And what were you doing at about 6:40 a.m. today?

I was standing in the kitchen with my three oldest kidlets at that ridiculous hour this morning. The other two had caught the bus and the next two were being chaeuffered (sp?) by the eldest. We were hootin' it up about some absolutely ridiculous Christmas card ideas and all of a sudden I realized that I had two big males in the kitchen with minutes to kill. So I put them to work. Seize the moment kind of thing. Have to do that around here as it just doesn't happen with a schedule. I'm learning. I may be slow, but I'm getting it!

We brought this wooden couch up with us and it has been sitting out on the porch. Great place to catch a nap in the summertime, but recently I saw one for sale on Craig's List and sort of had an "oh shoot" moment at the thought of it being outside. (Like it hasn't been outside for a very long time.) The one on Craig's List looked nearly like this one and was selling for $1500. Time to refinish the thing. I don't know when I'll get around to that as I can't get around to doing much of anything anymore. I digress.

It is now down in the basement. We have moved walls around down there again. I wanted to show you what we're doing down there (at this point in my sentence Blayde wants to say "hi" to everyone .. thanks Blayde!), but I have to wash a wall before I show you a picture. That bad. Duke has been brushing up along the wall and it really looks like it. Ugh. The bright side is I have a counter with cabinets to claim for crafting. Yipee! Better claim it quick before my speedy hubby claims it and moves it out of there! I'll share pictures and explain ... maybe this weekend.

Happy Thursday. I have a staff meeting at 6:30 a.m. which means a brighter and earlier morning than usual. I feel like I could sleep for a month straight right now. This dark stuff starts to get to a person after a while. I spent the day at the dentist. I slept in the dentist chair. I slept in the waiting room. I came home and took a nap for an hour ... and now I'm going back to sleep. Maybe it would help if I went to sleep sometime before 11:30pm and woke up sometime after 5:15 a.m. I doubt it. Dark is dark. We'll just take lots of naps ... I'll take one for you too! By the way, I'm not the only one. Alyx, Brock and Anna have all been sleeping all evening. At least I'm in good company. :)

Done!

A day off tomorrow and I am playing at the dentist with the kids ... all day long.

Right now, I am done for the evening. Hours of doing science stuff with Brock. Really don't care to see anymore fungi or prehistoric birds or fish tonite.

This one probably makes Frans shudder

because I know he doesn't like anything on the refrigerator door ... and this may be just a wee bit of overdoing it!

What on earth do you do with all these things?

• list of phone numbers for each of us
• the turkey with things to be thankful for (at least I'm assuming) in French
• coupons for cereal that I'm never going to remember to bring to the store
• a postcard from Suvis in Finland last summer
• magnets that encourage a person to stop smoking
• a fabulous card from Grandpa
• 2 months worth of church calendar
• insurance cards that should probably be in the cars
• a thank you card for a baby gift .. she really is a cute little girl!
• several school photos from near and far
• buried under all that is the photo from last years Mothers Camp
• a phone number for the Bus Barn ... in case something gets left on the school bus .. let's hope it isn't a child!

I really think it is time to clean that door. It's getting a bit overpowering. Can I just pitch some of the magnets that say Go Marines? Let's see if I can manage to clean that off this week as well.

I am a wee bit tired this morning, but had a wonderful surprise waiting for me this morning when I walked into my bathroom. Roses. They are gorgeous. Special thanks to dear hubby for making my morning!

A lazy Sunday afternoon

Mariah came over for the day on Sunday and the girls headed outside as well.

Fred ran the girls around the yard. Now this one hanging off the back of the machine DOES enjoy hamming it up for the camera. Probably my fault. I'm always snapping pictures of her. :)

Temp in the 30's .. 15 days away from Winter Solstice .. 19 days to Christmas ... 11 days and all my children will officially in the teen years.

Have been lax on the job list again for the past couple weeks. It is up again. With menus. Yesterday we tried something new from the Rockford cookbook. I would much rather the family tells me if it is worth making again. This was in the category of: Make it once a month but not every week. If you're interested, it is called Turkey and Dressing Bake on page 83.

I said before that I'm not doing the traditional Christmas cards this year. We're going to the Cyber Card. I don't know how I can get the Christmas message to everyone on our list, but we're going to try. The challenge is that we still need a picture. When are we going to do that? Must be on a weekend as it is dark when I get home and I really don't want the morning sleepy eyes in the photos.

Am really hoping to pick up a few Christmas gifts this week and call that department good. The boxes went out in the mail on Saturday with the exception of one that needs an address. Our Palmer post office has quite the line. That happens year round unless you manage to hit it just right. At Christmas time, the line of people runs to the back of the post office. I have a little satellite post office where I like to ship things from this time of year. Doesn't help if you have to pick up a package, but no line worked very well for me Saturday.

Oh! I also had an eye appointment at WalMart on Saturday. I got there 30 minutes early and found out that my insurance contracts with people other than them and that an exam would cost me $80. Not. I said Thanks and left. Went to Alaska Eye Care to see if they would take my insurance and they will. Appointment set for January 9th ... the day of Michelle's wedding! Must be more than just the needing reading glasses. My head is starting to hurt from the eye strain somedays. We've been fortunate so far to have none of us needing spectacles.

I must go shag a child or two toward the shower. Happy Monday!

I rarely have any pictures of my boys ...

I don't know what it is about them, but they just don't like to ham it up for the camera.

That's probably one of the reasons I run around taking pictures of snow on the trees. Go figure. Brock let us get a few this weekend. Aren't these kids just something else. Grab an old snow machine ... a tow rope ... a snowboard ... and you're good to go!

One kiddo to drive the sled and the other to watch the rider behind. You'd think they've had some experience at this!

Someone was talking about beautiful white yards of snow the other day. It certainly isn't happening over here. We look like we've got a race track going on in the front yard. :)

Today they were at it again. Weather was a bit warmer out there and the snow is getting nicely packed from all the driving. Brock got 2 old machines from someone who was pitching them. They certainly won't go up a mountain, but they'll work around here for ditch banging.

We certainly need some more snow to make some decent jumps around here.

The headlight gave me great chuckles. Gotta love it. Especially when it gives me shots like this one!

Friday .... aaah.

Houseful of company coming this evening. Dessert is done. Just need to stop at the store on the way home. Was going to have Anna make sloppy joes for dinner. Is there any tomato soup in the cupboard this morning? Nope. Add that to the list of things to pick up on the way home.

House is clean this morning with the exception of the water lines in the toilet bowl and the sink full of dirty dishes. I can live with that. Good thing my eyesight stinks these days. Can't see the rest of it!

Oooh ... it feels so rich.

This is sort of cheating. This isn't showing you the whole bathroom, but enough to know that the walls have paint on them. Jari went to Lowe's the other day and they had a medicine cabinet on clearance for $30 ... and he wasn't sure I'd like it so he didn't buy it. When we went on Monday evening it was gone. Gone!! Home Depot has the same one for over $100. Ugh. They wouldn't price match ... he tried.

After walking the aisles and listing the things we needed ... we came up with an idea at Walmart. Good ole Walmart. We needed a medicine cabinet and really didn't want one that we didn't like. Needed a light fixture and weren't willing to pay what Home Depot or Lowe's wanted for one. What to do? Walmart was on our list of places to stop so we hit those deparments first. Nixed the medicine cabinet idea. I'm going to build one instead. It'll be cute. I promise. Came up with the mirror and a light fixture for less than just the light fixture would have cost at the home improvement stores. Went for the brushed nickel look and it really looks great. So, being as we were saving money, we added the fun toilet paper holder stand. (Oreo hasn't figured it out yet.) And we added a new shower curtain rod. That was sort of in the need category. The other one broke and we were down to using a bright yellow nylon rope. It's fun around here! It is just amazing what a larger mirror can do for a bathroom. Doors, trim and floors yet to go. :)

So it is Thursday evening. I sort of wanted to be on call tonite and am grateful that someone gave it away for me. I'm tired. We have a houseful coming tomorrow evening. House is cleaned and dessert baked for tomorrow. Icing yet to go. I just want to hit the rack and call it a night.

Temp outdoors (in case you wanted to know) is down to about 24 degrees. The wind is avoiding our house and we've had some nice snowfall. Unfortunately for my camera clicking happy self, the world is dark when I leave and dark when I come home. We are back to that season again. It is gorgeous. You'll have to take my word for it. I see it for a smattering of moments every day. Let's hope it is still there on Saturday when the sky is light and I am at home.