a little snow treat

It's officially spring ... but today was definitely winter-like ... and tomorrow the forecast is currently predicting "30 and snow". I'm sooo longing for a warm and sunny day ... a short sleeves and flip flops day -- I'd consider hibernating until such a day if only it were an option ;) The upside, I guess, is that it's March and not November ... so flip flops won't be too far off :)

Nonetheless, in honor of the snow that is soon to be falling in my yard -- and probably yours too -- I thought I'd share a snowy recipe with you. It's a little bit funny because I got it the idea from a friend who grew up eating this in the South :) She calls it "snow cream" ... but it reminds me of a slushie ... more drink-like than ice-cream-like. You could eat from a bowl ... we drank it from glasses ... either way works :)

Mix together quickly ... one time I used a blender for a couple seconds and another time I just stirred with a spoon ...

4 cups of freshly fallen snow
1 cup of milk (I would recommend 2%)
7 tablespoons of sugar (1/2 c. minus 1 T. ... or you could use the entire 1/2 c.)
a splash of vanilla (about a teaspoon)

Enjoy immediately!

a little office chair

This is in honor of -- "use it up. wear it out. make it do. or do without." -- one of the few things I can still recall from a church we previously attended.

A few weeks ago, Husband mentioned that he needed a new office chair because the armrests were starting to break down -- entropy in action. There was a large divit -- about the size of a man's thumb -- on one armrest. Both sides were splitting some ... and little pieces of black plastic were rubbing off daily. I told Husband that I'd fix it and he laughed -- almost scoffed actually. How was I planning to remedy it??? And when would I even make time to do it??? His response, however, made me want to repair it all the more ...

Anyway, last Wednesday afternoon, Husband happened to be out and about ... and Foofie and I ended up working on his chair. It was a rather spontaneous undertaking -- and just because it seemed like fun at the time. I was curious to see if we could salvage it to Husband's liking. What did we use??? One of my favorite things -- good, old-fashioned, multi-purpose duct tape! We even used piece after little piece and attempted to build out the spot where the divit was. Foofie really enjoyed helping with this project! You know how she loves tape :)

As it turned out, that same evening, when we were driving home from Awana -- and Husband didn't yet know about his duct-taped chair -- Husband told me he had looked at some office chairs while we were at church. "Oh, what timing!" I responded ... "Well, first you need to look at your chair at home again. Foof and I fixed it up today." Unfortunately, I didn't take a before photo ... I never guessed I'd be blogging about this :)
Granted, it's not the most handsome chair -- but Husband was satisfied, if not impressed :) Plus, it has character now ;)

a little 5.66

Here is some Foofie stuff at age 5 and two-thirds.

She almost always cuddles a doll in bed ...
or two ...
Foofie made a facebook page ...
Foofie is currently into "scribing". It began with copying Bible verses over and over and over ... and over and over ... and then she started scribing storybooks as well. She often leaves papers such as this in her trail ...

{She cut up the Bible verses before I got a photo of them ... and stuffed them in various cards and envelopes for some lucky recipients.}
She likes to sew little paper books. She always puts a heart on the cover and titles it "JOURNAL BOOK".
She makes lots of birthday cards ... whether it's even close to your birthday or not makes no difference to Foofie :) Oh ... and she often puts a bar code on her stuff ... see the back of the small card???
And here she is ... growing up much too fast, of course!
I love you, Foofie! Love, Mommy

a little posing

And this little piece of cute is sick again -- he was posing for me a couple days ago :) -- now, however, he is about as sick as I've ever seen one of my kids. He threw up at least ten times yesterday and twice today so far. He has a fever ... is constantly drifting in and out of sleep ... and can't keep anything down :( Praying for his healing ...

a little RRR -- II

Welcome to the second installment of Recent Random Reports ...

I. I was just finally looking at pictures from Christmastime and it turns out that our family Christmas pictures were not so good. But my parents' picture was good :)II. Do you happen to have a Northwestern Bookstores plastic gift card? I have two -- and there isn't a store close by us -- so I haven't been there for a couple/few years. I was thinking of going there recently, however, and was checking online the other day to see if they had some certain books ... and it turns out they've been bought out. I called to see if they would still accept the gift cards ... and was informed that they won't. They supposedly have no way of verifying the balance. Hmmm. Bummer I guess. If you have a paper gift card -- those are newer {a year old or so} -- they might accept it ... I think she said you need a receipt for it though.

III. Halo lost her purse -- so her library card was also missing. She bought a replacement card for two dollars. While we were at the library, Buddy decided to photocopy his library card in case he ever lost his -- since a dime is much cheaper than two dollars :) Then, he tried his paper copy at the checkout scanner and it worked.

IV. Little Buddy's vocabulary has exploded over the past couple of months ... and it's so fun! One night he said "I luh boo" to me -- I love you :) So precious!

V. I don't often have a book to recommend ... but I do today :) A super good book I read recently that most everyone would probably like ... Gods and Kings by Lynn Austen. Excellent storytelling.

VI. I survived helping Buddy write his very first research paper. The subject was Davy Crockett. I'm thinking we'll do a family research paper this summer for extra practice -- Halo, Buddy, and I. Don't mention it to them just yet ;)

VII. A few other forgotten pictures from last fall ...

VIII. Our pal at Chipotle -- the restauranteur, per his business card -- gave Halo and Buddy a tour of the kitchen and whatnot recently. {Those pix are on the phone ... and not so good.} Foofie was a little shy about his offer ... so she stayed behind. He also gave us the inside scoop -- sister and bro-in-law who live up north -- that they're opening up a Chipotle in your neck of the woods this summer :)

IX. I switched over from Google to Bing.