Tropical Heat Wave

Unbelievable as it seems since it was below zero just a few days ago, today is in the 40's! Mark took the kids outside for over an hour to play and sled and romp in the backyard before lunch. The kids had a blast (especially Julian). Vincent loves being outside, but is a little unsure on his feet trying to walk in the snow. (And my hubby gets an A+ for taking a bunch of pictures for me!)

I can't decide which will be my picture(s) of the day, so I'll decide later and post all my favorites!

Day 31: Playing in the snow

Coffee Treat

Day 30: Medium Fat-Free Mocha Latte with Whip

This morning I met with two dear friends for coffee and conversation. I usually have a plain coffee with fat-free creamer every morning at home, but this morning I had my favorite at the coffee shop. I'm sure adding the whipped cream on top negates the positive benefits of ordering it made with skim milk, but oh well. It's a yummy occasional treat! And of course it's always a treat to sit and chat with friends, especially this morning because all of our kids were either in preschool or kindergarten! Uninterrupted conversation!

Napping and Homework

After I posted my photo for yesterday, I took a picture that I love so much I may have to use two photos for that day! After playing in his room during naptime for quite some time and making a mess, Vincent finally fell asleep and this is what I found:


Today's photo is a shot of Julian doing his homework at the kitchen table before dinner. Even in kindergarten, the kids get weekly homework sent home every Monday to be returned on Friday. The homework is usually fairly easy and is mostly for the kids to get used to doing homework for school. He usually enjoys it and doesn't complain unless he's tired!

Day 29: Julian doing homework

Preschool Fun

Today the director of Vincent's preschool shared a photo of him in class taken within the last few weeks by his teacher. He's doing one of his favorite activities: matching little plastic dinosaurs to their pictures on flashcards. So this has to be my picture for today, even though I didn't take it!

Day 28: Vincent in preschool

My husband and I are just thrilled that our little 2 1/2 year old has adjusted to preschool so quickly and really enjoys it. (Plus, Mommy gets a chunk of time to herself three mornings a week to get things accomplished!)

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

So I didn't take a single picture today! Oops. (The above photo is from a kitchen playdoh session back in September.) Instead of a photo I decided to include a priceless quote from my 5 1/2 year old son, Julian. For quite some time he's told us that when he grows up he wants to be a daddy (how precious is that?!) and an astronaut, but he keeps adding to the list. I told him he'll be in school forever to learn all these skills, but he just takes me literally and says, "Mom, I couldn't be in school FOREVER!" Ah, my logical little guy is a chip off the old block!

I asked my son to repeat his future goals and this is what he said:

Day 27: Julian's aspirations...
"When I grow up I wanna be a daddy and a space man and a treasure hunter -- a land treasure hunter, not sea, land -- a builder, architect, oh yeah, I want to be a doctor. That's it."

Gee, when I was his age all I wanted to be was a cashier at Target (which I never did). That boy aims high! I couldn't be prouder of him -- he's precious.

New Season

Hooray for a new season! Spring? I wish! No, tonight was the start of a new season for my favorite TV show, The Closer. Thus my picture for today:

Day 26: TV shot of the season opener of The Closer

Birthday Celebration and Cleaning

My picture for yesterday (Day 24) is a cute shot of my niece blowing out her birthday candles on her 7th birthday. (I decided not to show it on my blog since it's not my own child.) My brother made her requested dinner of spaghetti, texas toast and salad and her favorite cake: delicious cheesecake. Yum!

Today we spent the morning cleaning. We tried out our new Hoover FloorMate on the hard floors and it works great! Whenever we all clean as a family on the weekends, we always play the same music and it gets everyone motivated and moving. My 5-year-old calls it our "cleaning music". So today I have two pics to represent our morning!

Day 25 (pic 1): Hoover FloorMate in use on our kitchen floor

Day 25 (pic 2): Computer screen grab from iTunes of our "cleaning" music album by Kasabian

Laundry & Handmade Quilts

Well, I'm still diligently taking my daily photos and doing my daily journaling for Project 365 and enjoying it very much. I didn't post yesterday because I took my picture at night and was then too tired to blog. It was one of those days when nothing significant happened and by the end of the day I was doing laundry so that became my picture! Today's picture was easy -- Grandma brought over Vincent's new quilt she made. He loved it and couldn't stop pointing out each and every picture he recognized. It was adorable. She presented Julian's quilt to him a few weeks ago so now both boys have one and seem to love them. I think they're amazing and such special keepsakes. I love handmade items! (Thanks, Mom!)

Day 22: The never-ending laundry


Day 23: Vincent checking out his new quilt

16 Things About Me - 2nd post today

I'm a daily reader of Ali Edwards' blog and today she took on the blogland challenge of writing 16 things about herself. I decided to join in the fun, so here it goes -- 16 random things about me:

1. I drink a cup of coffee every morning with fat-free vanilla creamer. My day just isn't complete without it! It's funny because I used to hate coffee.

2. You know how most people can't stand the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard? Well for me, the worst sound is when people chew on ice. Sends me through the roof!

3. I love the colors blue and green together. And orange with pink. Especially when dabbling with art journals or painting. Those color combos just make me happy.

4. Tomorrow I'll be 23 weeks pregnant with my third child, which came as a total surprise. And although I'm getting excited I will be SO DONE with being pregnant after this one comes!

5. Every night I'm having very vivid and strange dreams. I've had them during every pregnancy. This time around we don't know if we're having a boy or girl so lately many of my dreams are related to having the baby and finding out if I have a third son, or my first daughter.

6. My husband and I watch reruns of Frasier almost every night before bed. Laughing is a good way to end the day.

7. I go through spurts of reading novels. Once I start reading a book, I don't like to be interrupted and could just read all day long if given the opportunity, which of course never happens with two kids around! So I have a stack of books on my bedroom bookshelf just waiting to be read!

8. My younger brother is an officer and a Cobra helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps. Although I couldn't be prouder, it always makes me a bit nervous.

9. One of my favorite movies of recent years is this version of Pride and Prejudice. The silly thing is even though I own the DVD, whenever it's on television I have to watch it! I would watch it every night if it were on!

10. I love being a vegetarian.

11. I'm a food lover, and one of my absolute favorite types of food is Thai food. Yum!

12. I love doing jigsaw puzzles. Growing up I used to do them with my grandma or my mom. We'd sip tea, listen to music, and work a huge 1,000 piece puzzle together. I haven't actually done that in a long time, but I find it very relaxing. It seems it's genetic because my 2-year-old loves working puzzles and is quite good at it, too!

13. I hate cleaning. With a passion. The only way I can get motivated to do it is to crank up the tunes of some of my favorite music.

14. Scrapbooking or dabbling with art journals makes me happy and content. I'm trying to find more time to fit them into my life. Here are a few of my favorite art journal pages from a few years ago:



15. I'm grateful that all four of my kids' grandparents are living, and so nearby, too. I have such fond memories of my own grandparents and miss them dearly. I wish they had lived long enough to see my kids.

16. I've started planning out our weekly dinners. I figure it out on Sunday each week and write them on my kitchen wipe board. It's working out well. Now I'm not panicking at 4:30 realizing I have no idea what to throw on the table for dinner. In the past few weeks I've made: chili with cornbread muffins, blueberry crumble for a dessert, vegetable and tofu ragu with mushroom bulghur pilaf, cheese ravioli, roasted red pepper and tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches, vegetable pasties, and tonight I made sloppy joes (with TVP) and coleslaw.

If you're a blogger and reading this, consider yourself tagged! I would love to read 16 things about YOU!

Triangles & Tunnels

Day 21: Vincent being silly under the couch pillows with his preschool project

Today, on exactly the two-week mark of starting preschool, was the first day that Vincent didn't cry! He had a great day and really seems to love preschool. He did his very first "art" project today with much help from Ms. Betsy, the teacher helper. They used a paper piercer to punch out a triangle, then he glued it onto a piece of paper. He was very proud. And lately he's obsessed with hiding under a bunch of pillows on the couch and saying, "Bye-bye, I'm going in my guggo now!". (Guggo means Tunnel.) So today's picture represents both of these things!

And I just have to say, today I'm feeling so uplifted and super inspired and looking forward to a brighter future for my children.

Barack Obama, 44th president

Today is a momentous day in history. I was glued to the TV this morning while home with my preschooler. Vincent and I played games and had a snack while I watched the inauguration coverage. I couldn't help but get chills and teary eyes as I watched Barack Obama get sworn in as our 44th president, and again during his speech. It really makes me feel proud to be an American today, and proud to be a Democrat. I'm feeling very hopeful. It's about time! BUH-BYE "W"!!!

Day 20: TV shot of Barack Obama getting sworn in as our 44th president

Bunco night

Today there were several opportunities for my daily picture. Vincent had his best day at preschool and seems to be adjusting well. Julian didn't have school because of Martin Luther King day so he and I ran errands and shopped at Archiver's (where he picked out four sets of stickers), had lunch at Noodles together (yum!), and picked up his little brother from preschool, which used to be his own preschool with the same teacher. So I think he enjoyed seeing his teacher (even though he's a bit bashful) and she really enjoyed speaking to him in French. (Julian attends kindergarten at a French Immersion school.) During Vincent's nap I helped Julian do two pages in his personal scrapbook and he chose to do pictures from his 5th birthday last year. Very cute!

I completely forgot to snap a photo during any of this, some of which could've been very cute. So I ended up taking a picture of one of the tables from Bunco this evening, my monthly outing with friends. There was lots of good food, conversation, and fun. Tomorrow my picture will obviously have to do with the inauguration, which I'm super excited about. I'll be glued to the TV!

Day 19: Bunco

Scrappin' time!

Day 18: Scrapbooking with friends

This afternoon I scrapbooked with some of my girlfriends for a few hours, so it had to be my photo of the day. I've been working on a mini album of our family trip to Montréal this past summer and I'm almost done. I'm really happy with how it's turning out and it's been super fun to put together. I'll post some pics when I'm all done.

Foam pit fun!

This afternoon I took my 5-year-old to a birthday party at a fun local gym, Rolly Pollies. The kids always have a blast there. My picture today shows Julian right after he jumped into the big foam pit. Fun! (I realized afterward that I didn't have the flash on so the coloring isn't great. My son's face really isn't that green!)

Day 17: Julian in the foam pit

For dinner tonight I'm meeting with a dear old friend, Julie, whom I've known since 10th grade. We always have a great time chatting and we're eating Thai food so that's always a plus, too! Vegetarian egg rolls and Thom Yum soup with tofu, here I come! I might have to take a picture of that, too!

Bring on the sunshine

Day 16: Pogo kitty basking in the sun

Today is still FRIGID (below zero) and most schools are still closed. And our last energy bill was outrageous. But it's blue skies and very sunny today so we opened up the blinds and let the sunshine help keep the house warm during the day. And Pogo took full advantage of it, basking in the sun on the family room couch. Ahhh. The life. I couldn't resist this being my photo of the day.

On a completely unrelated note, I have a huge fear of flying. It gets worse and worse as I get older, and particularly since I've become a parent. I get sweaty palms, fast pulse, and unconsciously have a death grip on the arm rests upon take-offs and landings (and significant turbulence). I can't imagine what the people on that flight that went down in the Hudson River yesterday were going through. I would've been terrified. But I must say, I only hope every pilot is as skilled and calm as that pilot yesterday. It's totally amazing that everyone made it off that plane safely. Who knew you could make an emergency landing on a river with no working engines? Kudos to him! And I wish he could pilot every single plane I fly on from now on.

Days 14 & 15

Here is yesterday's Harry Potter book photo, along with today's photo, which is simply a computer screen grab from a local TV station's weather report as of 9:00am. I believe they're saying today is the coldest day of the year and may set records throughout the state. Many schools are closed, although my son's is not (but don't tell him!). I'm staying inside today!

Day 14: Photo taken by 5-year-old Julian (notice the finger in front of the lens)

Day 15: Frigid cold today

Baby, it's cold outside!

Okay, it's really really cold! I'm ready for warmth and trees budding and running outside coatless. Bring on the springtime!

For today's photo, I handed the camera over to Julian at bedtime and let him take the picture. Last night was a big night and very exciting to Julian because we started reading a chapter a night from the first book in the Harry Potter series. He's loving it, although interrupting me several times to ask questions that only a five-year-old would ask. So tonight he took a picture of the book, complete with a portion of his finger over the lens. Perfect! Unfortunately, I left the camera in his room and I'm not about to creep in there and risk waking him. So I'll post the photo tomorrow.

My cousin sent me a link to an article listing some of the best "Bushisms". They made me laugh out loud and I just had to share. Enjoy. (Thanks, Jenny!) I'm very much looking forward to next Tuesday's inauguration...

Back to Blogging: Project 365

Yowza, it's been close to a year since I last blogged! I decided to join in on Becky Higgins' Project 365 (even though I wasn't able to get a kit) so I thought this would be a great place to post my daily photos and a good excuse to get back to blogging. I started my daily photos on January 1st so I'll post what I have so far, then try to post them daily from now on. If I'm able to obtain an actual Project 365 Kit of the Month, I'll do that, otherwise I'll buy my own album and divided page protectors and do it on my own. I'll post those finished pages as I do them. In the meantime, I'm keeping my daily photos in a special iPhoto folder on my computer, and journaling daily in a computer file as well, so I'm all caught up in that respect!

Day 1: Playing cards on New Years Day

Day 2: My 20-week ultrasound photos from that day

Day 3: Scrapbooking with Natalie

Day 4: Watching Wall-E at Uncle Gary's

Day 5: Back to kindergarten after the holiday break

Day 6: Spicy tofu & vegetable ragu with mushroom bulghur pilaf for dinner

Day 7: Vincent's very first day of preschool

Day 8: Self-portrait of my belly at 21 weeks pregnant

Day 9: Grandma showing Julian the beautiful quilt she made for him

Day 10: MOMS Night Out dinner

Day 11: Julian's healing broken finger

Day 12: Me running errands on our snowy day

Day 13: Vincent sick with a cold, watching Wall-E (again)