Friday 5--Cabin Fever

It's Friday!  Happy Friday everyone! Let's have a few random thoughts for this fine Friday:

1. Turbo has his first ski meet tomorrow.  He missed the first two meets but gets to go on this one.  He's excited and looking forward to the bus trip and race.  Not looking forward to the 4:45am be at the bus time in the morning.
2. We are all getting a bit of cabin fever. It always hits midwinter and with the ice and cold I'm just feeling like curling up, snuggling in and reading and sleeping.  I'm also getting snappy and snarly.  Time to think up some way of busting the winter blahs.  Ideas, anyone?
3. I'm taking some Christmas money and getting a decent waffle maker.  The one we have right now just doesn't get hot enough to cook waffles properly.  So some time in Bed Bath and Beyond looks to be in my future.
4. We are still kicking around ideas for Bruiser's birthday.  He wants a party.  We aren't sure how to have a bunch of 5-6 year olds in our house.  It's not exactly set up for kid parties.  We aren't sure what activities to have if we do have it at home.  The out of home ideas for parties are expensive or not appealing with the age group. How do you occupy 7-9 kids inside for two hours?  I'm so not good at this. Maybe we can take him to the zoo with a friend...
5. On a brighter note I have cooked most nights this week.  Used the crock pot twice and if I can keep the motivation up, will cook tonight.  However, Bruiser has been less than pleased with my dinner choices. I swear the kid would live on hot dogs and chicken if given the choice. So very frustrating.

Photos:  I'm heading to the way back machine:

Topical beach sunset.  Wishing I was there...

Majestic Moose.

Sail away Me Hearties!

Handsome guy!

With my Turbo.

 Go join up your own Friday 5 with Emmy Mom!

Spin Cycle - Lost

This week's Spin Cycle prompt is Lost.  Not lost as in missing, but the word lost and all it's many meanings.
There are far more meanings for the word lost than I thought:

1.  no longer possessed or retained:  lost friends.

2.  no longer to be found: lost articles.

3.  having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc.: lost children.

4.  not used to good purpose, as opportunities, time, or labor; wasted: a lost advantage.

5.  being something that someone has failed to win: a lost prize.

6.  ending in or attended with defeat: a lost battle.

7.  destroyed or ruined: lost ships.

 

The refrain of "I can't find it"  is often heard in our house.  Nothing is really lost, or at least not totally.  But on occasion things do go away for a while and are harder to find.  

I have become the ultimate finder of the lost things in our house.  I'm not sure if it genetic, or I just have guys that can't find anything, but if they lose something they come to me to find it. I usually do, eventually.

My mother has a way of making the things she loses come back to her.  She tells on herself.  If she can't find something, she calls me and tells me she can't find it.  9 times out of 10 the lost item turns up shortly after she tells on herself.

Looking at the definition of lost, most don't have a positive connotation to them.  However, there are times when something lost isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Take losing a job.  Well, losing my job about the time I had Bruiser.  It didn't seem like a good thing at the time, but right now I am in a good place and I don't think I would be here if not for losing my job exactly when I did. So not totally a bad thing to lose my job. I guess it's all in how you look at things.

What would your spin on lost be?

Spin it up and join up.

 

Wednesday Hodgepodge--All About Those Words

Time for Wednesday questions:

 

1. What's your best piece of advice for a newly married couple? I'm asking for a friend. Make sure you communicate.  Talk to each other and really listen.  Don't talk at each other.  So much gets lost in the act of communicating if you don't pay attention.

2. Before we're too far into the new year I wanted to post a question Teresa submitted during the December giveaway. Teresa blogs over at Being Refined As Silver, so everyone go say hi.

Teresa asks, "What were you doing on December 31st, 1999?"and "Did you or your family make preparations for Y2K?"  I worked that day--a long 10 hour day at the chiropractor I worked for. I got home at around 6:30 and was just wiped out.  I made it until midnight in Chicago (I live in the mountian time zone) and said the world is still here; I'm going to bed.

3. According to Global Language Monitor, the most used word of 2014 isn't a word. It's the heart emoji. Huh? How can something that's not a word be the most used word, but I digress. What do you think was your most used word in 2014? "Really?!" said with varying amounts of sarcasm, disbelief or humor, depending on the occasion.

4. Speaking of words, it's that time again. Time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words they'd like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, and general uselessness) in 2015. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's top vote getters are-

bae (before anyone else), polar vortex, hack, skill set, swag, foodie, curate/curated, friend-raising, enhanced interrogation, cra-cra (as in crazy), takeaway, and -nation (a suffering sports suffix).

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you'd like to add? Polar Vortex.  When I was growing up those were called arctic cold fronts and they happened every winter, multiple times. I'm not sure why they got a PR makeover, but I don't think they really needed one.

5.  January is National Hot Tea month? Are you a fan? Do you like flavored teas? How do you take your tea? Have a favorite cup or teapot? How many cups of tea do you consume in a given day? I have a cup of tea a day--most every morning.  I love chai tea and also several of the teas from Celestial Seasons.  Not such a fan of ginseng tea, but I will do green tea, but prefer well done herbal teas most of the time.

6. Whatever happened to________________________________? Common courtesy. Or common sense?  Both are lacking in today's society.  They claim the 80s were the me generation, but I think we are far more about ourselves these days than we should be. There is also a lack of common sense.  Anyone who was using common sense would never put questionable materiel out where the general public could find it.  At least you would hope they wouldn't...

7. What is one book on your must-read list this winter? As You Wish: the behind the scenes of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes.  I'm most of the way through it right now.

8. Insert your own random thought here. Even with our lazy weekend we still manged to have a spectacular sunrise on Saturday:

Have a great week!

Randomly Tuesday--Marching through the week

Oh, Tuesday.  Better than Monday, but still too far from the weekend.  So, let's random things up around here:

• The whole family has been enjoying watching The Librarians on TNT.  We first watched the made for TV movies of The Librarian with Noah Wylie.  They were fun movies in the same lines as Indiana Jones.  Adventure with magic thrown in for fun.  The TV show is just as fun and we are really enjoying it.
• I'm not a fan of ice.  We got snow over Christmas and it has warmed up just enough to create ice.  Lots of ice.  Everywhere. Makes walking to work a challenge.
• Nick needs to order some beer supplies.  He hasn't brewed in quite some time.  I'm hoping for a dark beer and he loves making reds and IPAs. In that tone:

• I had to get a new Kindle Fire HDX because my old Kindle Fire stopped charging.  Everything else worked fine, but the stupid thing wouldn't connect to charge. Technology is grand!
• snickered at this:

• Last night is got an amazing good night of sleep.  To bad it's not usually a repeat event. Maybe I should try this:

• Probably wouldn't work.

So have a great Tuesday and random it up with Stacy.

Kicking back and Doing Nothing

We spent the weekend not accomplishing much of anything.  And it felt awesome.
Saturday we had friends over and had a wonderful dinner and a good time talking and catching up as we hadn't seen these friends in a while.  A good time was had by all.  We definitely need to do that more often.
Sunday was a day of doing absolutely nothing at all.  We watched movies and I read.  OK, I did do dishes, but that was it. It snowed and the left us house bound and so we just watched movies. Several Harry potter movies, Failure to Launch, Monuments Men, and bits and pieces of other movies--it was free preview weekend for the movie channels.
Next weekend we get a long weekend and Turbo has a ski meet in a town about 4 hours from ours.  Means an early morning/late night kind of trip for him, but he should have fun competing in his first meet.
We hope to be able to do something more than standard household chores next weekend, but we will need to see what the weather dictates.

So after our totally laid back weekend, lets see what I can come up with for MMMM.  Freebie weeks get me sometimes.  Let's see:

Lee Brice with Drinking Class:

Toby Keith with Drunk Americans:

And a bit of a throw back: Brad Paisley with Alcohol:

Yeah, so a bit of theme, but hey drinking goes with relaxing right?

Friday 5--New Year Promises

So, after having had a full week of 2015, it's time to do my promises for the year. I do promises instead of resolutions.  Resolutions are grand and easily broken, but promises are a bit easier for me to keep.  So in keeping with Emmy Mom's Friday 5, here are five promises I want to keep this year:

1. A promise to myself to get active.  Walking, exercising, running, something to get me moving.  If I could figure out a way to read while doing an activity, I'd be so much more inclined to exercise. 
2. Start adding a new recipe at least once a month to our menu plan.  I have succeeded in coming up with a menu planning routine that works fairly well for us.  Now I just want to shake up the rotation of meals and recipes.  Some of this is in hope that Bruiser will try new foods and get more variety in his eating habits.  A mom can hope!
3. Get out camping and hiking this summer--biking as well.  Now that Bruiser can ride a bike we can all go on bike rides. We also need to take the kayaks out with some regularity.
4. Get my scrap book room set up.  This one will be fun to get organized and I should be able to get some work done on several scrap books that I need to finish.
5. Institute a date night with Nick.  I'm aiming for once a month.  Turbo is old enough to watch Bruiser for an hour or two, which let's Nick and I go out for dinner, a walk, a drink, something outside of the house together. If I can swing twice a month, all the better.

Now 5 pictures:

Hope everyone had a great start to 2015!

Spin Cycle--Word of the year--2015

So it's once again time to do a word of the year.  Last year my word was balance.  I think I got that one relatively well handled.  I need to keep working at it as keeping blanace in my life is an on-going process.
Now to choose a new word.  Let's see some possibilities:

• fearless
• adventure
• happy
• patient
• inspiring
• industrious
• organized
• brave
• confidence
• consistent
• trust
• focus

Well, that is a list.   I think this year the word will be consistent.  We have a budding teenager on our hands.  Turbo turns 12 this year--solidly a tween and we have to be consistent with him or the actual teen years will be tough on all of us.
Being consistent leads to organization.  I have been consistent with chores around the house and strangely I have more time because I put in the ten minutes here and 20 minutes there that are needed.
Meal planning needs consistency.  I'm getting better at it.  I think we have a system that works.  Now to keep the motivation to actually make the meals.  However we all feel better for a routine and routines are best when consistent.
So there you have it.  My word for the year.  Consistent.  A pretty good word really.

What would your word be?
Spin it up and join up.

Christmas 2014

Yeah, so I really should share a bit more about our Christmas.  Mostly in pictures:

Guiness had his 14th Christmas

A couple of very happy guys.

Christmas hats in the snow.

Merry Christmas!

Our beautiful tree.

Cookie making

Christmas at Papa and Nana's

Santa was good to them...

Nick and his new Guitar.

Bruiser and Nick with the guitar.

It really was a wonderful holiday, even if I did end up sick the next day.  Hoe everyone's Christmas was fantastic!

Tuesday Thoughs Might be Random

Yep, the thoughts around here are trending random.  Or maybe not.  OK, more random than organized, let's go:

• Our weather has been on a roller coaster recently.  Last week we were far below zero and now it's hovering in the mid 30s.  Heading to the 40s during the day by Thursday.  It's melting the snow and creating ice.  Lots and lots of slippery ice.  Fun.
• I won the dinner lottery laast night--100% approval from all family members.  Of course I stacked the deck by cooking chicken wings, but it's still nice to not have to coax a small child to Just Eat Already!
• This:

• I got Nick a guitar for Christmas.  He's wanted one for ages and he's not sounding too bad on it.  It helps that he's not playing the same thing over and over. 
• I'm trying to come up with ideas for the craft/scrap book area that I get now.  There are certain thing that have to stay in the room but Mostly I get a space to scrapbook and need to think about what I want it to be and what would be the most effective use of space and most effective for me to scrap book at.  I think I want a counter at about waist height and a good stool.  Shelves and maybe drawers to sort the supplies I have and a good area to work in.  Pretty sure I don't want a table.  The room isn't that big and a table just takes up space and tends to get cluttered. Time to start hunting the interwebs for ideas.

So what's your random?
Random it up with Stacy.

Back in the Groove

Or getting there.  We had a two week break form work for the holiday.  It did not go quite as planned.  There was no skiing, no outdoors activity, some Christmas fun and New Years fun, lots of being sick and all around just relaxing.  Sound confusing?  Let's see if I can clear it up for you.

• We swapped the boys rooms out.  Turbo is now full time in his attic bedroom.  Bruiser is firmly ensconced in Turbo's old room.  We still have work to do on Bruiser's room, electrical and then painting but he's in there.
• Cookies were made:

• Christmas happened.  There were tons of presents under the tree.  Santa was generous, and so were mom and dad.  We had a lovely time at Nick's folks for Christmas eve, with a fun time looking at Christmas lights before heading home to put little boys in new pajamas and sending them to bed so Santa could stop by.
• Then Christmas morning came at 6:00am.  A frenzy of unwrapping and exclamations of glee and then breakfast with the grandparents.  Later it was off to the cousins house for Christmas afternoon and dinner. I would have had more fun if Santa hadn't brought me a cold for Christmas.
• I was down for the count with the cold for the next three days. Just as I was getting better, Nick caught it. Being sick wasn't all that bad.  The weather got very, very cold--like below zero cold, so we wouldn't have gone out anyway. 
• We were mostly better for New Years.  We did our standard seafood extravaganza. However, poor Bruiser caught the cold and didn't feel well New Year's day or Friday.
• This last weekend I spent conquering the laundry, which had a large amount of sweats in it (from all the lounging no doubt).  I did make a prime rib on Saturday that was delicious.  
• In other news, we had snow off and on the entire break.  It looks all wintery and white outside. Almost makes me wish we could have gotten out and enjoyed it, but I was also happy we had the time to get better without the pressure of work.

There will be more pictures to come.  I need better pictures of the attic and I get to hunt up ideas for my hobby room/scrap book room to. I also need to do a Christmas post and a 2015 promise post.  Well now that I'm back there lots to come.

On to MMMM which is all about earworm songs.  You know, those songs that get stuck in your head.
Meghan Trainor and Miranda Lambert with All About That Bass:

Florida Georgia Line with Sundaze:

Enjoy this first Monday of 2015.