Unexpected Journaling

I'm a complex combination of packrat and not-a-packrat. I hate clutter and love shelves and organizational systems. If everything has a place to go when it is not in use, then I'm happy, even if there's a lot of it and it is not always in it's place....

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Good Feeling

Among the several charity organizations for which I knit and donate, Afghans for Afghans is one of the ones I have very warm feelings for. They are a wonderful group of committed, caring people who have figured out a totally non-partisan, peaceful...

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Comfort and Joy

It's Christmas morning and everything is pretty cozy here. After a wonderfully spiritual yet fun-filled Christmas Eve, which is where we really focus on the religious significance of this holiday, Santa made his rounds and everyone seems happy. Our...

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Help to Make the Season Bright

WARNING: This post contains candid scenes from inside my head. I'm not as crazy as House, but...Viewer discretion is advised. My nemesis is sneaking up and lurking in the corner again--D. E. Pression is hanging around and just will not go away. I feel...

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Training has begun

This past Saturday marked 16 weeks till the next race I'm in. My friend and I are going all out. She's never finished a marathon so we are going go for the whole enchilada: 26.2 miles. Yep, I have lost my mind as a matter of fact. But ironically,...

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Another Sick Day

Now Evan has a fever, so maybe the virus has morphed into an infection. Bless his heart. He is taking it like a trooper, though it means we missed the church Christmas party and then will miss church today. The storm never came, which is not a bad...

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Days go by

Evan is sick today. Poor kid. He really wants to go to school, but he's got a miserable sore throat. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), it is not strep. It is the same nasty sinus thing Sam, Eric and I had that involves...

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What Matters

Two of my favorite holiday traditions happened this week: The Ornament Exchange and The Cloverhill Holiday Dinner. They represent friendships that have spanned the years and weathered many ups and downs.The women in the ornament exchange are all among...

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Good Soup

Here was a successful new recipe. The combination of savory, curry and sweet is one of my favorites. This was so good I am glad it made a huge batch. I'll be living off this all week. I am going to freeze some as an experiment. Skip if you're not into...

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Merry Craigslist!

I do love a bargain, and Santa just scored big. Thanks to Craig's List I was able to get two major gift requests for my kids for less than a fraction of what just ONE of them would have cost retail. All I have to do is drive a little, and that's okay--more...

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Cozy

Why I love the first snowy days of the season:Everything inside feels cozy with flakes coming down outside the window.The light is different because of the reflection off of billions of icy crystals.The world is damped to near silence.Time seems to...

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Traditions

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7:30 am and All's Well

I slept in today till 6:30. The house is still quiet an hour later. If I let them, everyone will sleep till at least 9, with the tweeners sleeping even longer. That's when you know they're teenagers or going to be soon. They just love to sleep....

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My Gift to Myself

I just bought my Christmas gift. I went to the store and bought 6 0r 7 pre-made meals: Lasagna, marinated salmon, non-homemade stuffed shells, frozen pizzas, etc. They were not inexpensive, and I could have done the freezer thing, which I often do,...

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Memory Noodles

Whenever I care for someone small during the day, my kids always figure out that fact when they walk in the door and see the toys and books that are still out. The first question is, "Who was over playing today?" Then they ask if the little one is still...

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On the Road Again

Today I went back up to PA to a wonderfully cozy new yarn shop in a little town called Seven Valleys. It was a beautiful drive, just over the border and a few miles off of I-83. The owner was in one of my classes at a conference and now I am going...

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Teachy Monday

Today I taught 3 private lessons. I am enjoying my private students very much. Most come regularly-once or twice a week-just like piano lessons. We talk a lot in an hour of knitting per week--I mean shoot, I don't talk to many of my friends for a...

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Thanksgiving

Here is our "small" Thanksgiving: only 10 people together. Top to bottom is Jakey, Evan, Sophie, Josh, Cheyenne, Sam, Dave, Steph, Me and Eric. The rest of my family was in Tennessee (Mom and Pop; my Sara; Randi, Dave and their three boys), Colorado...

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Not a Ham-grenade, but...

So, Corinne's post about their family ham tradition made me laugh when she explained the name Ham-grenade. Then I opened an email and found this....

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All Sorts

I am waiting for a large amount of photos to upload to Heritage Makers so I can finish our reunion photo book before next week's publishing deadline for Christmas. It will take a while, and I sort of need to hang around to make sure nothing goes wrong,...

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Proud Mom Moment

Here are the latest photos from my missionary, Jeff, or Elder Nuss as he is known in Panama. He has found 4 different candy items in Panama with Nuss in the name (it is German for Nut). He was a Golden Bear in High School, now he'll be known as the...

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Cycling Class

One more thing on my laughably long list of hobbies is cycling. I used to be pretty serious about it. I have two super-nice bikes and all the goofy-looking paraphernalia. I used to have permanent greasy chain marks on my legs all summer. I've even...

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Book Recommendation

Cheri has put this on her blog, but I wanted to add my appreciative second to her choice of parenting book: The Power of Positive Parenting by Glenn I. Latham. He has other books which I love as well:Christlike Parenting: Taking the Pain out of ParentingParenting...

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More Morning Musings

This NY Times article was of interest to me, because of my own theories about the problems associated with the loss of play in childhood. I personally think that the expectation on kids today to grow up so much more quickly is a major issue in educ...

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As a Mormon, this Made Me Laugh

So, a little self-aware humor is always a good thing. This was not originally directed at members of the LDS church, and I certainly intend no disrespect, but as a member of a group that is often accused of being a cult, This cracked me up. ...

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Cross Post, as they say...

This is a cross-post from my knitting blog. I have known for a few weeks, but it just became public recently so I am at liberty to discuss it. It feels right. I feel like something really good will come of this sometime next year.Cloverhill Yarn Shop,...

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A Little Hope From Someone Who Knows

In my wanderings through books and talks and articles today, I came across this quote from President Boyd K. Packer, a beloved leader in the LDS Church:“It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some...

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Busy Day

Yesterday, I felt fine when I woke up, so that was good news, because I had a lot to do. It was all good, so I really didn't want to lose another day. Everything went well. My in-person book group liked the book I had suggested, and it was wedding...

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Time to Count the Blessings

I am not feeling well. I had an incident at the gym this morning during which I almost got to the point of passing out. I didn't go under but I did go very white, according to those who saw me, and I did have to sit still for about 30 minutes before...

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Turn on Those Sad Songs

Just so everyone knows, if you have to say goodbye to someone you love, playing sad songs while you cry on the way home really does help. I belted them out for 20 minutes on Northbound I-95 and by the time I got home, I had experienced a thorough catharsis...

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Trees and Leaves and Times Gone by

The tree across the street has donned its autumn finery again. Here are views of it during this last week of cool weather. It has changed dramatically in the last 7 days. I remember when I put a photo of it in a newsletter for Jeff last year to show...

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A Little Teenage Home Video Fun

Being one of the elder stateswomen of this blogging world, sometimes I don't have things that are super-cute or that evince "Awwww" as the response to share about my kids. There are not so many firsts any more. It is satisfying to say that, yet again,...

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Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge

This is something I signed up for through a link I found on my book-group pal Melissa's blog. I have not done a good job, but I am getting serious about it again. I forgot to post my list of books and have not posted any reviews or anything. But,...

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A New Media Campaign by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I just found these on www.lds.org. I thought they were very powerful. What do you think? They and several others like them are being shown in test markets right now as the new wave of LDS public service spots. There is an article here....

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Where to Begin

Since my last post, the world has turned little bit topsy turvy and I wasn't even around to see it. I have spent the last 4 days or so living a very odd double life. On one hand, I was trying to support my husband in a most trying time through the tenuous...

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The View from Soccer Practice

Here is tonight's sunset captured, amazingly enough, on my phone's camera. I went to take a photo with my trusty sidekick point-n-shoot and discovered that I had forgotten to take the battery out of the charger and actually put it into the camera....

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Turn of the Season

After resorting to actually turning on the air conditioner on Friday, the last two days have been refreshing. It is still a bit hot for my taste, but I can handle the higher temperatures if the humidity is low. Thursday and Friday about did me in,...

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