A work week's worth of pictures

Except Monday was a holiday.

The best thing to do on a holiday? Take an afternoon nap. So I did. And when I woke, I came downstairs to find this.



This is the spot where the Christmas tree WAS. John and the kids put everything away while I dozed. What a treat to not have to pack all that stuff away!

On Tuesday, I made pulled pork. It was good. So good that I couldn't wait (aka: forgot) to take a picture before eating. So here's a picture of the dirty Dutch oven instead.



On Wednesday, I walked into my office, looked at the picture that's been on my whiteboard for close to two years, and decided a photograph of this masterpiece was way overdue.



No, I did not provide input for any of the content.

On Thursday, it snowed.



3 inches, maybe? Two more days of school cancelled for the kids. Oh, joy.
I wish it would REALLY snow. Like 6-8 inches, minimum. If we're going to have to deal with all this inconvenience, it might as well be for SOMETHING.

When we were in Singapore the Christmas before last, Becca was fascinated with this waving cats that we saw in stores all the time. I think the cats were supposed to be bringing good luck, or something. Dear Aunt Wee Lim remembered Becca's obsession, and sent her one this week!

So here's lucky cat, waving goodbye to a long week.

A musical weekend for Kathryn

Today she sang "I have a dream" in church in honor of MLK Jr.'s birthday.



This was after she spent 5 hours on Friday and 9.5 hours yesterday singing at the EVSC Honors choir festival. She was one of six kids from her school picked to be in the choir. They put on a fantastic concert at the end of the festival.

Guess it's time to take down the tree

and the rest of the Christmas stuff. We'll probably stall on that long enough to me to take pictures of the newest decorations.

Like this beauty that Rebecca made:

On to project #5

This one had been hibernating for a while; it's not really a mindless, TV watching-conducive knit. But it's so much fun!

I have a little more than two patten repeats done at this point. "Project" 5 is to do two more repeats. I have to break the projects into smaller pieces, because there's no way I could get a whole sweater done in a week. And keep my job, that is.

Someday I'll get pictures of project #1 and 3 up. Becca's scarf on 1/1 was project #2, because I was all gung-ho and started early).

Project #4

is done!

This has been languishing in my closet for 3-4 months, with only the button band to finish and the ends to weave in. I decided that the original button band was too wide, so I unraveled half of it. Then I was too lazy to unravel more so I could make buttonholes, so there aren't any buttons.

I bent the rules of 'take a picture' because my arms aren't long enough to take a decent picture of myself.

Well, ok. Here's one attempt of taking a picture of myself.

January 10-11

January 11: Snow day! We lasted about 5 minutes outside before we decided it was too cold. No, I didn't make a snow angel.



January 10: First day of classes, and my desk shows it. I think I was more or less ready by the time I actually had to teach...

January 7-9

January 9: There were much more interesting pictures I could've taken today, but of course, I forgot. So here is Kathryn, reading OUR new Nook. I should exercise my right as parent and take it from her so I can read, but I'd rather not face her wrath. ;) I love that I can borrow books for the Nook from the library. I'm reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's keeping my interest very well, which can't be said for most books.




January 8: This is the swatch for my next sweater. I love the beautiful variegated red of this yarn. I was so conscientious - knitted a sample swatch, and even washed and dried it before measuring. Unfortunately, it's too big. Back to swatching with smaller needles.



January 7: First snow of the year. I love snow. This snowfall was even better because amazingly, there wasn't a snow delay! Since we live where a 2 inch snowfall can mean 2 cancelled school days, this was completely unexpected.

I'm just not a very good photographer

I guess that's why I usually let John take the pictures.

I'm not sure why, but on a whim, I decided that I would join this challenge to take a picture every day this year. Maybe I just need another thing to not accomplish. But oh well.

So far it's been quite difficult. Mostly because I just forget, then scramble to take some random picture late in the day when the lighting is lousy. At least, that's my excuse. But here's what I have so far:

Jan 6: One ball of a beautiful yarn that I splurged on a little while ago. I'm always drawn to RED. Someday soon it'll be a sweater (see other challenge). Of course, Becca had to be in the picture too.



Jan 5: Lousy picture at the gym. I initially forgot to turn the flash off, but that picture was even darker than this one. And the zoom on this little camera is a bit too wimpy. But hey! Proof that Becca also does gymnastics!



Jan 4: Kathryn spends a LOT of time in this position. Like mama, like daughter. But I have outgrown the pen-chewing.

First day back

calls for an after-school treat?



I think she enjoyed it.

(actually, I was just trying to clear the freezer out a tiny bit.)

Pigs in blankets

Can't remember the last time I made a recipe from America's Test Kitchen and was disappointed. This was from the latest issue of Cook's Country, and involved homemade biscuit dough.

The kids are already asking when we can have them for dinner again.

A new year...

And maybe more blogging? Who knows?

Let's start with this.

Rebecca and her new scarf, which I cast-on and cast-off for today. #1 in my 52 projects in 52 weeks 'resolution' for this year. Starting off easy...