Friday

The kids haven't left the house since skating on Wednesday.  I haven't left since Tuesday night, except for bringing my grandmother to the dentist yesterday.  Here's what happened today:  The living room was turned into blanket houses.


We ate the vanilla mini scones that I made using my new Mini-Scone Pan and the Pioneer Woman's recipe.

We put away all the toys, etc. that they received for Christmas and had been staying downstairs.  Which means they also used a lot of their things today.  Lucy using her new architect kit.


Her cupcake decorating things that she received.






The Tower of Orthanc is completed!




So many little details


Architect kit


Floor plan of a house for Lucy and Amelia


Erector Kit Man

I've been sleeping in each day and relaxing.  I have done very little for school which is fine because my planning was all done for this coming week before vacation, and I will be back into school mode on Monday.

I finally finished my goals for 2014.  The budget has been made and it works (which is always a plus).  A weekly checklist for myself has been created.  I've brought back my old house cleaning schedule to see if we can give it another go.  All I have left is making my meal plan for the week, concentrating mainly on whole foods.

Speaking of food, I made Pork Lettuce Cups for dinner tonight.  I started with a recipe but could tell that it wasn't going to be good, so I fixed it, and EVERY person in our house ate it, and enjoyed it.  Pretty unheard of, especially when lettuce and pork are involved.

I cooked up 2 pounds of ground pork, added some shallots, garlic, ginger, and red pepper.  Then I added in hoisin sauce.  We put it on the lettuce with rice and ate it like a taco, a very messy taco.  Followed by cupcakes for dessert.

We'll see how they like Sausage, Kale, and Cauliflower Pot Pie tomorrow night.

I've caught up on my reading.  I finished all magazines I had laying around.  I organized all the books I want to read into their proper order.  I finished reading Somewhere Inside.  This is written by Lisa and Laura Ling and is the story of Laura's captivity in North Korea.  They take turns telling the story.  Laura's parts were good (because she was the one in N. Korea).  Lisa's parts were pretty boring (how she used her connections to try to get Laura out).  In the end, her connections did work, but it leaves you thinking that if I was captured in N. Korea, I definitely wouldn't be getting out, since I do not have the media and politicians on speed dial.  I don't remember hearing about this at all when it happened in 2009, partly because they kept it very quite for most of the time, and then partly because I apparently didn't read about it. :)

Right now I'm reading David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.  I'm late to jump on the Malcolm Gladwell bandwagon, but I'm so  glad that I have.  Will write more when I have finished the book.

Tomorrow Toby starts his final sessions of "Learn to Play Hockey" if walk in registration works.  Lucy has a basketball game, and life will be back to normal with a normal weekend.  Although we are definitely all feeling relaxed...