Category Archives: Family Life

It is so hard to believe that it has been almost a month since my last post. If you remember I mentioned that Robert got sick right before Christmas, and he is still having issues. The doctor has ordered no work or lifting, which has been frustrating for him. That also means I have been working even more to keep up with the house, the kids and going over our budget to figure out the best way to handle the incoming medical bills. We keep on saying it could be worse, but then it seems to get worse anyway.

A few weeks ago I dented my Subaru after sliding down a road covered in black ice. When you live in the mountains, that can be a very dangerous situation. In my case, the left side of the road was yards and the other was a cliff. My car ended up ultimately sliding to the left and hitting a light post. Since the alternative was certain death, I tried to look on the bright side. After all, you all know how much I love my car, but it could be worse. Right?

Then last week Belle got sent home with lice. I had to do a million loads of laundry, clean the house like a nut, and spend hours (seriously, hours) combing her hair to get rid of all the nits. Luckily, no one else had lice but her, although I couldn’t help telling AJ he had it too when we checked his hair. Sometimes you have to get your laughs where you can. Belle having lice has left me thinking that saying things could be worse might not be the way to go. Instead, I’d like to think things could be better and cross my fingers that they will be.

It hasn’t all been awful over the last few weeks. I did celebrate my birthday. Robert and Belle bought me a bunch of kitchen stuff.

They got me new cookie sheets by USA pans. I am absolutely in love with USA pans. I bought a few of their bread pans a month ago and they are fantastic. I also got a new set of measuring cups and some bamboo utensils. Something about cooking with the bamboo makes me feel like a damn professional. I love them.

AJ made me a painting.

The rain is made from crayons that he melted.

My dad and his wife Lisa also took me out for breakfast, bowling and shopping where I bought a few more kitchen items. Lisa made me a cake with candles (the only birthday cake I got). While we were all talking,  AJ went over and took of the candles out of the cake and started cutting it. Um, really? I don’t know what that kid thinks sometimes.

Daisy also celebrated her first birthday on Valentine’s Day.

Belle has been asking for a pool table for a while and her wish finally came true. My dad decided to invest in a slate table and gave his old one to us.

We have been having such a good time playing. Belle always cracks me up when she shoots because she always looks so serious.

So that is it for now. A little bad, and some good too. I guess that is kind of how life goes and even though it seems like just a little more of the bad right now, it can always get better!

Yesterday AJ and I took down the Christmas tree. Usually I am ready to toss the tree out the door, but it was a little sad this year. The holiday seemed to pass so quickly.

We all had a Merry Christmas, except that Robert got really sick the day before Christmas Eve, so he was feeling pretty rough all the way through Christmas. We still managed to have a nice time and the kids were very happy with their gifts.

Belle bought the family a dartboard, which is actually really fun as long as I don’t look at the wall around it. It seems hitting the actual dartboard is a little difficult for some of us. I will have to come up with a solution to that problem pretty quickly or there will be more holes than wall.

AJ had his first piano lesson on Friday. He was practicing all day yesterday and he seems pretty determined to learn.

I have been cleaning and organizing all week. Last night I finally got my spice cabinet finished. I installed an extra shelf and it matched perfectly:

I even have extra space now, so I will be able to store my tea there as well.

I am looking forward to the new year. I am going to have a huge ass garden, we are going on a cruise in June and before I know it, Christmas will come again.

This week Belle has been all about preparing for the end of the world. She has her bags packed and filled up all the plastic bottles she could find with water. She thinks the events of today will be Revolution style, with the grid going down. She even requested a crossbow like the girl on the show has and made a bucket list.

I humored her even though I was a lot less certain that the end of the world would occur. But then…

AJ decided he wanted to make cookies for all his teachers. He worked all night and shaped each cookie perfectly:

And then…

I walked into Belle’s room and found her cleaning her room without being asked. She even vacuumed behind the furniture:

And took apart her bed to clean it out and vacuum under it:

That got me thinking. AJ doing something sweet for others and Belle cleaning her room without even being told. Maybe it is the end of the world.

This week I am closing in on being ready for Christmas. The soaps I made to give away have been ready for a few weeks and I have been testing them all out. Last night I finally got them all labeled.

For my first attempt I made a lavender shampoo bar (far right). I then made a lemongrass hand soap and an exfoliating grapefruit bar. I am so excited that they all came out so well and have learned some things to make my future bars even better. I have a new batch of vanilla and chocolate soap curing on the rack, but they won’t be ready for the holidays.

The kids worked on some crafts this week. I bought them each a Christmas foam kit. I had to help Belle a little with hers.

AJ, the artist that he, takes all crafts very seriously.

He even broke out the glue gun to piece his together perfectly.

Today is AJ’s birthday and last night, instead of a cake, I make him chocolate birthday cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

The frosting on these cupcakes is quite possibly one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. The cupcake couldn’t quite live up to being topped with something so good, so next time (there will be many next times) I may try adding chocolate chips to the batter.

This week I also got my new car seat covers installed.

The installation was a little harder than I had hoped. I had to mail back my front covers when they didn’t quite fit. After calling the Subaru dealership to find out how to remove the back seat bottom, they (thankfully) told me to disconnect the battery first since there are airbag sensors under the seat. It was simple to get the seat out, but getting it back in proved to be a challenge.

I ordered these leatherette seat covers from GT covers. They are custom fit to my vehicle and overall I am pleased with the way they came out. The days of lint rolling daily to get the dog hair off my cloth seats are over and my original seats will remain in perfect condition.

Today I have to drive AJ to the high school for the spring musical auditions. Afterwards we will take him out to celebrate. He had been wanting to learn to play piano, so we are getting him lessons for his birthday. He starts in two weeks. I wasn’t sure how he would feel about that being his present, but he was actually very excited.

Maybe he’ll even get good enough to teach me. I’ve always wanted to learn to play an instrument.

Our Halloween was a bust and had me dreading winter too early when we ended up with a foot of snow. The weather has since redeemed itself and Thanksgiving turned out to be a beautiful day. Our family came over to our house. Robert and I made the ham, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, sausage balls, and tollhouse pie for dessert. The rest of the family brought additional sides, desserts and yes, a turkey.

We set up two big tables for everyone to sit together and Belle helped set the table.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to pick our Christmas tree. Usually it is pretty uneventful, so I didn’t think to bring my camera, but the place we went to this year was a lot of fun. They had animals to pet (we loved the pig) and horseback rides. They also took you on a hayride to pick your tree.

We came home and I strung the lights. The kids took over from there and put all the ornaments on. At first AJ was trying to be funny and make fun of Belle for always posing for pictures. She didn’t see the humor.

Eventually they were having a good time and there was hardly any fighting over getting to hang a particular ornament.

I have already got my Christmas shopping done for the kids and am hoping to get everyone else checked of the list by the end of the week. After that, I just want to kick back, relax and enjoy the holiday season.

We took Belle to the corn maze yesterday. AJ is away for the weekend, so he missed out on the fun.

Belle was running around like a nut and Robert and I were behind trying to keep up.

We found our way out of the first part of the maze and Belle sat down by the river to relax.

Afterward we picked out our pumpkin. It took a lot of coaxing to talk Belle out of a giant pumpkin.

Finally, with our regular-sized pumpkin in tote, we went over to a local cheese shop. We stopped in to watch the cheese being made and then went into the shop where we stocked up on cheese, butter, and dried fruit.

We also bought some fudge, which was delicious. I am not usually a big fan, but they had a snickers fudge and it was so good.

We had dinner at our favorite Ashe Country restaurant, which we go to every year around this time.

AJ emailed me a picture of some cookies he made with Robert’s sister.

This week was spent trying to get back into our routine after being away last week. I took Belle to get her ears pierced on Tuesday and got my herbal medicine cabinet stocked.

I made my first salve with the herbs. This is the muscle and joint salve. I ended up using arnica, st. john’s wort, comfrey and peppermint.

I don’t know what is in store for this week. They are calling for lots of snow (ugh) and damaging winds. We stocked up on some emergency supplies and are left wondering if we will be stuck in the house this Halloween.

On our last day we took the train into the city.

We walked to the Empire State Building.

It was a long elevator ride to the top.

The view from the top was really impressive.

For some reason Belle talked about wanting to ride the subway over and over, so we took the subway and went to eat pizza.

Later in the day we stopped at a bakery for coffee and dessert.

Afterward we got back on the subway and make our way to the train station to head home.

Tomorrow morning we are flying back home and I can’t believe it. These past few days flew by so fast!

On Saturday we took the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. Belle was very excited about riding the ferry.

One seemingly long and surprisingly cold ride later, we arrived.

Later that night we went out to dinner with Mikey and Meg.

We had to cut dinner short when we realized a magic show we were going to started an hour earlier than we thought.

We made it to the show pretty much on time. The show had a lot of audience participation and mom ended up getting picked to do a card trick. She was supposed to look at a card and toss the deck back to someone else. As soon as she did, Kasha leaned over to her and said, “I have to pee pee”.

She went to get up and take her and Mikey told her she couldn’t leave in the middle of the trick. Mom put her hand up and stopped the whole show saying, “Excuse me! We have an emergency!”

I ended up having to finish the trick for her since I had seen the card. The whole thing was completely hilarious.