Thursday....

What a cool and dreary day today - but I loved the cool! It was the perfect time to make a meatloaf and have the oven on to warm up the house! We also roasted some cauliflower and broccoli to go with it. It seems my kids had roasted cauliflower while up in VT this summer at Aunt Terri's house....and Emily loved it and wanted some! It still makes me smile when I remember growing up we always called them flowers and trees! I have not passed that one onto my kids yet... must do that the next time we have one or the other. Did you every have any special names for veggies when you were growing up? I still crack up when I remember shopping with the kids at the farm stand a few years ago - Aidan wanted carrots (he was maybe 3 or 4), so I picked up some carrots. 'No Mom, I want the green ones!'..... it turns out he wanted asparagus. Silly boy!

I am doing pretty good with my fitbit challenge this week despite my alta needing charging daily. I miss when it would last 5 days.... I've had it for a while so I am sure it is out of warranty. Who knows, maybe Santa will deliver a new one under the tree this year? It stopped counting my steps after bowling and before the quick run into Target today. I'm adding a good 800-1000 steps in my head but.... I got over my 10,000 goal so I am happy. I think I have hit it all but one day this week and between that and drinking lots of water I am finding my energy level is pretty good. Getting a morning walk in is the key.... which will be interesting tomorrow with cold and rain in the forecast. I think I'll just break out the umbrella and walk anyway! Must remember to stretch my achilles though, I can feel it a little so some stretching is in order. I don't want to be limited with my walking for another 5-6 months - that was not fun.

The kids and I just got back from a drive around to look at lights. We have not put our outside ones up yet (hopefully this weekend) but enjoyed driving around and seeing all the lights up in a few neighborhoods. We did a quick stop by a house that is normally all lit up and has their own radio frequency to have the music and lights coordinate.... but they were not lit up tonight! Might be because of the rain...so we will try them tomorrow night. It is very handy - that house is about 1/4 of a mile from us, so handy to go to when I promise lights to the kids but don't want to be out long!

Must go tuck them into bed with their routines... and then I can enjoy some peace and quiet!

Elf on the Shelf...

Have you heard of this little fellow? We got him back in 2012 I believe. He arrives at our house the Friday after Thanksgiving and the kids look forward to him every year. This is a little Santa's helper elf who arrives and keeps an extra eye on the kids this month and is there for them to whisper their Christmas wish to the elf - our's is named Chili - who then passes it along to Santa. He fly's to the north pole each evening and then fly's back to the house. Santa picks him up on Christmas eve as he places the presents under the tree.

Some elves are very creative.... our's just likes to find different spots in the house to hang out! It is so fun to watch the kids each morning search the house to see where Chili landed.... and then the smile with a sparkle in their eye as they find him. Priceless!

This is where he landed today - on top of the hutch in the dining room.

I guess he likes this wall hanging!

This was yesterdays landing spot. Looking at the Christmas tree in the living room.

Tuesday Dec 5.

I was wondering all last evening what I would write about today. Then I saw my rosebush in bloom on my way to scouts and figured I'd post some photos of things blooming in my yard.  Hubby trimmed some overgrown bushes in anticipation of putting up the outside Christmas lights at some point this week. That let me 'find' my roses again and they are blooming!

When I first walk out the door I also have tea olives blooming right now too.

Then in the back of the house - I get the wonderful perfume of night blooming jasmine - there are two bushes - one right outside my bedroom window which I had open for a little bit last night, and one about 6 feet away by the screened in porch. Both are in full bloom and even producing some smell during the day!

I got my walk in this morning and finally prepped my 16 bean soup in the crock pot a little before lunch. They are from a Rainy Day food storage kit and tend to take a really long time to soften. I let them soak for 24 hours and we will see if that helps. If it is not done in time for dinner tonight..... it will work for dinner tomorrow night! I just threw in a smoked ham shank, what was left of some chicken broth in the fridge and some water, an onion, some carrots and celery, a few garlic cloves, some oregano and a few bay leaves. We will see how it turns out.

 Emily has an orthodontist appt after school so she will be having some soft Kraft mac n cheese for her dinner. My fall back is to take the meat off the few chicken legs left and roll them up in some corn tortillas with some re fried beans and cheese and make enchiladas from them! Always good to have a backup plan =).

Have a great afternoon!

Monday, Monday......

The start of a new week! This one looks to be a little calmer - finally! After way too much takeout and fast food meals this past week (and darn that scale that I got on this morning!) it is time to prep and cook meals at home and incorporate more fruits and veggies into all our diets! Emily has requested Cowboy salad from the pioneer woman. Ok, not the healthiest but I think I will change out the dressing and make a broccoli/cauliflower salad as well. We have a few leftover chicken legs I roasted off last night to go with it. Must remember portion sizes!

I am starting off right so far - I got my walk in before work this morning and after dropping off the kids to school.  I work from home - 5 hours a day, 4 days a week as a computer programmer while the kids are in school. A nice egg scramble breakfast with scallion and red pepper and a little cheddar cheese in my ceramic microwave cooker this morning to start off the day. I seem to have used the last keurig coffee this morning.. I am debating making a little amount in the coffee maker... I think it needs to get done. Still recovering from lack of sleep on Saturday night!  Then I'll switch to some water flavored with a baby orange sliced into it. My goal is 20 ounces of water this morning, afternoon and we will see about evening! I also need to do a power zero to keep my salt up. I know, I'm strange and have low sodium levels and boy does that make your head spin when it gets too low!

Since this is a quilty blog..... I did get a little hand work in on Saturday while the kids were bowling. I had most of the star part prepped and just added the white surrounds to these. So glad I keep that baggie and sewing case in my purse, you never know when the opportunity to get a few stitches in will pop up! Time to make some more stars in the car line this afternoon. These are using Inklingo to print the sewing and cutting lines onto the back of the fabric. I love how quick it is to prep things.

So far - 3 posts in 3 days! I wonder what I will find to talk about tomorrow!

Sunday Dec 3....

 I am writing this post ahead in the hopes that I survive the drive in campout with Emily last night! We are seeing Coco with a few girl scout friends (a girl scout event for all the troops in the area!). We have a few from our troop just attending the drive in and one other staying overnight with us. This is the 3rd one Emily and I have done and she loves them. The owner is great and gives us a lot - dinner, popcorn and a refill and drink, tokens for the game room for the girls and then sets up the projector in the back area where we have tents set up and plays movies for us until about 2AM. There will be lots of games, a bonfire with smores and generally lots of fun. He also provides a hot breakfast in the morning!

Yes, I will be wiped out on Sunday... but making memories is worth it (just remind me of this late Sunday night!).

Practice tent set up.

After picking up the tent and packing things up and leaving the place cleaner than when we got there..... I'll stop for coffee on the way home, unload everything and then make some cookies for a cookie swap I am going to around 3PM today. I made the dough in advance and just need to roll it in the powdered sugar and bake them. This is the recipe from the Hershey's cook book.

I'll also make some ginger cookies too... cause they are quick!


I am taking my knitting with me cause Emily asked me to not bring my sewing! Silly girl =). It will be too dark to do sewing... hehehe.

Sunday night will find me unable to move from the recliner (did I mention sleeping in a tent on the ground Saturday?) and maybe I will have the strength and energy to add a few stitches to something. I am thinking some nice crochet on towels to send up to my Mom might be on the agenda.

Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching.

RSC Saturday.....

I have joined up for doing a post a day in December called the 31 day Blog Writing Challenge. You can find out about it here. We will see how I do! I joined up today so I'll shoot for 30 days!

I am finally feeling better after my 2 week cold and just hope my busy weekend doesn't put me back to feeling poorly again.

I made a little progress on the brown BITA blocks. They got the hst's sewn and pressed. Just need to lay these out and sew them into 12 blocks to join the rest of the colors. I think I will have enough at that point to make a nice size quilt....... just need to find time to lay them out and sew them together!
Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

Yes, it has been busy! Yesterday after school I had promised Emily we could do her toes (for a month now!).... we all went for a pedi - including the boy! He loved the massage chair and his feet actually got clean after being in that nice soak for a while!

While at Walmart we got their gingerbread house kits for them to do while out of school for winter break and candy canes for the girl scouts to make some quick reindeer crafts to hand out while caroling on the 11th. Emily and I went to my cooking club last night.... and got home very late for her around 9.
This morning was bowling (with lots of attitude for both tired kids) and a quick trip to the store to get dress clothes for their winter concert on Tuesday. Nothing like waiting for the last minute! Emily could have been fine with her current clothes but the boy needed Sunday best - no jeans, t-shirts or shorts. Yes... he has 2 pairs of jeans and that is it that fits for long pants! This will have to do! Navy pants and he liked the horse on the pocket of this shirt so it came home with us. He will be all tucked in proper on Tuesday night for the concert.

After Grandpa A's visit this afternoon, Grandma H will come pick up the boy for a sleepover (and trip to see Coco) and Emily and I are setting up the tent with Dad as a prep for setting it up tonight at the drive in for a girl scout camp out to see Coco. Hubby is on call so I had to arrange Aidan's care in case he got called to work. Not much sleep tonight I am sure..... then I have a 3PM cookie exchange tomorrow afternoon! Oops.... I guess I need to make some cookies between now and then! Ginger cookies are quick and easy (and I'll think of you Mom!) and then some Chocolate crinkle cookies which need to get started today to get baked off tomorrow. The kids have 2 weeks and 2 days of school left this year before they are off for 2 whole weeks! I swear, it seems like they are never in school! Better go find the tent to make sure I know how to set up and take it down with just Emily's help.
Maybe after that I'll quickly mix the cookie dough and then get a chance to sew a few seams!

Kids....

They each got a little sewing machine time over their week off. Not much.... I was sick with a terrible head cold (that is recurring today - fun stuff!) but they got a little time in.

Aidan made some 4 patches so he has all the parts for one block sewn. He just needs to sew them together. This is Twilight Hopscotch  pattern by Kim Diehl.

 He was busy all week working on his science fair project - they didn't have enough boards for the whole class.... so the top 5 by peer vote moved on to a big poster board. He was one of the 5. It is due tomorrow - he just has to glue things onto his board tonight but all the other writing is completed.

Emily helped lay out her blocks on Friday... we got 3 rows sewn of 12. Progress.
She is home from school today resting. I seem to have passed on the head cold and today is the feeling miserable day. She is relaxing with her iPad watching some shows.