 days of sunshine, our snow melts, all of it melts, usually within a day or two of the storm. It was 53 degrees here yesterday, and I still slipped and slid all the way down my street. I should just be happy that I don't have to GO anywhere.

I don't know what to expect. I haven't looked at the forecast since yesterday morning:

The National Weather Service is keeping an eye on a potential
storm that could bring the region a dusting of snow--or another blizzard.

This is really what our newspaper said. I found it amusing. I don't mind not knowing, in fact, I appreciate their honesty. I've lived in Colorado for 23 (!) years, and it still drives me crazy when the weather predictions are wrong. I can be confident that this one is on the mark!

The kids and I went out to Sam's Club early this morning. (You know "early" is relative here. It's a good thing that Sam's doesn't open until 10:00 a.m.) My original reasoning was to go before it got bad out, and it was already snowing when we left.


Also, Holly's friend had e-mailed that she might call later this morning--from Italy. That's a call we don't like to miss!

(I love her "02 COOL FOR SCHOOL" shirt that I found at Old Navy!)

Meanwhile, Trevor multitasked. He ate lunch while listening to Christmas music on his new Walkman while reading comics.


Thanks to Kathleen, I've been playing with Picasa. I haven't figured it out much yet, but it's been really fun so far! It might be time for me to break out that camera that Robert bought me LAST Christmas. He finally opened it up two or three months ago and started using it himself, but it's not like he takes a lot of pictures. He doesn't have any need for a camera. I'm the one journaling our life! Besides, now he knows how it works, and I don't have to figure it out. I can just take lots of shots and play with them on Picasa. Hmm. Maybe being snowed in doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Slow Wednesday and reflections

It seems like today was a slow, do-nothing day. I'm sure this is a good thing, after all, it's supposed to be vacation! The kids are slowly being weaned from the PlayStation. I'm already wondering how in the world I will get their brains rewired back to normal to pay attention to regular school stuff next week.

One of Trevor's accomplishments this morning was playing with his new Erector set. It has directions to make two different vehicles. He started with the helicopter and then changed his mind and made his own creation--an ATV. (Naturally, he's spent much of the past three days racing ATVs on the PS2.) It was really neat to watch him throw this together so easily.

We continue to lazily work through a couple of read alouds, nothing too intense, just finishing up.

We went by the library to pick up books, and I paid my fine--grand total, $4.60. Yikes! That's more than I've had to pay total in the five years we've been homeschooling!

I'm counting that on my fingers and realize this week is a big anniversary for us. Five years ago, we made the decision to withdraw Holly from public school. I don't even know at what point it even crossed our minds to begin with, but it was something we began considering that summer before she started first grade. At the time, we didn't really know any homeschoolers. It was something that people did who lived in the woods and had no phone. I had a couple of distant cousins that homeschooled their kids. One lived in the middle of the woods and had no phone. (Really.) My other (distant) cousin Adriene also homeschooled her kids. At that time, Adriene and I had never met, but we'd become friendly through e-mail. She never pushed her homeschool views on us, it was just her way of life. But her way sure changed ours, changed it in more ways than Robert and I could ever have imagined. She pushed us off the cliff, and we're still continuing that incredible fall.

Don't ask me why we were even interested. Holly was attending a fabulous charter school that we were pretty happy with. Holly was thriving with devoted teachers, excellent curriculum,and heavily involved families. We certainly didn't have any issues with the school. I'd waitlisted her several years beforehand, and there was a giant waiting list--with good reason. It was a top scoring school in the top scoring district in the metro area.

Robert and I brought the kids to Colorado Springs for a short vacation that summer. We chose Colorado Springs because it was a short drive from Littleton, and we wouldn't have to pay for plane fare. Holly and Trevor were happy to stay in the hotel, eat pizza on the bed while watching Cartoon Network, and swim in the pool. I'd brought along Homeschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith (from my library, of course), and Robert picked it up out of boredom. He was hooked, and I was easily on board.

We talked about it more and more over the next several months, and I began to check out various curricula, along with local homeschool support groups. As I repeatedly googled (substitute popular search engine from 2001!) "Littleton" and "homeschooling," I couldn't get away from Sonlight--no matter how hard I tried, LOL. I had minimal success in finding local groups (I prefer to forget the unschooling one where one of the little kids would run around naked, and his sister pulled down her pants in the Burger King tunnels), but I did find my wonderful online list that I joined way back then.

In the meantime, I'd been working one day a week as a legal secretary at a large law firm in downtown Denver. Our office was near the top of one of the tallest buildings in the city, figuring prominently in the skyline. 9/11 happened, and I went back to work just one more time. Thinking about going back made me almost physically sick to my stomach. I can remember the one day I did work, hearing a plane fly by and feeling so much panic . . . thinking over and over the possibilities of escaping down the stairs, 40 something floors to the ground. I couldn't do it.

As Christmas approached, we'd been talking about withdrawing Holly at the end of the school year. Robert finally asked me straight out, "If you're going to do it, why wait?" I think it was a dare. To this day, I don't know why he said it. I don't know why I agreed. Holly was fine either way. She liked school, and she liked the idea of staying home with mom. When school started in January, I went and signed all the paperwork to pull her out. It was traumatic--for me. I cried for three weeks. It was scary, and I knew it would be next to impossible to get her back in. So our journey began . . .

If you've known Robert or me for any length of time, you'll find many odd things throughout this. Us? Homeschooling? Not conforming? Playing roulette with our children's education? Choosing Sonlight, of all things, to begin teaching our child? (It's very "Christian," "too" Christian, I'd thought at the time, so we just did it "light.") Me---teaching??? ME???

A few months later, Robert's transfer came through to Colorado Springs. Us? Here? Sure, we'd wanted to move, but we'd wanted to move east. To trees that you live among, not gaze upon on the mountain. We figured it's close to Denver, it will be smaller, but pretty much the same. Yeah, Colorado Springs . . . also referred to as the "evangelical Vatican," "the Bible belt of the West." It's about as different from Denver as you can get, but we had no clue.

We never thought twice about these things, never questioned our decision (much). We can easily look back and see God's hand in our lives, so very clearly. It's certainly not by any choice of ours that we are here. And we couldn't imagine our life being any better.

And my cousin Adriene? She brought out her whole family to visit, to meet us in person, right before we moved here. She remains an inspiration, someone who I consider one of my very closest friends. Now I can easily see her role in my life, why she was brought to me, as a life changer, a blessing.

Proverbs 3:5-6. It's two simple verses. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

What an amazing path.

The day after

It was another terrific day, in so many ways. Honestly. When I can see this outside, it makes even a bad day better, and a good day great. It's much warmer today, even at 11 p.m., it's in the upper 30s and the snow is beginning to melt.

Robert decided that all of our leftovers, along with the things I just didn't make, were perfect to go along with turkey. So we left the kids -- you guessed it -- playing PS2, and we went on a turkey hunt. Doesn't look like they've even moved from yesterday, does it?


Turkey hunting was easier said than done, especially the day after Christmas. We went to four grocery stores before finding any thawed turkeys. (And at least one store was STILL out of bread, blaming last week's blizzard for delaying deliveries.) Although we were just running from place to place, it was a wonderful treat--just Robert and I, out together, enjoying each other's company, without distractions. It makes even the most mundane things fun. (Do you really think I'd have gone to four stores hunting turkey on my own?)

When we came home, I quickly fixed Baked Brie with Kahlua Pecan Sauce. This is a holiday staple at our house.


BAKED BRIE WITH KAHLUA PECAN SAUCE

1 lb. wheel of Brie (mine was 2 lbs., so I just used two quarters of it above)
6 T. brown sugar
1/2 c. kahlua
3/4 c. chopped pecans
assorted crackers
green apple slices

Place the Brie on a microwave safe plate.

In a saucepan over medium heat, mix the brown sugar with the kahlua until dissolved. Add in pecans and remove from heat. Pour kahlua sauce over Brie cheese. Place cheese in microwave 1-2 mins. until soft in the center. Check often; it's easier to continue cooking than have it melt too much into a mess!

Serve with crackers and green apple slices.


I even got into the PS2 act tonight. It didn't take much playing time for one of my wrists to ache horribly, and I don't know how the kids can do it. I really stink at it. The two games I like are both racing games, one with cars and one with dirt bikes/ATVs. I crash continually. Holly always feels bad for me because I'm almost always in last place. But I'm happy if I can just SEE ahead on the track, and seeing my car all scratched up from my horrible driving is rather amusing!


Tomorrow is Wednesday and Robert goes back to work. Life goes back to somewhat normal around here, with the exception of school (since we're off). I still have some reading to catch up on with the kids. I still haven't finished Jotham's Journey (but we know how it ends!), and Trevor and I are trying to race to finish up Sign of the Beaver. The only other thing I plan to do is make plans for the rest of our time off!

Christmas recap

We had a very nice Christmas Eve last night, despite the light snow. It was very cold, icy on the roads. This is unusual; we very rarely see a white Christmas. After a candlelight church service, we went to a friends' house for dinner. The rum cake was better than I remembered. Oh, yum, I am making another one for us for New Year's. It was sooooo good!


Dan and Christine shared with us their favorite Christmas song, and I was thrilled to find a copy on the internet. All I can say is YOU GOTTA LISTEN TO THIS! There are no words to describe this rendition of O Holy Night. I don't think I can stop listening. (Some of the page content might be objectionable to some, but it wasn't so bad that Holly couldn't see it.) Mom . . . Dad . . . Lori . . . really, you have to listen.

Holly and Trevor ended up going to bed rather late (for them) last night, which meant they slept in a little longer this morning. So did Robert and I. The kids were up at 7:00, and they had to wait for us to get a few things ready before we would let them come all the way downstairs.


They woke up a little once they started opening presents. Trevor is always glad to smile again for the camera.


Holly's a little more reserved.

You can guess how excited Robert is. I thought I'd bought him the perfect gift that he didn't ask for (along with the one he did). It's a 1,000,000 candlelight flashlight that can be seen up to 3 miles away. It was cheap too, under $20, so I thought he'd like it even more. Like I said . . . excited. (ha)

Aw, too bad no one snapped a picture of me looking excited! Actually, my gifts were very nice and included a number of Calphalon pans and fabulous new perfume. (It's Noa, I think Noa Perle.)

Santa brought the kids a Play Station. I took about a dozen pictures of them playing, but none of them came through on my camera! After the presents were opened, the kids played. An hour later, the kids were still playing. Trevor took a break to talk to Grandpa on the phone.

I finally made them get dressed, and they came back and played some more. I took turns playing with them. We nibbled a quick lunch, and then the kids played. Trevor took another break to talk to Gramma, Aunt Barb and Uncle Dave.


The kids played in the afternoon.


There was a brief break for dinner. The dinner menu and my review:

Roast Beef Perfection. Was perfect, as usual! Served with a sour cream/horseradish mix alongside.

Manchego Potatoes. Rachael Ray used manchego cheese. I didn't want to pay $5-8 for cheese to put in potatoes. I'd read you could substitute either parmesan or Monterey jack cheese. That seemed like a weird choice, since I find the two so different. We had Muenster Potatoes. Everyone else liked them a lot, but I thought the cheese was just too much.

Asparagus with Gremolata. This is another Rachael Ray recipe. Not a keeper. Robert took one taste (barely) and brave Trevor spit his out. I couldn't eat the asparagus, but I mixed some of the gremolata with my potatoes and liked it!

Sauteed Crimini Mushrooms. Another Rachael Ray recipe, and this was awesome. After adding the red wine, I was dubious, but it quickly evaporated down and thickened into a nice flavoring, not leaving any "wine" taste.

Robert's Famous Cranberry Nut Bread, that I made yesterday.

Pretzel Jello Salad. A traditional holiday dish at our house.

We were so stuffed that we never ate dessert. We'll have pumpkin pie tomorrow, along with the salad I never made for dinner, and the brie cheese with kahlua sauce that I never made for lunch. This is what happens when I eat too many chocolate covered marshmallow santas . . .

After dinner, guess what the kids did?


They finally got off, just in time for Holly and me to watch two episodes of her Brady Bunch Season 2 DVDs that she got today. I'm glad I have someone else to watch Brady Bunch with!

We had a wonderful, relaxing day. I'm looking so forward to Robert's being off tomorrow too.

:)

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Yippee, and Merry CHRISTmas!

I did it! Even Robert was surprised I did everything on my "wish" list today--gift wrapping, two loaves of cranberry nut bread, pretzel jello salad, pumpkin pie . . .


I was just beginning to vacuum when he came home, hoping to catch a nap before we leave. The vacuuming will get done too. This is such a GOOD feeling for me on Christmas Eve, that I've actually accomplished all that I've wanted to!

* * * * *

A Christmas Prayer
Robert Louis Stevenson

Loving Father,
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven,
for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Christmas countdown

One of our Christmas Eve Day traditions is tracking Santa via NORAD's Santa Tracker. NORAD is a combined effort of the U.S. and Canada that watches over the skies of North America. Although under the command of Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs, NORAD is housed inside Cheyenne Mountain. I took this picture this morning. Cheyenne Mountain is pretty much in the center, the tall mountain at the end of the chain in the front of the photo. The latest word, however, is that NORAD will be vacating the Cheyenne Mountain facility and will begin operating out of Peterson.


Cheyenne Mountain is also home to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, famous for its giraffe program. Click here for the live giraffe cam! Additionally, Cheyenne Mountain is famous in a quirky sort of way for its Will Rogers Shrine, which we finally visited earlier this year. "Quirky" as Will Rogers is not buried there (but others are), and efforts to move Rogers's remains to this site were denied by his family.

I've finished wrapping presents and plan to work on getting both some baking and housecleaning done this morning. It's another gorgeous day outside too!

Successful Saturday

Wow, today turned out to be quite good! I don't like going anywhere at this time of year. There are way too many people in too much of a hurry, and I try to avoid that whenever possible. To make matters worse here, stores were basically shut down for Wednesday and Thursday. This morning, I dragged the kids out early. "Early" for us is 10:30. I had no trouble backing my car out over the snow in front of my garage door. :) Our first stop was the library. When I turned into the parking lot, I did a complete 360 on the ice. Holly thought it was rather fun. It was in sloooow motion. Since I was turned around already, I left and came in another entrance! The library was empty, and we were in and out within minutes.

As we drove down the main street here, it seemed that everyone was trying to go to Barnes & Noble and Wild Oats. Even the mall had plenty of parking. We stopped at Family Christian Bookstore, which was a zoo, and lucky for us, they didn't have what we wanted, so we didn't have to wait in line. Our next stop was Home Depot. WOW, they were dead, not even lines at the registers. We were in and out of there quickly, and there was also no one in line at Einstein's Bagels. The grocery store, not surprisingly, was pretty crowded, and we had to wait for a shopping cart. I'm soooo glad I did my big shopping the other night. The trucks have still not come through for the stores to be restocked--the grocery store was completely out of all lettuces, short on many fruits/vegetables, and there was no bread. The meat cases were just about empty, with the exception of ground beef. There were no "regular" eggs left, only organic/$$$, and there was no milk at all.

When we left the grocery store, we drove through one of the busiest intersections in the city. It was an absolute mess--the snow had not yet all been plowed away and was instead piled up between the two left turn lanes. Cars were literally getting stuck in the traffic lanes before the light. The car in front of me got stuck big time, and I was only lucky to be able to get out after my tires started spinning. We ran by Focus on the Family Bookstore, which wasn't busy at all, and by 12:30 we made the McDonald's drive thru to grab lunch.

The kids helped unload everything when we got home, and I shoveled the rest of the snow away from the garage. I'd been planning to bake this afternoon, and I made Rum Cake. I haven't made this in years, it looks great and smells even better!!

RUM CAKE

1 c. chopped walnuts
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 c. cold water
1/3 c. oil
1/2 c. dark rum

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a Bundt or tube pan (this needs to be done really well). Sprinkle the nuts on the bottom of the pan. Mix all cake ingredients together and pour batter over nuts. Bake for 1 hour and cool. Invert onto serving platter and prick top and sides with a fork to make holes all over. Spoon or brush glaze over top and sides of cake. Allow to soak into cake before serving.

Cake Glaze:
1/4 lb. butter
1/4 c. water
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. dark rum
Melt butter in saucepan on the stove. Stir in water and sugar. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 mins., stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in rum.

Friends invited us over for dinner tomorrow night after church, and I'm bringing dessert. My cake didn't come out of the pan easily at all. But with the glaze poured over all, the cake is very forgiving (and all that rum won't hurt either!). The recipe makes a lot of glaze, and oh did it smell (and taste!) wonderful! I found a great holiday ceramic plate today at the grocery store for $1. It's perfect to take over with the cake and no need to worry about getting it back.

I also made Rachael Ray's Five Minute Fudge to take along too. Instead of raisins or currants, I mixed craisins into the fudge. They work well, Holly thought they were dried cherries. I was worried about burning it, so it took longer than five minutes. I lined the pan with waxed paper because I couldn't find any directions on how to remove it from the pan and keep it looking nice. The waxed paper worked great. The fudge is pretty good, although my favorite is still the stuff with the marshmallow cream (which I never make, so I guess that doesn't count). I should have made two small wreaths, since one recipe makes a LOT. Doesn't it look pretty?!



I got several other things done today too: the kids and I wrapped all of Robert's stuff (mostly small things); I made French onion soup for dinner; I highlighted my hair tonight. I think I got everything done today that I'd hoped, and for me, that's quite a feat!

Friday catch up

Back to our regular programming today. Have I said how gorgeous it is here?! Another beautiful, sunshiny day. The snow NEVER stays around. Even when the temp is cold, the sun is usually out.

We ended up getting out a bit yesterday. Robert drove me to the mall, where I got my hair cut as planned. It was a big treat for me, done at a "fancy" place. Usually I go to a (good) training salon, which costs about $7. This time, it was the real deal and it cost oh-so-much more. So far, I like it. Robert and the kids like it. But I saw two friends today who didn't even comment! Holly took an "after" photo last night, but I guess the batteries ran out -- again -- because the picture didn't turn up on my camera when it unloaded.

After my haircut, I ran into a couple of stores at the mall, buying some last minute things for the kids. I can't type it here, since Holly sometimes reads my posts! The mall was pretty dead, and shopping was a breeze.

After dinner, Robert dropped me off at the grocery store. The streets were deserted, and the grocery store was dead too. It was the perfect time to shop! Robert and the kids picked me up when I was done. I'm too chicken to take his brand new car out in this kind of weather! (And I'm no fool. If ANYthing happened, he'd find endless pleasure tormenting me about it for the rest of my life!)

Everywhere I went, people were cheerful and friendly. I think they are glad to be able to get out and about after feeling trapped at home for two days. I was just happy to feel like I was getting things done, knowing I wouldn't have to fight the masses this weekend.

This morning, as you've seen, was bright and beautiful. The kids wrapped up their minimal school work for the week and had friends over this afternoon. The boys spent quite a bit of time outdoors, playing in the snow, digging forts, having snowball fights, and finding giant drifts. Later in the afternoon, the girls joined in.

You can't see my side of the garage. It's still blocked with a foot or two of snow, but I didn't need to go anywhere. And yes, I guess I COULD have shoveled what was left out of the way, but it didn't even cross my mind until right this minute!

One of the neighbors drove his little snowblower all around the top of my street street so the mail truck could deliver mail. I've written about our pathetic post office before. I KNOW it's not indicative of the entire USPS. Our poor mail carrier has one of those worthless mail trucks, and even when it snows lightly, she can't get up our street with it. We received three days worth of mail today. (Funny how the guy cutting my hair got to work no problem yesterday, but the USPS couldn't get through . . . maybe it has to do with the fact that the hairdresser makes 3x more money, and believe me, oh yes, he does.)

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There were a few comments posted yesterday that I'll answer here. I think it was QBee who asked if I was done wrapping. When I read the comment this morning, I almost died laughing. I wasn't even close! But today while the kids played, I was able to make significant headway. It's not just presents that we bought, some are from family that we are wrapping for one reason or another (delivered directly to us, or we bought with $$ that was sent, etc.). I'd also run out of gift tags early on. Fortunately, both Robert AND I bought more, so now we have well over 150 (eyes rollling). I still have some more work to do, but I no longer dread Sunday night. I won't be up until all hours, desperately wrapping in the last hours!

There have been several references on various blogs about "wicked" and/or "wikked." I THINK it originated with Dorothy's posting about her "Cool!" vs. her ds Jack's "WIKKED!" For a long time, I've known that saying "Cool!" is NOT cool, but I say it anyway. Trevor also picked up on the "Wicked!" last week from another friend. (TINA, I'm sure this came from Sean!!!) Anyway, I think Jack would be thrilled to know he's made such an impact on our group of SHS blogs, and to know that he has even us (relatively) "old" ladies "across the pond" speaking HIS slang!

QBee also asked if I'd send more pics of Trevor's bedroom (because, she said, "It looks cool or wicked or whatever (LOL)." So here's another shot that shows the wall paper well. It's three different borders: vertical borders for the tree trunks; a white picket fence border along the bottom of the wall that goes up 3 feet from the floor; and the border along the top with the canopy of leaves. He also has a ficus tree in there, and Robert has an airplane hanging from the ceiling.
When we moved here 4.5 years ago, redecorating was a big priority. Trevor's room had mauve colored blinds. Holly's room was baseball themed, white with maroon stripes (not to mention the window that was almost falling out). (We won't talk about the guest room that the former owners used as their dog's sickroom.) Holly's bedroom's awesome, with its incredible view of Pikes Peak and the mountain range. It gets the sun all day long, it's so nicely warm in the winter, almost feeling like a tree house with all the aspen trees outside.
These pictures ARE worth posting. This is not what their rooms usually look like, especially Holly's. Since we usually don't SEE the floor, it doesn't get vacuumed often, but today was an exception. I was so shocked by how quickly she'd cleaned everything up that I literally searched the corners of her closet, wondering if I'd find everything hidden in there! My mom and dad will find this quite hysterical, I'm sure, saying I'm being paid back for my own (lack of) bedroom cleaning habits!

It was a great day. With minimal school, kids over here in the afternoon, it seemed like a Saturday. I'm glad to know I still have two more days before Christmas. Tomorrow I'm planning to spend some time baking ahead. I hope I follow through--it's great to not feel too rushed!