A New Way In

Several weeks ago Jim started on the project to put a new door into the garage from outside the front of the house. It involved tearing out the brick planters in the front of our big picture window and cutting out the brick from the garage wall.  

When Jim redid the garage last spring before graduation, he framed out the door ready for this and sheetrocked over it.  So, now all he had to do was cut out the sheetrock on the inside and install the door. 

Jim had a friend come and help with the finish brick work around the door and learned well enough to finish it himself.

Old Stories

I could say we are one-sixth done with the year but keeping that up will soon get depressing.  I have been spending the last half of the month sorting through all the doubles of the photographs I've saved from the days we took film in to be developed and received back again negatives and two of each photo. 

I also sorted through a bunch of old photos from my childhood, discarding the bad ones and some there were too many of, sorting many that need new homes, and finding in them some more projects for me.  

I've been viewing photos, not taking them.  One of the things I ran across was this little book with proofs of some of my earliest photos.  

These were taken one month before I was a year old.  

The book I found them in was, well...

just plumb cute 

and held together by a red metal binder thingy.

These were taken back in the days when a photographer would set up shop in JC Penney's and everyone would come get photos of their kids.   

There wouldn't be any specific "one year" photos, you got photos when the photographer was there. 

The order form is interesting, especially the prices.

And here I am...

The first photo of the next group is the one that I've seen around.  I don't have it, I hope Mom still does. 

Valentine's Day

Which was yesterday, but this is what we did with the weekend.  I'm getting less interested in celebrating holidays on the day specified.  I do so many things in a week, and just trying to keep up with regular housekeeping after the few outside things I do (babysitting and knitting group) that I get so tired just thinking these days and trying to keep ahead.  I would like to get to more de-cluttering, but it is only a very little at a time project at the moment.

Besides, one of my friends has a daughter that said... 

"Because we love each other we don't have to celebrate only one day a year.  We can celebrate every day!" I like that idea,says her mom, and I like it, too. 

Even though Jim has never been much of a "let's spend lots of money on candy and flowers for Valentine's Day" guy, he would do it if I reminded him.  I don't need flowers and candy to know he loves me.  He gets my water when I am tired and too lazy to get it. He makes me cocoa after a long day to have with my snack.  He makes supper on the days I just can't find the energy to do it.  He makes gooey scrambled eggs just the way I like them.  

He does lots of things for me, and I am thankful every day.  

So, what did we do Valentine's weekend?

We went skiing.  Well, everyone else went skiing, I just went.

This is the weekend our public school has parent teacher conferences so when the kids were younger we went to Wyoming to ski on that weekend for years.  As time went on and grandchildren came and kids grew up, and I had cancer, things changed and I didn't always go, and Jim would take Lynette and go at different times and with other friends.  

But, this year it worked out, that this was the weekend.  

And I came along.  I was looking forward to a day in the motel, working on projects all by myself.  I made a bunch of cards I had ready for gluing and put some old photos in an album.  I knitted some, read some, and ate some of the red velvet cake I brought along (with cocoa).  

The second day Jim took Lynette and Anthony up to the mountain and came back again to spend the day with me.  We drove around and went to a few stores and had some lunch and went back up the mountain to wait until they were done.  

I love this house!!

Looking over Laramie.

Jim is lucky to have a wife that likes looking around farm stores. 

On the road to Snowy Range. 

Skiers, way too busy having fun to have a photo. 

Before we left for the weekend, we went to see Zane do his cup -stacking during the halftime of the basketball game.  The "little stackers" as they are called, practice twice a month after school.  This time, the group did a relay race, stacking and gathering up both big and little cups.  

One-Twelfth Gone

Here it is the first of February.  

My poor husband is outside in 5 degree weather moving snow, in the wind.  He started out with the tractor that has no cab, but it is so cold, he went to get the skid loader that has a cab and moved snow at the shop, before coming back to do a few more neighboring driveways.

You know, he really wouldn't have to do that.  It's freezing cold out there. Yes, we get money for it, but not very much. Some of the work if for favors received.  He does this because he is a nice guy and he likes driving equipment.

After several days of 40 degree highs, then 50 degree highs, then 60 degree highs, and then a 70 degree high day.  We were loving it.  

Now we have plunged back into the arctic regions and the start of a new month.  

Going back to January, however, I have a few stories to tell.

I go take care of  the boys on Wednesdays this semester while my daughter goes to class.  She's had a few volunteer days where the little boys come to me.  

My lovely huge picture window in the front of my house is a great place to view the birds, the neighbors, the sunset and the weather.  The kids always liked to watch for Dad to come, and the grandkids like to watch the outside, too.  

However, it complicates picture taking with all the light coming in.  But, I take them anyway.  We had a table set up by the window to do puzzles on and the boys loved to be up on it.

Barry

 Christian...

...makes a really cute lump.

I know this photo was in my day by day.  This picture shows the whole yellow mirror that matches my yellow wall,  I told that story here (the last day.)

How much I love my sunrises.  We had a rainbow sunrise this morning.

I was cleaning out a closet the other day.  I was looking for my 80's prairie blouse with the side button and ruffles that was in the dress up box.  I found it, cleaned out the closet, threw out a bunch of the dress up clothes, and made room in there for some of the things lying around the basement.  

I also found this: 

There is a story behind this skirt and it is a bittersweet memory.  I was 13 years old and "everyone" was wearing long dresses to the Christmas concert that year and I wanted one.  I wanted one badly.  And I made a nuisance out of myself begging for one.  

It was the first time I made my mother cry.

(The only other time that happened,  I also wanted something really bad, and I played dirty pool on that one and it isn't a pleasant memory.)

I didn't understand then that Mom really didn't have the money to get me a new dress.  She obviously didn't even have the money to buy material to make one.  This material was some leftover in her stash.  She used a pantyhose top for the elastic and Velcro instead of a zipper.  

The sweet thing is, I loved this skirt.  I was so happy to have a long dress to fit in with the other girls in my class.  I wore it proudly to that concert with my homemade curls that soon fell out.  (My hair didn't take well to curls.) 

A good rule of thumb is to only keep things that make us feel good.  I'm not sure whether this falls in that category or not.  My mom made this for me out of the best that she had, and I loved it. 

Our garage still looks nice. (I cropped out the mess at the back of the garage since we don't have shelves in yet.)  And so does the load of wood for the fireplace. Jim went wood-cutting with the our neighbor.

The afterglow is just as pretty as the sunset sometimes.  

Day by Day--December

The Last One

I love these day by days but, it is taking an increasing amount of time to sort and crop these photos, and I don't want to take it.  

I also want to do some other things with the blog next year.  The most important being doing it.  

I've really spent the last year self-medicating with knitting and it is time to be doing some other things.  

This month some of the photos are taken for their story value and remembrances from other years.

December

7. Pearl Harbor Day--Lest we forget.

8. I've worn out these slippers, my toes are nearly poking through.  I love these little ballerina slippers, the best thing for wearing in the house, year round.

9. New baby afghan

10. My baby is a college student!  Of course, she has been one for several months.  I was really digging for a photo.

11. Kindergarten/Preschool Christmas Concert. Zane is in the lavender shirt

12 Mousetrap.  I loved this game as a kid.  It was all green plastic back then. I used to set it up in the upstairs bathroom.  I seem to remember playing a lot of games and reading comics in that bathroom. Some of those things I probably wasn't supposed to be doing.  

13. Home is where the story begins.  A gift from a very good friend.
14. Soap in wool.  Interesting. It scrubs well, but the jury is still out on this one.
15.This is a mini meat grinder.  I remember my mom often getting hers (full size) out, clamping it to the bread board and grinding meat for sandwiches, she used it for other things, too.
16. Who wouldn't want a mug with grandchildren on it!
17. Hole reinforcers.  These are really old, from when I kept lots of stuff in binders.  I just used them to help my 27 year old cookbook, and to make cute tags.
18. This says "Auntie Shelley".  Tiny thank you cards are cuter than any other kind.
19.  New scarf pinned with a pin I made from old family buttons.
20. A frosty morning.
21. With our humongous potato crop this year, I have rediscovered hashbrowns.  I have also discovered that cooking them in an old electric skillet with a broken handle is difficult so I am retiring this very useful wedding gift, and bought a new one.
22. A sunrise is the most beautiful when there are a few clouds.
23. Lynette is home again. Complete with personal coffee pot.  I think going to college has corrupted her.
24. Venison pot pie, homemade by said daughter.
25. This really isn't a very good photo.  But, what was in the skillet was very good.  Fried potatoes and eggs was a common Sunday evening meal, one that went back a generation.
26. This was a pinterest try.  Cinnamon roll pancakes, not easy, but doable and pretty good.
27. SPAM, I know people scorn this stuff.  I remember eating and enjoying it as a kid.  Mom would slice it, spread it with pineapple and broil it. My sister-in-law says the only kind to by the spam brand.
28. Snow again.  But the colors that morning were wonderful. It was nice to see the sun after many gray weeks.
29. This is a new sudoku game with colored balls.  The warning label says, "Toy contains a small ball, Not for children under 3 years of age."
30. I've got a daughter ready for world travel.
31. Hot cocoa mix makes a great gift.  It's the way I sog up most of my treats.  Thank you SIL.

January
1. Chocolate frosted cookies.  They are little mini fudge frosted cakes.  They were also my favorite cookies of all time.  I ate more chocolate chip cookies, but they aren't as time consuming.  Sadly, they don't taste the same, but they are my dad's favorite, so I made a batch when my folks were here for a visit.
2. Lynette was getting bored--therefore lemon meringue pie.
3. Aunt Inez's doll has found her way to us.  (I made the dress long ago to match a little girl's dress)
4. Celebrating birthdays, Lorene and Zane. This present was useful and loved, albeit non-traditional.  Taco dip, complete with chips.
5. Another sunrise, but such beautiful colors!
6. These cold days I have been glad for wool slippers,  Holey ballerina slippers have been retired until spring or a new pair is found.
7. This violin has hung on the wall about my piano for about 20 years.  After my sister-in-law painted on her visit over Christmas vacation, I gave it a new home. Outside my house.
8. Crocheted kitchen towel holder.  It works, the towel doesn't fall off the stove handle.  Otherwise, it is kind of an "meh" project.  Needs refined somehow,.
9. Jim has cut a hole through the garage wall to the outside.  It's a project he's wanted to do for a long time.  The door was put in the same day.
10. The yellow mirror used to be white.  I painted it in honor of the freshly painted walls.  The doll has a story. A very long time ago, when a little girl was about 5 years old, she wanted her daddy to take her to Hobby Lobby to get a gift for mommy's birthday. They looked all over the store for a "glass doll".  She had seen one another time in that store.  They asked for help, and finally after much fruitless looking they were getting ready to take their disappointment home when they passed this doll on display.  "There it is!", my daughter yelled. It was the last one left and they took it home and gave it to me for my birthday.  I love it for all those reasons, and especially since it is a blonde, green-eyed doll.  Just like the dolly that picked it out for me.  Her name is Ivy Lynette.  Lynette chose the Lynette part, and Nathan chose the Ivy part.  I just wish I knew where his head was at that time.  It seemed such an unexpected choice.

Another Year Older

I was reading the other day how important it is to sort your digital photos often. Presumably so they don't start multiplying in the hard drive like rabbits.  

 The article gave sorting options and advice and reminded us to delete the fuzzy ones and those that are "seriously, just how many pictures do you need of that one person?"

I really do try to every month or so, to download the photos off my cameras, sort them into folders by date, rename them something besides DSC546941641321, and delete the ones that are out-of-focus and too much like the other 43 I have of that event.  

Sadly, I usually keep about 40 of them.  

Zane turned six on the last day of the year and his mama turned another year older on the 3rd.  

So, we had a party.  He asked for angel food cake long ago for his birthday and Lorene was all for it too,  unfrosted.  There was a problem, however, how should I stick birthday candles onto an nfrosted cake.  I mean, Mamas can get by without needing to blow out a great many candles, but 6-year olds just have to, for the photo opportunities if nothing else.

So, I made a layer cake.  I used my old easy bake oven pan, (I only have one, so I had to do the layers one at a time.), frosted it, decorated it with a skate boarding Lego man and stuck in the candles.  Voila!

(In a later photo you will see an unfrosted angel food cake in the background.)

Here is where the saving of too many photos comes in.  

I don't have a very good camera.  I have one that takes pretty good still photos and has a great zoom and I have another that can be depended on to take fairly good photos of real life,  Perhaps if I left the pretty good camera on 'action' all the time the boys are around I would have better luck, but then half the time the color is off.  Even though I used my better camera in these shots, there is often a fuzzy spot, but the rest of the photo is good.  

 Zane is "reading" his card.  I like this one because he looks like such a big kid.

 Look at Zane grab the tissue out with exuberance.

I like this one because Barry is talking to his Mama. 

And this one because of the smile on Zane's face. 

And the smile on Christian's face. 

And the two boys together.  

And Zane looking over to see what Mom has, (of course, with Zane whatever he has is fuzzy.) 

And Zane's smile in this one, too. 

And Lorene's pleasure with her plate of taco dip... 

...even though her smile is better in this one. 

Watch the balloon.

It's bigger. 

We have to have the candle blowing ceremony. 

Playing games, together, 

and alone. 

That boys loves his Legos, and I love my photos.