Kim 365

Our kids came home today, after spending the last two days at my mom and dad's house. They LOVE sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's. Today was also special because they went to their friend's birthday party, and came home with balloons and ring pops!

While this was all going on, Clay and I were at the local annual homeschooling conference. We had a great time learning, connecting with friends, and connecting with each other as we are still trying to figure out what this whole homeschooling thing looks like for us.

How My Kids Are Sweet, #87: They are joyous about free stuff, even when it is not for them. Any one of them would be swimming in the shirt that will be coming in the mail, but to them it is a victory just that we are getting it. I guess I have taught them to appreciate a good deal :)

The kids and I stopped at the library this afternoon, because I had requested The Invention of Hugo Cabret and it was ready to be picked up. I know it's a young adult novel, but I don't do much reading for fun lately, so it seemed like a good way to get back into it...until I saw it on the shelf and realized how huge it is! Not to worry, half of it is actually illustrations. Yessss.

I was also thrilled to find All New Square Foot Gardening because I need to figure out how to maximize my tiny yard. I am not a master gardener, but I sure do like trying. And Prairie Feast, written by a local woman who only ate Saskatchewan foods for a year. Sound boring? Anything but!

I don't often have a chance to get a photo of all four kids in the same place, but here they are. Markus is busy crafting a story to go along with his picture, Bailey is arranging magnets on the fridge to hold her picture, Wyatt is making sure Bailey doesn't do something that will require him to step in with his expertise (humbly, of course), and Deacon is taking it all in.

We had our community group over again tonight, and some of the guys had a beer with supper. A favourite beer of Clay's, Black Cat Lager tastes a lot like Guinness. This explains why I'm not a huge fan.

Oh, you know, just being adorable. Pink shirt, pink toque, beautiful long hair, and an ice cream bar as big as her head. It's all in a day's work for Little Miss Bailey.

Until now, my only experience with poached eggs has been those awful Eggs Benedict that make an appearance on every brunch buffet. I am not a fan of brunch buffets, and I am not a fan of their Eggs Benedict.

Making poached eggs has been on my list of things to do for a while, and today I finally did. I don't know why I waited so long: they were delicious and so easy!

Maybe next time I'll make some proper Eggs Benedict with them.

I know the internet is a wealth of information, and there are a billion and one good recipes to be found online. However, I don't like reading my recipe from a screen. Give me a good old fashioned cookbook and I am a happy camper. That and I have a little too much technology A.D.D. to stay focused on the task at hand when I could be checking facebook between adding ingredients to the bowl. Don't overstimulate me!

This couch was supposed to be a temporary thing in our lives. Clay bought it for $100 when we were engaged - 8 years ago. It has reached a sad looking state already, with a tear on one arm, the navy fabric faded to pink in places, and a few baby spit-up stains on the cushions, but it's fine with us at this point in our lives. We'd rather let our kids jump on the couch than be the couch police...why get a nice couch that they can't touch? When they are less like walking tornadoes we will probably upgrade. But for now, we're happy with this comfy old friend.

Today felt like a groundbreaking day in this round of my 365 project...it only took me 335 days to get here.

It has been a bit of a battle for me this time around, to get my photo done everyday. Today I got home, took a load of stuff inside the house, was on my way back to the van to get the kids, and I stopped in my tracks. The snow, glittering in the late afternoon sunlight, was amazing. I ran back into the house to get the camera, thrilled that my photographic eye had finally made a real appearance after a long wait.