A couple of new things

I can't believe it has been so long since I've blogged! Sorry to those who check regularly - and thank you for checking regularly :)

Logan use to not even look twice at Jake's construction vehicles, until Jake wanted to watch his "Road Construction Ahead" DVD (to anyone with boys, this is a great DVD). Logan sat still on the floor, sitting on a couch pillow, not moving or speaking for the duration of the movie!! And let's just say that now it usually goes in during afternoon melt down time (his melt down, not mine!) and I can get dinner made and focus on homework with the girls. If you say, "do you want to watch the construction movie?" he knows just what you are talking about. When it is over he finds the closest person and pulls them to the TV so they can play it again for him. He found the container of construction vehicles and will line them up on the bottom step, or on a bench, or in his wagon and sit for and hour quietly playing with them. He is such a great last child! Definitely going for favorite - no points for afternoon melt downs, though.

We have had some beautiful days this past week and I've been out working in the yard - the seemingly never ending clearing of trees in the back. But I only have three more piles to move out to the burn pile. If Mother Nature works in our favor, we will have a burn day next Saturday when Robert has some time. Along with working hard in lab, Robert has started on a coffee table for the living room, and continues to work on hand mirrors as well.
The girls get this coming Tuesday off . . . just one day . . . on Mardi Gras. I thought it was great growing up and getting the Jewish holidays off in September (I always thought we should get all of Hanukkah off as well, along with Christmas) but to get Mardi Gras off, well, that's cool! Today they are having some Mardi Gras activities. Robert, when he was in Atlanta at a chicken conference for work, got some Mardi Gras beads with chickens on them (I'll have to put in a picture later) - the girls wore them to school today :)

Physics 101

Physics 101 - Frames of Reference:
I may not be teaching Physics anymore, but Jake caught on to frames of reference without any instruction. We were driving to the pediatrician's office and Jake said, "mom, look out the window. It's like you put on the brake and just the road is moving fast below us and the grass is moving fast on the side of us and we are not moving." That's my boy!

Potato Trucker

His dad's Idaho blood surfaced the other day, when Logan felt the need to truck around some spuds.

School's OPEN

No school cancellation for the girls. They had a blast last night, even having a mini snowball fight. We did get a bit of a dusting. I'm really NOT a bad parent, but yes - Jake is out in bare feet! We built a fire, had hot chocolate and after the kids went to bed Robert toasted us a couple of marshmallows. The snow turned to rain about 8:30pm (continuing all night) and it never dropped below freezing. The girls woke up very disappointed, but still made the bus on time. (Being disappointed made them drag a bit through their morning routine.) It was fun while it lasted and we have great memories of our first snowfall in Georgia.

Snow in Georgia!!!

Wednesday, January 16 2008 . . . 6:10pm
We have snow in Georgia!
There has been, all week, a possible winter storm for late today. Alyssa came home from school wishing school would be canceled for tomorrow. The flurries have started! The kids are screeching for joy and jumping around on the deck catching snow flakes (since this might be their only chance). Alyssa is getting the hot chocolate ready. And snow is starting to stick to the deck.
We will have to see what happens tonight, . . . but - like in Houston - any snowy or icy weather usually shuts down areas like this that don't have the equipment to keep the roads safe.
Either way, this has made our first winter here perfect!
We shall update tomorrow!

Southern Comfort Food

With multiple January birthdays with some women I work with at church, I was part of a birthday lunch to a restaurant called the Blue Willow Inn. It is just south of us in Social Circle, GA and has been named a top southern cooking restaurant. Since it was a buffet, I got to try a bit of everything (opting not to have the cooked collard greens and fried chicken liver) but I did have: chutney, fried green tomatoes, "real" chicken and dumplings, great biscuits, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, caramel yams, baked mac and cheese, butter beans (most of those stayed on the plate), coconut cake, peach cobbler and custard pie. OK, let me just add that I took SMALL portions of everything :) and I still didn't eat any dinner later! I really liked the chutney and I'm attempting my own coconut cake tonight.
Robert held down the fort while I was gone, which included taking Jake to a birthday party and running to the store for me with the rest of the kids! What a guy! He was so exhausted that he had to stay home from church today (oh - no, that is because Logan is sick).
Speaking of southern comfort food, I hosted for my book club this month and one of the members brought over this very yummy and MOIST cornbread. Jake, after tasting it, claimed half of it for himself and asked me how to make it and when was I going to make it (I've already asked for the recipe, which Robert requested as well). Alyssa says she likes dry cornbread better - I don't know where she comes from sometimes!

Back to School

Where did the holidays go! The girls went back to school today. After New Year's, and Robert went back to work, I thought I could get into a good routine for the rest of the school's vacation time, get the kids working on something . . . I guess I was enjoying to much the no-rush days and down time, especially after working through so many projects the week after Christmas. Last Saturday I looked back at the week and felt that it had been really LONG. It seemed the girls had been out of school for much longer than two weeks (and in a good way, actually). They played great together, read and played outside when the weather was nice (we had a cold front move through for a few days).
Natalie finally lost her top front tooth. Continual wiggling worked it out a few days ago. She went through two nights waking up in the morning glad she hadn't swallowed it in her sleep. She even ended up pulling it out herself! Having moved away from their Aunt Nysje (the best tooth puller, hands down) the girls will do anything to get their teeth out without me having to do it. And I'm OK with that. :)
I was glad that our church time switched to 9am, because it got us back in the swing of things for the school schedule. Of course I had planned for Friday and Saturday to be "back to schedule" days, but I wasn't ready yet. :) The boys slept in this morning until after the bus came and as we were running errands later that morning Jake asked where the girls were.
Well, earlier mornings call for earlier bed times and that includes me. I don't think I'll make it through the BCS National Championship Bowl Game!