Project 365 Week 11

~Erica

Oops- I need to fix the title, if the last one was week 9 then this has to be week 11...

7- This is the final picture of my hazelnut shrub. Most of the amends are open now but this one is still tight. After following it all quarter, because of the lost week of school, we didn't actually finish the project and do the write up. Oh well.

9- Jonah's friend bridged to our Troop. It was on a Wednesday night so only Arin and Isaac were available to go. They look so grown up, it's hard to think of them as young men rather than boys.

11- Our Pack spent the night at Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium for a ZooSnooze. We got to sleep next to the shark tank, it was cool but a little unnerving to see sharks glide past your head as you lie there in your sleeping bag. We did a night hike through the zoo, spent time in the aquarium and touch tanks, did a craft, and had a snack before bed.

12- After breakfast we went into the elephant yard to place treats for them. This elephant is getting her pedicure before going out into the yard. Actually, they weren't really interested in going out, it was rainy and cold. We had a great time, Arin and Rush went as Den Chiefs and I took Tovah as siblings could also be included. Isaac enjoyed being the only one at home for a night.

Project 365 Week 9

~Erica

February 27- Another icy, cold day. We're ready for it to warm up and life to get back to normal, with school's cancelled all our outside activities are also cancelled.

February 28- Knit 2 baby girl hats in one day. The one on the left is a seashell pattern for Baby Faith, our friend, Michelle's neice who is up at Children's with kidney issues. She wasn't expected to live and is defying the odds still.

February 28- Rush started baseball today (the snow melted enough to actually see the grass). He needed his annual haircut before the first game. Michelle came over late to give him his haircut- she had been up with Baby Faith. I haven't taken his "After" picture yet.

Project 365- Week 7 or 8?

I'm getting lost on my numbering system... is this week 7 or week 8? I do know that I don't have many pictures for this upcoming week- too much rain and snow and not enough time or inspiration.

20- This is what weekends look like around here. Our only stipulation is we have to stay quiet so Ryan can sleep so it usually means TV, a few quiet chores, and XBox time. Each child gets 30 minutes to play 2-3 days a week. Sometimes when we have friends over they get more time but Jesse doesn't count, he gets 30 minutes like everyone else.

21- Friends came over because they didn't have school on Monday for President's Day. We have an XBox and they only have a PS3 (or something) so any chance they get the playdate gets moved to our house.

22- Isaac was laying on the floor reading and Squeaky pounced on his head! She wouldn't do it while I had the camera out but she sure watched him- her tail was twitching back and forth the whole time.

23- I finished LouAnn's scarf and got it mailed to her. I chose red yarn because she is such a vibrant lady and for the scarlet thread of Jesus' lineage through the Old Testament. The scarf is knit with wool because the Proverbs 31 Woman's family is clothed in fine wool. The pattern is called Feathers and Fans but it looks like waves so it reminds me of the midwives in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. I inset an area of seed stitch that looks like the basket Moses' mother hid him in.

24- Woke up to more snow! We're really getting tired of this. However beautiful it is on the tree branches out my window in dawn's early light... Between the holiday, the weather (ice and snow), and one instructor being sick I had 2 classes all week.

25- I finished my French Press Slippers. I started them after Christmas of 2009. They only needed the flaps and buttons sewn on but I put them away and just didn't get to them. Now they are done and are very warm and pretty.

26- I bake when I'm cold. This week I used up 2 and half pounds of butter and a dozen eggs. These are the Pioneer Woman's Devil Dogs, oh my, they are so good. The frosting recipe was enough for two batches (I skimped on the second batch but they were for Cub Scouts and if my kids were any indication, they were only 1 of about 4 desserts each boy ate). I also made Cardamom Cinnamon Rolls for my dad. This recipe is close but I don't use fat free milk or a bread machine. I made cream cheese frosting for them as well.

Project 365- Week 7

~erica

13- Ryan and I got a Kindle to share for Valentine's Day. It came preloaded with the Oxford Dictionary and I left it for Ryan with "love" highlighted

13- For my Speech class we tried some variations of PB & J for research. I'll do another post with the list of sandwiches we tried and those we rejected without trying. I'll just say that Nutella is a new favorite food around here...

15- I got a new fridge and a new freezer. Trying to get used to the space and trying to figure out how to organize them. The 17 cu. ft. fridge has no freezer section, we got a 21 cu. ft. upright freezer for the pantry area instead (plus I have a huge chest freezer in the little shop just out the back door).

19- Saturday morning we went out to leave and the van was iced over. Isaac wanted me to take a picture of it because it was just too cool. At 7 a.m. Saturday morning Rush left for snow camp at Mt. Rainier and Isaac went to Tacoma for a chess tournament. Isaac called at 1 p.m. to pick him up, he was bored because he was done. It was sunny but really cold. I tried to think of somewhere we could go for a field trip to make the trip meaningful, but couldn't think of anywhere. So, we stopped at Krispy Kremes, because you have to stop somewhere to go potty...

Project 365- Week 6

~Erica



I think last week was a Fail for Project 365. Ryan and I both had big tests and projects due. I thought about getting my camera out but never got to it.

6- Rush turned 16 on February 6. His cousin Allyson baked his birthday cake and brought it to the Superbowl party at church. I redeemed myself by at least making him his choice of dinner on Monday.

10- We mailed Nathan's last package. He's supposed to be home in 6 weeks. It was full of jerky, clif bars, and the funny pages from the Sunday papers I've been buying for coupons.

I'm doing better at taking pictures this week...

Project 365- Week 5

29- I downloaded this free Valentine's Subway Art from eighteen25. I printed it at Costco and popped in into a $3 frame. A seasonal decoration for under $5. I'm really trying to update pictures or holiday decorations in our spaces this year, when the boys were little I had no energy and getting photos in albums was the safest place for them. If I change things often enough I can change them before I have to dust them...

30- This is my pile of books that I want to read as opposed to the pile of books I need to be reading for my classes (a much bigger and less exciting pile). I have Tom Clancy's newest Dead or Alive, the Pioneer Woman's From High Heels to Tractor Wheels, The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer, and The Sea of Monsters also by Rick Riordan. I'm about 2/3 through Sea of Monsters and could easily finish it if I just picked it up one evening but then I'd want to read Red Pyramid or Dead or Alive. The Artemis Fowl had to go back to the library but Ryan ordered it for us from Amazon and it should be here next week so I don't have to hurry and get to it. I won't start P Dub's book until I get some other books caught up because that wouldn't be fair to the other books in the pile. Maybe I should just finish my homework, speech, essay, and research paper and then I could read them all... (luckily, spring break is in 4 weeks).

1- The remains of a Family Feast from Panda Express, the kids pounced on me when I got home and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures before or during. I had to run up to the Scout store after my botany lab and grabbed Panda, much to the kids' delight (and mine). We love their Orange Chicken but Firecracker Chicken and Honey Walnut Shrimp are strongly in the running as well. I also like that I can feed us all for under $30 and there are leftovers for lunch the next day.

3- My hazelnut. I'm starting to develop a relationship with this tree... It is just starting to open up its amends. The tree closer to the road that gets more sunlight is already fully open. I'm recording the dates for a Botany lab project as part of Project BudBurst

4- Tovah with Grandma Carol Jeanne and Great-Grandma Hendrickson at a Pampered Chef party.

5- OUR VERY LAST PINEWOOD DERBY, EVER! Can you tell I'm excited? We've been doing this for at least 13 years. Jonah won The Most Colorful Car (thanks to $1 clearance decals from Michael's) and came in 3rd for his den so he got a medal. It was nice to end our run on a positive note.

Project 365- Week 4

I'm a week late posting this- I had the pictures ready just didn't have time to sit down and annotate the days. Today I got out of school an hour early and came straight home, it was nice to be home before lunch time.

22- This is what the closet in the office looks like every Saturday, that is ONE week's worth of paper recycling from upstairs. I think we may need to look into ways to reduce or reuse.

23- I'm knitting this scarf for a friend. She spoke at the Ladies retreat 2 years ago about Rahab, the Hebrew midwives, and one other character (or not, I can't remember...) What I do remember is God's hand in perserving His people and especially the lineage of Christ. The red thread reminds me of the thread of His story throughout the Bible. The pattern has waves and fans for their time in Egypt and the Red Sea. Rahab hung a scarlet cord out her window in Jericho in order to be saved. There might be more meaning to this but these are the images tumbling around in my head for 2 years that I had to get out in a piece of knitting. I really wanted to do something tan and purple with a red thread that wove its way through the length of the piece but I still haven't figured out how to do that.

24- Jonah (and Isaac) really needed haircuts but it was one of those things that kept getting put off for another day when we had the time or the $. A friend from church said she would do the kids' haircuts for me when it was convenient and I could pay her whenever. Last week I called to see if I could take Jonah up there and she said she would come over! So the boys' hair looks great and I didn't have to leave the house and to me that's worth a lot more than she let me pay her.

25- This picture is for MaryLinda. She bought the kids The Christmas Story Monopoly for Christmas because she hoped it had the leg lamp piece. We're supposed to bring it to Family Camp so she can play it with them. You know, we've never seen The Christmas Story...

27-Isaac came in the other night and told me I had to take a picture of the sunset for my picture project. I took this one in auto and then started playing with the manual mode. By the time I figured it out the great color was gone, but I am trying. The sillhouette of the bucket in the bush is on top of my mom's trellis for the honeysuckle to climb since we cut down the Indian plum (it made a mess on the driveway and the cars). The bucket gets planted with annuals, I didn't want you to think we just had random black buckets in our trees.

28- The Pioneer Woman's new book! It was at Costco the other day, I've managed to read the introduction and chapter 1 but as soon as I have the time to read it'll go fast.

I seem to average 6 out of 7 days, I think I'm doing pretty good with everything else going on.

Project 365- Week 3

~Erica

15- Jonah's a muddy mess...The Webelos planted trees for their Conservation badge. 3 Webelos, 1 Den Chief (Arin), and 4 adults: we planted 100 seedlings in 2 hours.  A week later my shoulders still hurt. It was "This is not the career you want" Day (or another reason to stay out of jail when you grow up). We did manage to finish before the monsoon rains started.

16- Rush saw this t-shirt at Old Navy and said we had to get it for Jonah. This picture is for Cassidy from Family Camp.

17- The floor in front of the bookshelf in the office seems to be the catch-all. Everything that doesn't have a home seems to congregate here. I trip over the piles for a couple of weeks then it drives me crazy. This pile includes my Sunday basket, my rainboot box, and clothes for Tovah to grow into.

18- I have a hazelnut shrub that I have to follow for Botany. Every day or so I have to check it for signs of spring, I took this to show Ryan that I could see it from the house... I still have to walk (or drive) over there to check on it. There are some filberts (different from the native hazelnut) in the same area that are really old. There used to be houses, the train station, and a hotel along that part of the railroad.

19- We got the kids a new video camera, it's on the left next to my cell phone. The videos are just as good as our old 8mm Handicam and it cost A LOT less. We wanted to get them one a year ago for Christmas but missed all the great deals. We got this one from Amazon for less than we had planned on spending and it's actually a better camera.

21- Today Ahvri would have been 2 years old. I was doing fine until a friend texted me a picture of a primrose. I stopped and bought a couple and dropped one off with Rita. When I got home Ryan had stopped and got me 4 on his way home. Since Taryn was at Children's primroses have always been a reminder to me of God's promises and that spring is coming.

Project 365- Week 2

8- 4 pairs of handknit socks drying on the back of my kitchen bench. Most of my socks can be washed and dried but a few pairs can't go in the dryer.

9- 2 pictures today, it might not be in the rules but I can make up my own rules.
      The first is a peaceful picture of the family room, when I get up in the morning and it looks like this my whole day seems less chaotic (I should remind myself of this more often and make sure the family room is picked up before I go to bed).
      The second picture is of the little bit of snow we got last Sunday, it started at 4 and by 5 we had a good inch. It was totally gone by Monday morning.

10-  Jonah and Rush grabbed the wrong black sweatshirts off the black carpeting. It doesn't seem too long ago that 3 of the boys all wore the same size shirts. That summer we just kept all the t-shirts and shorts in a trunk and they pulled one of each out to wear that day. If we had to go somewhere they had matching outfits to wear.

11- Tuesday night we were expecting inches of snow, we got a light dusting that was gone by morning. Now it's warm and rainy and we're on a flood watch. Tovah and I tried to take some pictures of individual flakes on black paper but it didn't work out too well. These flakes are on the hood of my van.

13- I get to school at about 7:15 each morning. It's been pitch black for weeks now. The other morning the greenhouse caught my eye- it was lit up against the black sky. I played around wiht my camera trying to take a photo in aperture mode but the best one I got was taken in full-auto mode. One of my goals for this project is to become more familiar with using my camera in manual modes.

Project 365- Week 1

Last year I didn't hear about Project 365 until about the 10th of January and in my perfectionism I just couldn't start late. This year I've already got too much on my plate but after stewing for a year about doing it last year I just had to go ahead and start. I missed one day- Wednesday the 5th but that's our craziest day of the week so I let myself off the hook.

1- Jonah's friend Reuben with one of those spring-loaded, rubber-sucker toys stuck to his forehead. It was bedtime and I HAD to get a picture if I was going to do the project. I thought I'd go in and get a sweet picture of Rush reading to the 2 boys...

2- We had dinner with Oliver and his parents and Fred & MaryLinda at Izzy's in Olympia. We had Crystal and Adam over for dinner early in January last year so this must mean it's a tradition. They moved to Medeira, CA last spring so this was a special visit.

3- My first Botany lab assignment was to find a Hazelnut plant. The darker branch is the native shrub and the bigger lighter amends are from our filbert shrubs (the difference between a bush and a shrub is that botanists call them shrubs, just thought you might like to know).

4- Ryan got his new gas grill. He and Rush assembled it in the dark and ice and sub-freezing temperatures so they could grill steaks for dinner. It has 4 burners, a lid, and a thermometer so he can try smoking in it. It also has a side burner so I can use my wok and make mongolian BBQ all summer (I'm not a die-hard griller). Rush is the Beaver in the family- he reads and follows instructions so he's always assigned to help Ryan (the Golden Retriever) when some assembly is required.

6- Tovah started Chess Club this week. She doesn't want to play in any tournaments, we'll see how long that lasts. Isaac is looking forward to going to State again.

7- I had to take a picture of Rush and email it to the school for his ASB card. He's all paid up and ready for baseball to start (as soon as I get his medical form signed and turned back in). He won't get a haircut until the night after his first practice (at least that's what he told Coach last month).