In My Back Yard

Today was another busy day for us. Z had an impromptu doctor's appointment, and then stayed home the rest of the day. Day to myself... busted lol. So the POTD was again rushed, but I like what I got. I decided to do a quick (as light was fading) walk around my yard, and these are what I came up with.

Oh yeah I need some info. As I was picking up N today his teacher asked if I was going to do anything on Friday with the class for his birthday (P.S. his b-day is actually Saturday). My response... *crickets chirping* lol. I told her I would let her know. Both my, and my sister's b-day's were in the summer, and Z falls over Christmas break. It never even crossed my mind, and I have zero insider info on this. What is the norm?

Back to School

Today was the first day back to school for the boys! It was so nice to have a quiet house, and some kid free time to take care of some cleaning. Such as the wrapping paper they did NOT want me to throw away. Z has hit the 'collector' stage hard, and it is about to drive me nutters. Back to the school thing. N has been ready to go back since break started. He has been afraid his friends and teachers would miss him... so modest that one ;-) Z on the other hand was dreading it with what I fear is a snippet into his future feelings about school. He did not want to go. He even cried this morning. Z has a hard time with school, and I have a hard time helping him. His problem is, well, he is extremely smart. Can you tell modesty runs in our family? I can't help it though, he just is. Honestly I wish he was just average, or that we lived somewhere with schools better equipped to help gifted students. He gets sooooo bored. As you know learning is very repetitive, and he hates it. He has homework every night because he won't finish his worksheets in class. He doesn't like to color (loves to draw), and that is still a major part of learning in first grade. He gets poor marks because he rushes through everything, and it's sloppy. Correct, but sloppy. His teacher tries, but with 22 other students it is hard. I was the exact same way in school, except of course back then, teachers just thought you were stupid if you didn't complete your work. I remember in 3rd grade I failed spelling... failed. The best part? I got a perfect score on every spelling test. Yep, but because I refused to write out my spelling words ten times (why would I when I knew how to spell them before I started) my teacher FAILED me. Which of course led me to just stop trying, and I don't want that for Z. Okay enough of my mini rant :) For the record N is also extremely smart, possibly even smarter than Z, but K4 is more hands on learning, and so far he hasn't had a problem. Loves it, in fact.

I would get back to what I had started out to say, but I have now lost track. So onward we shall go lol. A mini part of my resolutions this year include eating healthier. We eat decently healthy now, but I want to take it up a notch. In keeping with that over the past 3 days I have tried 3 different flavors of pomegranate juice. I know sometime last year I found one I really enjoyed. Sadly I cannot find it now. I have tried blueberry and pomegranate, and cherry and pomegranate. Nasty! I now have the last one I can find in my fridge. Mango and pomegranate. Keep your fingers crossed for me lol.

This brings me to my POTD. I was tired. We had just spent an hour grocery shopping, and Z was not in the best of moods. Why? Refer to the first paragraph. I just didn't have it in me to do anything creative, or time involved. So I decided that something mundane was better than nothing at all.

That's right... I took a picture of my juice (and myself unintentionally). It comes in such a cool bottle I have to say. No if only it tasted good!

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot....

and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne?

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be done with 2010. I know that in the real world putting up a new calendar really doesn't change anything. In Krystle's World though, it makes a HUGE difference, and Krystle's World is where I'm hanging out on this one.

The boys and I had a low key New Years Eve. We stayed home, ate junk food, wrote resolutions, watched 'How to Train Your Dragon' for the 100th time, sang karaoke (on their new karaoke machine), used my fondue pot I've had two years for the first time, and toasted to a wonderful New Year with sparkling grape juice!!! We rocked it east coast style since 11:00 was plenty late for the boys, and here in the central time zone they just play the last hour of Dick over again anyway lol.

This was the first time the boys have written resolutions, and they were a hoot. It took some explaining on my part to get them to really understand, but we got there. After I finally convinced Nick that becoming a 50 foot giant maybe wasn't reasonable anyway ;-D I'm sure you are 'dying' to know what my two darlings chose *ahem*, so I will put you out of your misery.

Z:

Learn to paint

Learn to draw better

Learn to knit.... so he can make sails for his pirate ships. (Naturally, why else lol.)

N:

Learn about dinosaurs

Learn to read books with words in them :-)

Learn karate

Actually he said learn how to "hew HA uuuh" while punching his arms, then doing a nice kick. To which I said "oh you want to learn karate?" His reply? "That's what I just said Mommy."

My resolutions? Well I am still writing my game plan... with numbers and letters and everything! I will say my biggest one is using this year to go on a journey into my faith. The POTD also gets a mention ;)

Oh yeah the POTD ! I am really, really going to shoot 365 pictures this year. I am not silly enough to say that I will shoot everyday this year, or even more laughably, that I will post everyday this year, but I will do my best, and I WILL have 365 photos to show for it!!!!!

As you can see I didn't post yesterday, but I do have a picture. Sure it's a P&S snap of my boys, but it COUNTS ;-D

For today's I decided to do another dated POTD. I did one for 2008, but I haven't since. So here is my 2008 and my 2011. Plus a couple just for fun.

Yes I took some liberties with this last one. Turns out, I suck at dominos lol. In my defense I only have one box, and there are just not enough dominos to do ANYTHING in one box.

I think I will end with a super yummy (and simple) chocolate fondue recipe.

4 full size Hershey's bars (broken into pieces)

5 big marshmallows

1/8 cup milk

1/8 cup heavy whipping cream

Put fondue pot on warm (or around 150 degrees). Add chocolate bar pieces, and milk. Stir constantly until smooth. Add marshmallows, and stir until melted. Finally stir in cream slowly and enjoy.