Tall, Decaf, Sugar-Free Vanilla Latte

Much of my afternoon and evening was spent schlepping kids around shopping--the boys to a Toys R Us and Costco, then later the girl to Kohls while Ben was at karate. Something about all that shopping suggested I had earned a latte. It was, at any rate, a pleasant end to the day.

Camera

This is my camera. I took the picture with the camera phone you can see in the LCD screen. The flip-out LCD screen is probably my favorite feature on this camera; it is especially handy for self-portraits. The camera phone takes pretty decent pictures as well, for a camera phone, and several of my Project 365 photos, obviously including this one, were taken with it, since it is easier to carry with me than the Canon.

Overnight Snowfall

This is the pretty scene we woke up to this morning. Most winters, by late February we'd be pretty tired of snow, but this is the best snow we've had yet.

Life

Sunday afternoon's game of Life. I won the Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, and invented a new ice cream flavor; I also beat the pants off all three kids.

Home Ec

Aimée did the cooking tonight--lasagna and garlic bread and salad. It was delicious, all the more so because I didn't have to do the cooking.

Party

Our informal homeschooling group celebrated a birthday this afternoon with quite a lineup of party games followed by huge portions of cake and ice cream. In this picture they are making "snowmen" of the two youngest kids (the birthday boy is the snowman in the background).

Salon Shelves

I got my hair cut today. I am pretty shy about using a camera in public places where cameras aren't often seen, but I screwed up my courage for this picture.

Big Legs

I drove home from delivering Aimée to a babysitting job a few towns away, taking some back roads in hopes of a lovely scenic picture for today. I stopped at one point and took a whole series of boring landscapes, but I liked this startling sight quite a bit better.

Apparently these are Paul Bunyan's legs. I have no idea what happened to the rest of him, but this web site identifies him as a Paul Bunyan "muffler man" who used to serve as a flagpole. OK!

My Favorite Appliance

I start every day with coffee. I like good, strong coffee with some half and half, no sugar. Sometimes late in the day I'll have some sugar-free syrup (I buy DaVinci sugar-free syrups) in my coffee for a treat.

Blue Belt

Ben was awarded his blue belt in karate this evening. He has been working toward this for a year, so it is no small accomplishment. He's very happy, and his parents are very proud.

Sunday Reading

This is the book I finished Sunday afternoon along with my tin of Book Darts. Since the book is borrowed, I marked the most thought-provoking passages with these little metal line markers. I will go back through the book and type out the quotes I want to save before I return the book to its owner.

Heat!

It has been an interesting 24 hours! Friday afternoon we learned that our furnace needed to be replaced; at first we were told we'd have to wait until Monday, but the heating people were able to be convinced to do it Saturday instead, at no inconsiderable cost to us, naturally. We spent the night Friday with dear friends (you know who you are, and we are so grateful!) and now, Saturday evening, we have a running furnace with its own new thermostat, pictured above. We are tired and discombobulated by the upset schedule, but so grateful for warmth and shelter and friends we can count on--those we stayed with and those whose gracious invitations we turned down.

Donut School

Thursday night our furnace stopped working, so we awoke Friday to a pretty cold house. I took the boys to Dunkin Donuts to do school, which was novel.

Some Snow

The big Valentine's Day storm in the northeast brought us mostly sleet and freezing rain, but we do have a couple inches of hard-packed white stuff on the ground now and finally we can't see the grass through the snow on much of the yard.

New Knife

Most of my kitchen knives were wedding presents and not high quality knives to begin with. I finally bought some new knives yesterday and used this one for the first time this evening. Lovely!

Nina's Flowers

Tuesday is piano lesson day for Aimée, and her teacher, Nina, has a lovely collection of plants in her window. She was kind enough to let me take some pictures of them today during the lesson. I really like the curly edges. I think they are African violets, but I am a flower dunce and will come back and edit this post if she tells me differently!

Reservoir

Project 365 has helped me see how many beautiful scenes I see in a day, often through the car windows, scenes that I whip past and never stop to savor. This reservoir is one I pass once every couple weeks, on average, and it's one of those scenes that's different every time, depending on the weather and the light. This morning's view was not particularly noteworthy, except for the fact that I parked and got out of the car to take a few pictures.

Fourteen

Ben blows out all fourteen candles. Where did the years go? Where did this tall handsome young man come from? What a great kid--and what a great God to give him to me for a time.

Sweethearts' Dessert

Tonight Dave and I plan to attend a "Sweethearts' Supper," hosted by a terrific couple from our church, in honor of Valentine's Day next week. I like to bring a dessert to this kind of event, because I don't eat desserts made with such common ingredients as sugar and flour. If I bring dessert, I usually bring something I can eat. Rather selfish, I suppose, but other folks also seem to enjoy what I bring, so I keep doing it.

Anyway--this is my sugar-free chocolate chip cheesecake with a pecan crust fresh out of the oven (i.e., before it collapsed, as cheesecakes are wont to do).

Good Friends

This is my older son with our pastor's little guy tonight at our pastor's home. There were a bunch of us there tonight for a French toast supper, four families with ten kids in all. Lots of noise, toys, and fun. It was good to be together.

Reflection

Ventured out into the cold to the creek that runs under the road around the corner from our house. I should have worn a hat--the wind was really cold. Hey, anything for a picture! Ha.

Crosswords

A week or so ago I watched the film Wordplay, about avid crossword puzzle solvers and their annual tournament. It was a fun film, and of course it got me to track down last year's long-abandoned Page-A-Day crossword puzzle calendar. I am only so-so at crossword puzzles, but they're fun when they're not too hard (or too easy), and I've been doing a few most days recently.

Cloud Bank

I love the sky, perhaps especially in the winter. Our house is almost completely surrounded by trees, which is nice for privacy, but I often wish for a better view of the sky. I took this picture while out this afternoon.

Mugging for the Camera

These two are not averse to posing for the camera, especially the younger. It's important to have willing subjects on a mundane Monday.

Uno

Super Bowl Sunday means fun food in the family room, mostly unmuted commercials, and, last night at least, Uno (instead of Prince) during half time. I came in last.

Sledding at Last

We got an inch or so of wet snow last night, barely enough to cover the ground, but it froze on the driveway and the kids had a blast this afternoon sledding down the driveway into the woods beyond.

Car Wash

Were it not for Project 365 I would never have thought to use my camera while going through the car wash. I took several shots and actually had a hard time deciding which to use. And I do like a clean car.

February Self-Portrait

I don't really like looking at pictures of myself, but I am committed nevertheless to doing a self-portrait every month this year. I like this one better than the January one.