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We have a special day today....
Isaac is turning 5 years old today!
It seems like just a blink since he was this size.
He's a happy, active boy and always has been.
We're so happy that he's closer to us now.
He's just getting bigger every day, and sometimes it seems like it's too darn fast.
So happy birthday to Isaac! We sure love you, buddy!
Baby John arrived yesterday evening. 8 pounds, 7 ounces. I'm excited to go see him.
My hands have been very busy lately, not necessarily doing things I really wanted to do, but more things I had to do. Not quite as fun.
I've started another year of documenting with the Project Life app. Still loving the ease with which I can keep current on our family's history.
This is week 1 and yes, some of the photos are not available for public consumption because they involve dead things. You're welcome.
You've seen most of these stories.
Interestingly, sometimes it takes me a while to get into the groove of taking daily pictures after a new year starts. I think I'm pictured out during the holidays and I have to find a rhythm again. Hence the 14 million pictures of the baby quilt.
Fortunately, the grandkids were here for the weekend. That almost always provides photo fodder.
I sort of thought I would use pictures that didn't appear on my Project Life pages to go in the traveler's notebook/planner...
...but since I haven't yet found my photo-taking rhythm, you get more quilt pictures. This is a work in progress, and I have yet to decide if it's going to be something I continue with. I'm going to change things up a little in February, splitting my to-do planner away from the more creative traveler's notebook and we'll see how that goes, or if I'm just creating busy work for myself.
Surprisingly for me, we had some leftover ham from our Christmas dinner. I was so skeptical about having enough for Christmas, I bought a second ham...which is now in the freezer for Easter. When you have this kind of thing leftover, there's always the dilemma of how to magically create something different-tasting with the same thing. So in my quest to use up the ham, we had scalloped potatoes with ham, split pea soup, and the last few bits in some fried rice. In the middle of this adventure, I decided to go old school. I remember my grandmother making something like this once so I went searching. I found the recipe here after I Googled "leftover ham recipes." I do this type of thing with other leftover meats like roast, and salmon. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that I could do it with ham....and it was good...and definitely Mom Food because it not only old-school, but manufacturing something new out of something else.
Ham Salad
Process ham in a food processor until finely chopped, or mince finely with a knife.
Finely chop egg and combine with ham. Add relish and pepper. Stir in mayonnaise, adding enough to make the ham salad smooth and creamy.
Chill for about an hour before serving to let the flavors blend.
So around here this week.....
There was definitely some cousin time while Marc's family was visiting.
Evan and Marc decided they were going to give their mom a break from cooking for the collective, and decided to do some ribs as well as a reprise of the spicy drumsticks they did last summer. Yeah....see those hot pepper seeds in the rub there? Not for the faint of heart, even though they maintained they toned it way down for us pansy palates. It's always really interesting to hear them smack their lips and sort of groan with the heat while exclaiming, "Man, that's good!"
This has been happening. My husband and I are going to be traveling a bit soon. There will be pictures at some point, but the traveling will be followed closely by more traveling to meet a new grandboy, so if I disappear, know that I'll be back as soon as I can get home and get life put back together.
Sent to me from the kids and grandkids, there were some from Collin of the boys enjoying the snow.
There was enough that Collin got a day off work.
And lastly, this from my sister's letter board. I laughed out loud.
For some reason I thought I had more pictures to put with this part 2 post, but I was in a hurry to get things done before life took over, so I had to go with what I could lay my cursor on quickly.
This is the natural history museum. Shades of "Night at the Museum...."
While they were there, this was one of the, um, cool (?) things they saw. This is not 2 tarantulas. It's a tarantula and its shed. I had no idea they shed their skin? Fur? Whatever. I'm sorry, it's just kind of gross for me, but Collin thought it was really interesting, and I supposed it is....if your into the creepy-crawly.
They got some snow this weekend from the storm that has been making its way across the country. Church was cancelled. I can count on exactly 2 fingers how often that's happened in this neck of the woods in the nearly 30 years we've lived here.
Collin and James headed into the outdoors to check it out, though, after the sun came out. Snow pictures are so great.
I mentioned in a past post that Collin got a new camera and has been doing quite a bit of experimenting with it.
He took his boys to an air and space museum and got a few pictures before Christmas.
One of the space shuttles is in residence.
David was pretty impressed with the size of things.
The Enola Gay lives there as well. He's certainly getting to see lots of history out there.
...while he takes pictures of these cute faces.
The National Botanical Garden has a display with everything made from things found in nature....sort of like the Rose Parade without as many flowers.
There were plenty of things for the boys to look at, other than the camera.
I thought this one was especially geared for our family.
The detail is just incredible, and if you're wondering how it stacks up against the real thing....
He can help you out with that.
So around here this week....
This will be pretty brief.
....and it should probably be filed under "Keeping My Hands Busy."
But it's all I've done for most of the week besides getting some groceries, doing the laundry and getting dinner ready.
I spent most of the week getting the quilt top put together for the new grandson coming at the end of the month. It's the first time I've worked with anything other than squares, rectangles, and the occasional half square triangle, and it was a challenge. It involved a special ruler that may find its way into the garbage after this experience. I did emerge victorious at the end of the process, but it took some doing. The top has been delivered to the quilter and there's a chance I might get it back before I head out there.
Marc's family came for a quick overnighter.
I got this picture of Isaac from my daughter-in-law. She said that 2 minutes before this, Isaac had his pajamas on, and in that short time he'd managed to get himself ready to go. I guess he was pretty anxious to come for a visit. The only problem was that he had to wait longer than he wanted before getting in the car to come over here.
Levi taught himself to flip all the way over...sort of a flipping somersault.
And lastly, this sad picture from my daughter, who got T-boned by someone trying to drive in the exit to a parking lot.
