Happy Birthday to Poppa!

January

This is the only book that I read to myself that I finished in January.  I’m enjoying my journey through Mitford the most ever - maybe because I’m creeping ever closer to the main characters’ ages!  

Aunt Terry gave this book to the boys and we enjoyed it. Very quaint. 

I read this to my third graders.  Guess what year it was published. 1938. Lots of fun old-timey things to talk about besides the penguins romping through the house. 

Can’t believe I’d never read this before. I read it to the boys, even though they’d both read it themselves. I was very surprised that I didn’t like it one speck. I thought, this isn’t a children’s book, it’s a book for weirdos by a weirdo. Of course, if you happen to love it, that’s fine by me!  It does have memorable and enduring characters, I’ll give it that. 

Now here’s a great thing from January. Jennifer started up a group, now known as the Goal Gals. Each of us was supposed to pick 5 goals for January and keep track of our progress. At the end of the month, anyone with 100 checks gets together for a celebration. 7 of us, including Laurel, got together at Cracker Barrel at the end of the month, and Jenno was crowned the champion Goal Gal for the month. Ha!  Good times!

Happy Birthday to Eleonora!

Eleonora asked for a cookie cake this year, so I walked into the store to think about buying one instead of making one, and walked out less than 10 minutes later with these puppies and I was so happy!  What a time saver!

We borrowed the balloon inflater that we got Jennifer for Christmas and that was magical as well. Now we just need a balloon tie-er - ouch!

Eleonora said that the theme of this party was “Buddy Birthday”, in honor of our dog, Buddy. 

She invited all the girls in her class, plus Evelyn, our whole family, and three teachers, and she was so excited!



The party girls. 





She received lots of great dog cards and gifts!

We did Perler beads. 

And played a sniffing game. They had to crawl around to different cotton balls in the cabin that were soaked with lemon, orange, or peppermint extract, men’s cologne, ladies’ perfume, or Jergen’s lotion, and when they thought they found it they were supposed to howl. 

They also played ‘What time is it, Mr. Fox?’, only they said Buddy instead. 

A lovely time was had by all. 

Family stayed for supper and a bike presentation from the Grandma. 

Then the Traceys spent the night and got to see our Christmas tree burn. 

We usually burn the family trees at my parents’ on the mountain more around Easter. 

A wee bit terrifying. Just glad the fire department didn’t show up!

All the big boys. 

Cute birthday cup from one of Eleonora’s teachers. 

The King of You?

Eleonora randomly decided to pack a lunch for me to take to school recently and she tucked this note inside. I thought it was the sweetest, but could not figure out how her packing my lunch made her the king of me….can you guess what she meant?  I am THINKING of you.  Too cute!

My applesauce on another day. 

Love that girl!

The Minimal Mom

I’ve been having the best time watching the YouTube videos of the Minimal Mom lately. She’s a mom of four and has the most inspirational tips for decluttering that I’ve ever heard. I’m talking, I usually get rid of about 1,000 things a year, but I’d say in the month I’ve been listening to her I’ve gotten rid of well over 1,000 things, filling up the back of my vehicle with the back seat folded down 5 times!  The point of all this is to reduce the inventory in your house that you have to manage. I am loving it!  This may not sound like a good time to you, but it’s bringing me joy. 

Here’s the toy closet before:

And after:



Before:

After in progress:

This is after I rearranged and decluttered these cabinets.  Sarah of Clover Lane says to organize until you have an empty drawer or shelf and then you’ll have space to put things when the need arises (instead of shoving them in bathtubs and laundry baskets when company is coming!).



Then I found this nifty k-cup organizer to get the pods off the counter. But it’s magnetic so you can still set it out for company. 

Yesterday I dumped out a big bucket of legos for the boys to sort. This is what Josiah sent me.

Anyways, a lot of this fun has been brought to us by snow days and sick days off of school. We have been making the most of them. 

A trip to the WeCare. 

Happy Saturday!

Tuesday Snow-day!