catching up...again

1) the final Christmas Ornament Casualty Count was much lower than expected.  we had two more victims, for a total of only seven!  the last victim was one of my treasured peppermint wreathes that did not want to be super-glued back together, so the Kitchen Counter Trauma Center had to resort to using scotch tape.  i re-hung him, in all his scotch-taped glory, next to his peppermint friends and plan to keep them up until valentine's day.

2) other christmas stuff...here are photos of the handprint ornaments i referred to in this post (that the boys made and gave to each set of grandparents for christmas).

i was a little bit sad i didn't have the boys make extra ornaments to hang on our own tree but then on christmas morning, graham surprised us by giving us a snowman handprint ornament that he had made at preschool.  it made me so happy!

and here are a couple pictures of the boys on christmas morning...

i love how sweet the boys look.  i hate that we have absolutely zero natural light in our home!  it makes for terribly unnatural colored pictures!!  sigh.

3) skiing - papa, jer and the boys have gone skiing in eldora the past two saturdays.  it's very close to home and very inexpensive.  also, they offer a special "lower mountain" pass which is at discounted rate but only allows you to ski on the green (and a couple blue) runs.  it's perfect for papa & jer at this time while they are still teaching the boys.  i cannot emphasize enough how thrilled we all are that the boys love to ski and that it has been such a therapeutic activity for harrison.  we consider it a huge blessing!  they are not skiing tomorrow as the weather is going to be kuh-old!  instead, we will be at home watching the broncos freeze their tails off!  (and cheering for a win!)

4) harrison's first few days of kindergarten have been good!  he wanted to go back yesterday and again today - and i consider that a great sign!  it is, however, absolutely excruciating trying to get details from him.  yesterday when i picked him up i kept asking questions - basic "tell me about your morning" type questions - and after barely getting any responses out of him he finally said, "can we please stop talking about this?"  double sigh.

5) i finally got to sit down and pow-wow with mrs. brown, harrison's new teacher.  she seems like a lovely person and a loving teacher.  i get the impression harrison is fitting right in and is definitely at, or above, the academic level of his peers.  even in handwriting!  even better news is that the way the curriculum is designed is perfect for encouraging and teaching appropriate peer conversation/interaction.  students are paired up with a different buddy each week - an easy way for harrison to get to know his classmates and a low-pressure way to interact with them!  i'm feeling very at peace with our decision to send him there.

6) i had a serendipitous surprise last week.  when our neighbors came over for dinner i made beef stew.  somehow i got it in my head that it would be better to make mashed potatoes instead of putting chunks of potato in the stew.  i had a memory of jeremy ordering beef stew, served over mashed potatoes, at a restaurant and, that way, at least my boys would eat the mashed potatoes...because there's no way they would touch the potato chunks.  so, i made mashed potatoes.  then shortly before our friends arrived i realized it wasn't beef stew jeremy had ordered at the restaurant, it was pot roast.  i mean, of course it was pot roast!  because who puts beef stew over mashed potatoes?!  well, i am here to tell you that jeremy has ordered me to serve beef stew over mashed potatoes from this day forward.  and this particular recipe for beef stew was a big win with his incredibly discriminating taste buds!  he raved about it.  i hacked this pioneer woman recipe and made it my own.  i'll share my version another time.  but i won't be sharing beautiful pioneer woman photos because a) how in the world does she find time to take photos while cooking?  i can barely find time to cook! and b) we've already discussed my home's lighting issues.

7)  it seems as though i have so much more to mention, but am drawing a blank at the moment.  so i'll leave you with another real life conversation, which may or may not have occurred in this very house...

the scene:  a couple is in the kitchen in the morning.  hurriedly sipping coffee, packing snacks into backpacks, rinsing dishes.  the wife is wearing black yoga pants and a long sleeve t-shirt, no makeup, hair in ponytail.

husband:  baby, you look so cute this morning.

wife:  i sure married the right man!

husband:  why's that?

wife:  because you think i look cute in sweats.  actually, i think every time you tell me i look cute i've been wearing sweats.

husband:  that's because you never wear anything else.



hope you have a fantastic weekend!  go broncos!