Snowy Day...Happy Creative Play...

Another snow swept through our area today. The second one in less than a week, kept us indoors again. We managed to keep busy...very busy!




An early morning photography session of the near blizzard conditions...I understand records are being broken for the area we live in. There hasn't been this much snow in one winter season since the 1800's...not sure of the exact year.



More Valentine's being made...these are for his kindergarten class. Butterflies and birds for the girl's and robots for the boy's.




A yummy crusty bread fresh from the oven...my favorite with butter and honey.



A new crocheted hat was requested...stitched up in about 2 hours. I hadn't crocheted anything for about 23 years! I learned how to knit that long ago and gave up my hook...not intentionally. I learned to crochet at 10 years old and crocheted everything imaginable. I had forgotten how easy, fun, and quick crocheting is.





And last but not least...a beautiful new painting, done together after watching a few painting dvd's. We love the colors. I see many more collaborations in the near future! Happy Day...

Loving Nesting In The Winter...

The truth is I used to dread the onset of the winter months. The last few years however, I have come to love them almost more than summer time, which has always been my absolute favorite season. I honestly don't know what brought on such a change, but I'm guessing it has something to do with having a little one again. He becomes so excited about the snow and the winter holiday's that it is contagious! Not to mention the fact that we have more time for our crafting and artistic endeavors. Oh, and the baking and cooking...always more fun in cooler weather...

The recipe below is one my mom made when I was a little girl, and I have been making it for the last 27 years. It is a very "Simple Potato and Onion Soup", which is absolutely delicious. Hope you will try it out and let me know what you think...


Peel and cut into 3/4" cubes 4 large russet potatoes, as well as peel and dice 2 medium onions.


Place the potato and onion along with a stick of butter or margerine, and 8 cups of water in a 5 to 7 qt. soup pot with lid. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until potatoes are done through and starting to get soft enough that they are getting a bit smaller than they started out.


At this point add 4 cups of whole milk to the soup pot, then in a small bowl measure out 1/4 cup of white corn meal (not yellow it is too sweet), to the cornmeal add about a cup of the hot broth from the soup pot, and whisk until all lumps are gone. Add this corn meal paste to the soup and stir thoroughly to incorporate. Next add the second stick of butter or margerine, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Turn heat down to a simmer and let cook for about 5 minutes with lid on, but do not bring to a boil again. Remove from heat.


The finished soup will have smaller chunks of potato, the onion will have cooked down a bit too, and the soup will be thicker, but not thick just kind of creamy. There are approximately 10 servings. Enjoy!

I have loved this soup my entire life and it is a very budget friendly recipe.

Lazy Winter Days Are The Best...

Worked on this photo project all day long...enjoyed it way too much...it's all I did all day! Lazy snowy winter days are the best...and adding captions to my photos was quite addicting!














The day started off venturing outside for the first time since the big snow fall started on Friday. Someone couldn't even wait five minutes to get dressed in proper snow gear...at one point he was out there in his pj's with flip flops on his feet! You got to love it...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

Today, as the snow quietly and gently covered everything outside, we were at play inside. The electricity went out for about 5 hours, so we were forced to find something to do that did not involve television, wii, or the internet. Oh, how sweet it was. I think we will have regular weekly technology power outages from now on. What a blessing to disconnect from all the electronic devices we so often let occupy our spare time. Here are just a few pics of how the day evolved...

Valentine's were being crafted by little hands...out of newspaper comics, self adhesive cardstock, and stickers...

A randomly striped scarf for my oldest is on the needles. It was intended for a Christmas gift, but was no where near done in time, and of course he needs it right now...

When the weather ouside is frightful...Stay inside and play by the fire...it's so delightful...Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow. I love love love it!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful winter day, too.

Better to Have a Hard Time than No Time...

Okay. It's been a week since we moved my oldest off to college, and I am still alive. We do miss him terribly, but have talked to him daily. We didn't call today. I thought I would give him a chance to call us. Of course, there was no call because I am sure he is thoroughly enjoying being on his own. That's okay because I know we did a good job of raising him to be an independent, strong and self reliant person. So Yay!

Our little guy however has had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to his big brother being gone. The university is 2 1/2 hours away. When we were driving back home last Saturday, he cried and sobbed, and sobbed and cried, the whole drive back! It was heart breaking...I didn't think he would take it so hard. It was an adventure until it came time to leave and he realized his brother wasn't coming back home with us. Honestly, we did not keep it a secret that we were moving him away to college. I know he is 5 but I thought he knew what we were talking about.

Him and I had a very busy day at home today. Homemade scones turned into a full fledged tea with mix matched china, the scones with butter and strawberry jam, a nice pot of tea, and strawberries with whipped cream. All very delicious! After our impromtu tea he headed out with his dad to play in the beautiful snow we got yesterday. All in all it was a very relaxing and very happy day.

My decision to "love the moment" has been serving me well. I am less stressed over things that I normally would fret about. I even had a laugh at work the other day over a moment that normally would have been very infuriating to me. I just keep my new mantra of "love the moment" in the forefront of my mind. I heard my dad say something to a customer on the phone and it was like a lightbulb moment to me...he was listening to a customer complain about how hard he had had it lately and his response to him was, "better to have a hard time than no time". I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it! This is so true...