Daily Comings and Goings

Things have been busy, as usual, filled with all kinds of research of recipes for Trim Healthy Mama, researching moving expenses to help my Mother move out here (possibly) this year, and planning our days.  Mind you, I pretty much plan breakfasts, lunches and dinners, Bible reading time, chore time and fill in the rest with pencil, making adjustments--holding my plans loosely.

As of the first of January we switched chores.  We're gradually lessening our oldest son's chores a bit for when he graduates and gets a full time job for the summer.

One of the pictures I sent to my Mother to show her our kitchen and dining room.  We're hoping she decides soon so we can further our planning.

Another view of the kitchen...

 ...and the other side.

Five hats just like this one made for a little cutie pie.

Rustie has recently been diagnosed with Lyme Disease.  He's been taking medication to get better.

And he has progressively gotten better.  Here he hopped up on Mr. G while we had a night of snuggling and movies.  My youngest just happen to get the perfect shot of Rustie sticking his tongue out.  LOL

And my daughter tried a Beehive hair doo on me.  LOL  I'm not amused here.  LOL

Rustie...what a good dog he is.  And he gave us a bit of a scare.

This is where Biscuit's favorite position of the winter is....snuggling to stay warm.  He's half hairless, so he needs lots of snuggles in the winter and we're happy to oblige.

My new planner my wonderful Mr. G bought me for Christmas...just cuz I love planners.  LOL  This one also has a read the Bible in a year plan that is working out very well, even though I'm a day behind. :D

Snow rolls this morning!  God blessed us with snowballs!  LOL

It was quite a wind that made these things.  Apparently they are very rare.

They're like swiss rolls where they're cylindrical and some are hollow.

Of course, this looks so very much like they are reading opposite sides of the newspaper while Biscuit is in the middle.  LOL  I wasn't thinking that when I took the picture.  I just thought it was neat.  LOL

A very diligent wood splitter.  =O)

Today was our shopping trip day.  We ended up running errands, standing in line a lot more than usual, spending time in Joann Fabrics looking at material and pattern books with my favorite daughter.  We're starting to look for possible ideas for a spring formal dress.  So far she wants a poofy skirt.  The bodice we'll have to adjust.  I'm thinking of making it vs trying to find one to buy.  We'll see though.

I have lost 4.6 pounds in 3 weeks changing my eating habits just a bit by following the Trim Healthy Mama plan.  I love it so far.  I'm amazed at how much better I feel without the sugar and all its forms!  I use Stevia now and although everyone else in the house doesn't like the taste, to me it tastes good for the mere fact that it is healthier for me.  :0)

Have a wonderful day!

God Bless,

Cold Winter Days

When walking out the front door of our house, we look to the left and see this lovely bird feeder that my husband made for us to enjoy all the winter birds who come for a visit.  We watch the little chickadees hopping around in the crunchy brown leftover foliage from last summer far to the left and enjoy their flitting too and fro.  The foliage is left in place from the gardens and flower beds to keep the top soil in place during the rainy time and for the birds when they return to nest in the spring.  To some it looks unsightly and unkept.  We're caring for God's creatures.  :) 

This is my beautiful red maple in our front yard just to the right of the above picture.  She certainly looks like she needs a jacket!  Brrrr! 

The suburban is pretty well covered.  The boys were out uncovering her this morning when we were getting ready to leave for church.  They scraped for quite a while because underneath all this snow was quite the layer of ice!

The dry erase board looks very full of meal plans, grammar and the word "Ventriloquist".  This is pretty much how full it is at the end of a day's worth of work.  This day, we discussed diabetis and how detrimental too many carbohydrates are in the diets of diabetics.  After discussing this above, I set them to colaborating on the first week of dinner menu plans for February using this as a guide.  They did pretty well.

This is how our table looks while doing school every day.  Yes, there is usually a stray bottle of ketchup still on the table from lunch.  LOL  It usually gets put away as soon as they're done writing.  LOL

And...

...when Momma lets them collaborate and walks away to sit down and knit...

...this is what happens...

Winter time means lots of snuggling with Biscuit.  :)

I found a new pattern to try, so I've been working on it too. :)  I've made 2 crocheted dishcloths, 1 knitted dishcloth and 1 crocheted potholder out of this cotton.  It has been so very nice.  I love the flecks of color in it! :)

What do you do in the winter?