Snow-cream

We made snow cream yesterday with some of the 10 inches of snow that fell. After shoveling, I collected 8 cups of the pristine-est snow I could find. Back inside, I separated it into 2 bowls for William and Amelia to mix up.

Then we added to each bowl:
1 cup of half and half
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

It was delicious! Everyone enjoyed it. The only problem was there wasn't really room in the freezer for the container. I just stuck the container out the back door and left it on the deck until after dinner (I planned on letting the kids finish it up). When I came back, the container was completely buried in the snow! I ended up just making more snow cream for everyone!

Pancake pencil

John got to use his Christmas gift yesterday: a pancake pencil! He made letters, dinosaurs, shapes and other UIPS (unidentified pancake shapes). The kids loved it and I even let Gemma in on the action, although I elected to not give her the syrupy part.

Grout, no doubt

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture in our bathroom without showing the messy connected closet or the chaos that is the cabinet missing the door? No? I'll tell you it takes a precise angle!

I completed the grout today- hooray!! The grout is messy and ...messy. I think I have some bruises on my knee caps from kneeling on the hard tile floor for the last three days. I'm so glad to be done!

The room is far from done though. We still need to:
Doors back on cabinet
Paint trim (I'm still undecided)
Put in trim
Clean dust out of cabinets
Reinstall toilet
Reinstall doors x2
Clean up closet and room from tools
Clean bathroom from dust/paint/cement
Discuss shelving/towel holders/cabinet hardware/light fixture situation.

Bathroom redo

The tile is totally installed and the grout is setting. Or curing. Or resting. Or whatever it is that grout does. I didn't realize how big of a room this was until I wasn't even halfway done putting down tile and wanted to quit. Everything hurt and with the kiddos it just wasn't possible to get it all done in one day. Disappointing. John and I tag team a lot, but the time constraints just got to be too much. The mortar needs to be used within 2 hours and then you need fresh stuff.

The way it works is : John mixes mortar for me (FYI: many, many Mordor references were made this week, which was very amusing. Every single time.).

Kelly installs the tiles using the mortar. John is too much an engineer for this job. He likes it to be perfect and will spend too much time on one area. The one area will be perfect, but then wall will be crooked causing John's perfect work to be for naught. Kelly can make it look good enough and isn't so worried about perfection.

John's next job is to cut all the pieces of tile to size for the corners/edges/doors/etc. this is a messy job because a tile saw shoots water for some reason (ask John, I'm sure he can explain. In fact, I'm sure he has explained it to me at least once.). Now that our basement is finished, we don't have a great place inside where he can go and cut tiles. This week it meant John was cutting tiles in the garage. This normally wouldn't be too bad except the temperatures this week were record setting cold. We kept bringing hot water out to keep the saw from freezing and John's giant work light with a heat bulb pointed at the saw. It was still really cold. So cold that John decided he was tired of getting all wet and so he made himself a poncho so he would be drier and warmer.

Last night I helped him clean up in the garage after putting in the last tile and when I picked up a piece of the saw, it stuck to my skin. My hand was damp from cleaning up a bucket of mortar and the metal stuck to my skin. That hasn't happened to me in years! I was so surprised!

Honesty

We are just finishing up lunch when Amelia had a question.


Amelia:hey mom?
Mama: yes Amelia?
Amelia: do you remember the cookies you brought on the pink plate to Charlene's house yesterday for the party with all the people?
Mama: yes, I remember.
Amelia: no one liked the cookies.
Daddy: Amelia!
Mama: (tries not to laugh)
Daddy: how do you know that no one liked them? Those were good cookies mama made!*
Amelia: no. They weren't good. No one liked them. I watched and no one took one when we were at the party. I was right by the plate and no one took one. Lots of people ate the brownies next to our plate. No one liked your cookies mom.

Mama: (still trying not to laugh): that's okay Amelia. Not everyone likes the same thing. I think our pink cookies on the pink plate were so pretty -
It's okay if no one ate them though!

Amelia: no one ate them mom because they didn't like them.
Mama: thanks, I got the point Amelia. Finish your milk now.

*these were a new cookie this year chosen because one of the main ingredients was peppermint. I like to make things with peppermint because I dislike peppermint. Especially in cookies. It is easy for me to stay out of the cookies when they are peppermint!

Sent from my iPhone

William

This never gets old. William sleeps in such bizarre positions sometimes...

Note: I can turn the light on when he is sleeping because he is an awesome sleeper.

This girl

This girl likes the music. She like to push buttons on her radio and I wasn't quite sure how she was getting to it on the dresser in her room.

Answer: pull open the lower drawer and climb up onto the drawer. Then you have full access to wonderful, exciting BUTTONS!