Christmas etc.

Christmas snuggies!! Cheesy, yes, but cozy! I guess this shows that my kids watch too much TV and that all the advertising works on them, since they all asked for these for Christmas. Also the "Touch n' Brush" which is a nifty little device to put your toothpaste on your toothbrush. Yes, my kids are capable of doing this for the most part but it is still fun and surprisingly it works well. We can now get every last bit out of our tube!

A "real" piano!! It was time to ramp up the piano playing and this is their new motivation. It has worked like a charm and piano music is heard more frequently now that the kids don't have to go "all the way downstairs" to practice.

Tubing during the Christmas break.

Tanner turned 15 and got a new desk for his room. I guess studying upstairs with lots of sisters to distract was getting old. Now he is studying for the driving test! Yikes, do I really have to start teaching him to drive? We are dragging our feet a tad!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was one of the most enlightening books I have read in awhile. Do you ever think about where our food comes from and how far most of it has to travel to get to our favorite grocery store? I can honestly say I really never gave it much thought until I read this book. This is the story of the author and her family's quest to eat local and in season food as much as they could for a year and they do it and enjoy it. Most of the food they grow themselves on their farm in Virginia so it's not as if any of us could actually live this way to the extent that they did. But the lessons they learned are applicable to everyone. I am not always a huge non-fiction fan. I usually read to escape, not examine real life (shallow as that sounds). But the way she explains this totally ordinary life on their farm is also quite entertaining. How can you not enjoy a description of onions coming up out of the ground as "visions of Wonderbras". In one section she is making cheese (never knew you could actually do that in any kitchen, but I am actually considering trying it!) and when she tells the grocery clerk that, she is amazed and says, "Now that is a real homemaker!" The author says it took her along time to get to the point that she considered that a great compliment. Feeding our families well is an important work!

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