Gratitude

This is what I made for dinner last night.

This is what Junior said when I asked him to say the blessing: "Thank you for this gross soup."

Cooking Blog

I started a cooking blog this month. If you are interested you can check it out here.

The Remains of Lunch and The Color Green

Head Injury Haiku

Spry brother grabs hand

Pulls onto corner of wall

Crying, goose egg blooms.

Happy 90th!

The Ice Cream Grandma turned 90 last week.

Yowza--90!!

She probably has about twenty good years ahead of her.

Isn't she adorable? And still sharp as a tack. She can cream anyone at Jeopardy so watch out.

Here are a few tidbits about the Ice Cream Grandma:
She loves the name Ginger and will answer to it with a smile.
She is a great granddaughter of Brigham Young (an early Mormon prophet).
She worked as a secretary at Stanford University for 16 years.
She worked as a secretary in the Philippines for the army during World War II.
She graduated from LDS Business College and got a B.A. in English and Secondary Education from BYU.
She loves to play the "Do you know so-and-so?" game and find connections with people--and she often does.
She takes copious notes of every phone call in their home (time, date, person, subject).
She loves to serve ice cream.
She loves to eat ice cream!

Here are a few tidbits of what was going on in the world in 1920:
Isaac Asimov, Maureen O'Hara, and Mickey Rooney were born.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (Prohibition) went into effect just two days after Grandma's birth.
The Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was passed (Women's Suffrage).
It was announced that Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees.
The Bauhaus had been open for a year.
World War I had ended two years before.
Hitler,on the cusp of his rise to power, began full time participation in the National Socialist German Workers Party and made his first public political speech.
Commercial radio broadcasting began.
Movies (silent until the later 20's) were very popular.

What amazing things she has been through! We are grateful to have her in our lives.

Weird, Wild Stuff

This interesting (wacko, unique) thing was a gift from the Silly Grandma. It is further evidence of why the boys have so dubbed their grandmother.



I don't even know what to call it. The Fuzzy Pink Alien? The Singing Pink Poof? The Dancing Fur Ball? Any more ideas? Well, whatever it is, it's been quite entertaining.

The Peeping Tom

Napoleon was fond of peeking in windows.

(Can anybody name that book? It's my absolute favorite children's book.)

Since his mousing days are over due to his leg injury (temporarily, I presume) Napoleon's current favorite pastime is to gaze in upon us through this window. He can be seen sitting here for many hours of the day.

I wonder if we entertain him. What meaning does he attribute to our behavior? What is it that cats think about all day?

Sometimes I like to have staring contests with him. I always win. He needs to know who is dominant.

Sometimes he does this to get our attention. "I could use a little food, ya know?"

Then he resumes his usual nonchalance.

Experiment Update

Back in October we began an experiment to see if we would have less (or no) illness if we supplemented with vitamin D. Since we are about halfway through the time of year that our family typically experiences a lot of illness, I figure it's time to give a report on how this is going.

Here is the rundown: since we began supplementation, everyone has had at least one illness and Eggs on Toast and Buttermilk Sky have been ill twice. Each boy has had a mild sore throat with a cough that lasted about a week. Eggs and Buttermilk each had a separate bout with something that was like a cold with a runny nose. Brandon and I have both had some intestinal thing. So we have all had something, however, it was all mild.

In conclusion, I would say that the vitamin D is definitely working because this is much less illness than we usually have. Normally all of us would have had at least one illness that involved some or all of the following: a high fever, throwing up, achiness, and sleeping in bed for several days. As for me, personally, I don't think I have ever been this healthy for this long. I am excited to see how we fare during the last half of the winter. So, to be continued...

The Neologist(s)

Today Junior informed me of a couple of words and their definitions that I was not aware of.


=selfish

Definition: A fish cell phone.


=bumocks

Definition: A more (shall we say) "polite" version of the word: "buttocks".

Usage: The (shall we say) "politeness" does not carry over into the usage of this word as it is no longer used to describe a body part but is used for name calling purposes. For example: "You bumocks!"


PS. Upon further investigation, I have discovered that Eggs on Toast was the author of the word, "bumocks". I just want to be sure that I give credit where credit is due.

Pious Pictures

The boys drew these pictures during church on Sunday.

First, there was this robot by Onion Ring. (To view detail, click on the image to enlarge.)

Then there was this robot by Buttermilk Sky.

And this robot by Junior.

Then, hark! Not a robot but a map by Eggs on Toast. Eggs has been drawing maps for the past two years and not just a few here and there, but many, many maps which he then crumples up and rolls up to appear aged. Interestingly, his great grandfather (the Ice Cream Grandpa) was a map maker by profession.

So now you know what church meetings inspire in our boys.

Lastly, here is an example of artwork from two Sundays ago. Aside from maps, Eggs specializes in monsters.

Should I be worried?