It's been ages since I added any new books to my Shelfari widget, but several people have asked what I've been reading lately, so I finally got around to updating it.
I have not included the "Twilight Saga" books, which I read on my new Kindle (thanks Mom!), but pretty much all of the hardcover books I've read in the last few years are on there now, I think.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A very lazy week!
The girls are off school this week for Presidents' Week (yes, in a ski town, it's called Presidents' Week, not just Presidents' Day!). We have been very, very, VERY lazy this whole week.
Because the girls have been having a lot of trouble getting along lately, I wanted us to stay home and just work on the issue. The first couple of days had some rough patches, but we worked on it and today has just been a joy.
To start with, I stayed up WAY too late last night watching the Olympics... WTG Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso!!!! So I think I crawled into bed at about 2:00 a.m.
The girls were up at about 7:30 this morning, but we've been working on them not having to come get me the instant they wake up, so they actually let me sleep in.
In fact, they fixed their own breakfast and played happily (ecstatically, even!) until at least 10:30. (Seriously, I did not get out of bed until 10:30 this morning... I told you, lazy days!).
And that happy-playing pattern has continued more or less all day today. I haven't been privy to everything they've done today, but the following is a partial list of the activities they have engaged in today:
* built a "snake" out of markers by hooking the markers end to end and dragging the "snake" all over the house, laughing hysterically;
* had some kind of cup-kicking derby that involved all the red plastic drinking cups being stacked up and kicked over repeatedly;
* making a giant foam pit out of the window-seat pillows and jumping off the couch into the foam pit over and over and over (this one even involved getting hurt, but they still kept playing it for close to an hour!)
* an art project involving markers, scissors, paper, glue and hearts
* another art project involving blue creamy crayons, water, paint brushes, paper, and more cutting with scissors
* some kind of swimming game that required them all to put on swimsuits and run all over the house
And now they are happily ensconced in the tv room watching recorded episodes of Martha Speaks.
Sad to say that about the only thing I have accomplished today is reminding them to clean up (which they happily did for a change), and reading an entire The Week cover to cover in pretty much one sitting with my lunch.
A good day? Yeah, I'd say that's a good day. Definitely couldn't live like this every day without going stir crazy, but it's fun to have a "home" day every once in a while!
Because the girls have been having a lot of trouble getting along lately, I wanted us to stay home and just work on the issue. The first couple of days had some rough patches, but we worked on it and today has just been a joy.
To start with, I stayed up WAY too late last night watching the Olympics... WTG Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso!!!! So I think I crawled into bed at about 2:00 a.m.
The girls were up at about 7:30 this morning, but we've been working on them not having to come get me the instant they wake up, so they actually let me sleep in.
In fact, they fixed their own breakfast and played happily (ecstatically, even!) until at least 10:30. (Seriously, I did not get out of bed until 10:30 this morning... I told you, lazy days!).
And that happy-playing pattern has continued more or less all day today. I haven't been privy to everything they've done today, but the following is a partial list of the activities they have engaged in today:
* built a "snake" out of markers by hooking the markers end to end and dragging the "snake" all over the house, laughing hysterically;
* had some kind of cup-kicking derby that involved all the red plastic drinking cups being stacked up and kicked over repeatedly;
* making a giant foam pit out of the window-seat pillows and jumping off the couch into the foam pit over and over and over (this one even involved getting hurt, but they still kept playing it for close to an hour!)
* an art project involving markers, scissors, paper, glue and hearts
* another art project involving blue creamy crayons, water, paint brushes, paper, and more cutting with scissors
* some kind of swimming game that required them all to put on swimsuits and run all over the house
And now they are happily ensconced in the tv room watching recorded episodes of Martha Speaks.
Sad to say that about the only thing I have accomplished today is reminding them to clean up (which they happily did for a change), and reading an entire The Week cover to cover in pretty much one sitting with my lunch.
A good day? Yeah, I'd say that's a good day. Definitely couldn't live like this every day without going stir crazy, but it's fun to have a "home" day every once in a while!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
2010 Vancouver Winter Oympic Games -- Opening Ceremonies
We thought it would be fun for the girls to stay up and watch the Opening Ceremonies for 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Daddy-J and I were part of the 2002 Salt Lake City games, and we didn't see much of the 2006 Torino games because we didn't have TV at the time. So this is our first chance to see the winter Olympics since 2002!
Sadly, the girls made it through some of the preview show and fell asleep about 5 minutes before the Opening Ceremonies actually started.
Nevertheless, Daddy-J and I stayed up and watched the whole thing and enjoyed it thoroughly!
Did anyone not know that The Great One would be the final torch-bearer?!
All-in-all, Vancouver's Opening Ceremonies were understated, welcoming, and very, well, Canadian. Well done VANOC.
Now, if we could just get some cold weather so the alpine skiing events could start! Rain for a downhill, I don't think so!?
Sadly, the girls made it through some of the preview show and fell asleep about 5 minutes before the Opening Ceremonies actually started.
Nevertheless, Daddy-J and I stayed up and watched the whole thing and enjoyed it thoroughly!
Did anyone not know that The Great One would be the final torch-bearer?!
All-in-all, Vancouver's Opening Ceremonies were understated, welcoming, and very, well, Canadian. Well done VANOC.
Now, if we could just get some cold weather so the alpine skiing events could start! Rain for a downhill, I don't think so!?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Campout!
The girls had the most adorable campout tonight. We got home kinda late, 5:30 ish, because Miss D had a "playdate" (yes, that is a totally modern parenting thing... we just played; today's kids have playdates).
The house was chilly this afternoon because of a grey sky (passive solar heating -- miss it when it's gone!), so I suggested we light a fire and eat dinner in front of the fireplace. That lead to the girls wanting their sleeping bags in front of the fire, so of course we went and got those. After dinner they asked for a movie, so I let them watch Tinkerbell.
Daddy came home early to his three girls on the living room floor in their sleeping bags watching Tinkerbell in front of the fire. Cute?!
Now they are supposedly going to sleep in their sleeping bags down in the playroom (Daddy is enforcing sleep time while I write this post).
I don't have any pictures, but I wanted to remember how much fun we all had eating dinner (and popcorn) in front of the fire with the girls in their sleeping bags.
Oh, and Miss D is wearing her brand new swimsuit that came in the mail today, just to put the cute factor completely over the top!
The house was chilly this afternoon because of a grey sky (passive solar heating -- miss it when it's gone!), so I suggested we light a fire and eat dinner in front of the fireplace. That lead to the girls wanting their sleeping bags in front of the fire, so of course we went and got those. After dinner they asked for a movie, so I let them watch Tinkerbell.
Daddy came home early to his three girls on the living room floor in their sleeping bags watching Tinkerbell in front of the fire. Cute?!
Now they are supposedly going to sleep in their sleeping bags down in the playroom (Daddy is enforcing sleep time while I write this post).
I don't have any pictures, but I wanted to remember how much fun we all had eating dinner (and popcorn) in front of the fire with the girls in their sleeping bags.
Oh, and Miss D is wearing her brand new swimsuit that came in the mail today, just to put the cute factor completely over the top!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Cook it in a Cup!
One of the girls (Miss D, I think) received a recipe book called Cook it in a Cup, for Christmas. G'ma Libby and the girls made brownies over the holidays, and they were yummy! We haven't looked at the book since, but the other day when I was meal planning, I pulled it out to see if there were any dinner recipes that I thought my kids would like.
So tonight we made Butternut Squash with Butter and Brown Sugar, and then we made Roasted Broccoli with Garlic and Olive Oil.
Oh. My. Goodness. The butternut squash was just unbelievably good. (I'm going to tweak the recipe to use less butter, and I already halved the brown sugar). K-Wiggles loved the squash. Miss D and M-Moo both tried it, but it may take a few more tries before they like it. Oh, and Costco today had a box of pre-cut butternut squash cubes to make the whole thing even that much easier!
Then everyone loved the broccoli. Such a fun way to make it, and it tasted spectacular. All my girls like broccoli already, but this was just sooooo good.
Highly recommend the cookbook. Pretty cute recipe ideas in there and we will definitely be trying out some more of them. My kids (every kid?) love cooking, even if they don't love the end results every time. It is so fun to put everything together in the kitchen, and Miss D loves that she can now read the recipes, and she's starting to figure out how the fractions work in all the measuring too!
Another this'n'that post.
Things have been quiet at Casa Llamedos since we got back from Florida. The girls have been enjoying school. M-Moo is "this close" to something called getting-her-workbook. It's kind of a big deal for them, marking the transition from 2nd to 3rd year work. Once they can read, and write all their letters, they get a workbook from Educators' Publishing Service. It involves reading and writing and the kids all think it's a big deal, though it's really a small part of the curriculum. M-Moo has been reading for quite a while, but it has taken a bit of work for her to get her writing up to speed for the workbook. (Oddly, her sister Miss D did exactly the same thing at almost precisely the same age).
Miss D has "passed off" on all the language arts work in her classroom. Thankfully, her teacher is on the ball and is meeting with the Elementary teacher today to borrow some Elementary-level language arts works for Miss D so she can continue to be challenged. And K-Wiggles continues to grow, especially in her social skills and math skills, in her happy classroom with Jamy, her great teacher!
All three girls are enjoying ski school on Sundays. Miss D is a solid "black" level skier, able to tackle just about anything on the mountain. Most days, she gets a private lesson because there aren't any other kids her level in the program. We are looking into the possibility of putting her with the Summit Ski Team next year. That is a 16-week program, though, which is a big commitment, as we did 12 last year (too much) and 8 this year (seems to be just about right). We'll see.
M-Moo is a "green" about to advance to a "blue" in her ski school. She is skiing green terrain in control, learning to control speed through turn shape, and doing well getting on the lift independently (poor thing has such short legs it may be a while before she can ride all the lifts by herself!). And K-Wiggles has got herself sorted out and graduated to "green" after a rocky start without the edgie-wedgies.
Mama and Daddy are happy to have their Sundays to ski together. Two weeks ago we had an epic powder day, catching the 1:30 p.m. opening of the 9990 lift and skiing 3-4 runs of untracked waist-deep powder before calling it a day!
On the home front, Mama has been busy purging and organizing. We are making a big effort to get rid of "stuff" this year. It is hard to keep up with the trash going out of here, not to mention the donation bags and boxes. I caved and hired a professional organizer to help me do my mega-pantry. It was money well well spent, I tell ya! My pantry is absolutely dreamy now... just how I always envisioned it. I have done most of our master closet now too, and that is just lovely to be able to see and find all my clothes and to know that everything in my closet is something I like and actually wear! Oh, and I did the master bathroom as well... amazing how many years of accumulated bathroom "stuff" I got rid of!
Daddy has been busy reorganizing things at the business. Good news on that front is that this will be the year that Daddy finally gets to pull back from being down in Salt Lake full time every week. By the end of this year, Daddy should be working from home at least 2 days each week.
I have pictures and videos of random things we've been doing to upload and blog, but, as always, time is the problem. I will get there, eventually!
Miss D has "passed off" on all the language arts work in her classroom. Thankfully, her teacher is on the ball and is meeting with the Elementary teacher today to borrow some Elementary-level language arts works for Miss D so she can continue to be challenged. And K-Wiggles continues to grow, especially in her social skills and math skills, in her happy classroom with Jamy, her great teacher!
All three girls are enjoying ski school on Sundays. Miss D is a solid "black" level skier, able to tackle just about anything on the mountain. Most days, she gets a private lesson because there aren't any other kids her level in the program. We are looking into the possibility of putting her with the Summit Ski Team next year. That is a 16-week program, though, which is a big commitment, as we did 12 last year (too much) and 8 this year (seems to be just about right). We'll see.
M-Moo is a "green" about to advance to a "blue" in her ski school. She is skiing green terrain in control, learning to control speed through turn shape, and doing well getting on the lift independently (poor thing has such short legs it may be a while before she can ride all the lifts by herself!). And K-Wiggles has got herself sorted out and graduated to "green" after a rocky start without the edgie-wedgies.
Mama and Daddy are happy to have their Sundays to ski together. Two weeks ago we had an epic powder day, catching the 1:30 p.m. opening of the 9990 lift and skiing 3-4 runs of untracked waist-deep powder before calling it a day!
On the home front, Mama has been busy purging and organizing. We are making a big effort to get rid of "stuff" this year. It is hard to keep up with the trash going out of here, not to mention the donation bags and boxes. I caved and hired a professional organizer to help me do my mega-pantry. It was money well well spent, I tell ya! My pantry is absolutely dreamy now... just how I always envisioned it. I have done most of our master closet now too, and that is just lovely to be able to see and find all my clothes and to know that everything in my closet is something I like and actually wear! Oh, and I did the master bathroom as well... amazing how many years of accumulated bathroom "stuff" I got rid of!
Daddy has been busy reorganizing things at the business. Good news on that front is that this will be the year that Daddy finally gets to pull back from being down in Salt Lake full time every week. By the end of this year, Daddy should be working from home at least 2 days each week.
I have pictures and videos of random things we've been doing to upload and blog, but, as always, time is the problem. I will get there, eventually!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
