Another week gone by.....

As I mentioned in my last post, after much deliberation, I've decided to pull the boys out of the e-school and go back to eclectic homeschooling/unschooling.  YAY!!!!!!!  Sean says he still wants to go to high school---which is fine with me, he's got a year and a half before that happens but we can do some fun learning again instead of regimented learning to pass proficiency tests!!!  The funny thing is, he came downstairs today as I was cooking breakfast and said to me that he had been looking up stuff about spiders because he saw one in his room.  He kept reading more and more and going to science pages and learning about all sorts of spiders and now he wanted to study spiders!  I was so happy, already he's figuring out how to learn in a relaxed, fun manner--now that the pressure is off, he wants to learn again.  That's awesome!

It's been real snowy that last few days---we had a snow day on Friday and we've gotten at good 18 to 24 inches of new stuff in the last 2 days.  Jeremy, Jaret and I had the task of shoveling the driveway, it was fun!  I actually like shoveling--something about working so hard outside, in the cold but I am warm from exertion, and the payoff is so obvious!  Click on the pictures for a larger version, if you want to see it better!

I'm looking like a crazy woman in the first picture, my hat had fallen off and the wind was blowing my hat head hair all over!                                               

     Jaret and I after a job well done!  It took us 2 hours to get the whole driveway and the path up to the house---that's a lot of snow!  Our snow hills are at least 3-4 feet tall!

 

Here is the path that Jeremy shoveled up to the house, there was a good 15 inches of snow on the hill and the deck!

You can barely see our snow hills in the background along the driveway.

After, Sean felt compelled to flip and dive into the snow.

 

 

How fun, I wish I could do that without killing my back or breaking a leg, LOL!

I've been cooking up a storm since we've been snowed in!  Friday I decided to make Shredded beef sandwiches with Au Jus.  We didn't have any rolls and since I had to bake bread anyway, I decided to make rolls as well.  I used a recipe for french rolls---it was the perfect bread for these sandwiches!

Before:

And after:

I had pictures of the total finished meal but they disappeared or were accidentally deleted.  I'll assure you it was beautiful and delicious!

Here is what I was up to today!

What is it, you ask???  I found this recipe on Bakerella's site

Chocolate chip cookie dough brownies

Here they are cooked--now to cool so I can frost them with Chocolate Ganache

 YUM

Is it chocolate heaven or chocolate hell??

I made homemade pizza for dinner---A pepperoni and sausage, a chicken alfredo with sausage and a pepperoni calzone for Jaret:

 It's been snowing for days.  After we were done with the driveway, we figured the major snow was done.  Our area was taken off the storm warning so we figured a few flakes here and there but now big deal.  Were we wrong!

Big fat flakes coming down

Tama is starting to blend in!

Our grill snow gauge is getting over full!

The planter is over full, LOL!

This snow drift is on a hill and it's 2 feet taller than our deck!

This is the view out my living room window, beautiful!

Our pine is heavily flocked!

Time for sleep, time to gather energy for shoveling tomorrow!

We've got a nice fire going in the woodburner:

We've got some yummy brownies:

Some hot chocolate (not this but nearly as good!)

And we've got each other!

Life is good!

Still haven't finished the quilt.........

I still haven't worked on the quilt. But I was busy yesterday, regardless of my non-quilting. Monday is my bread baking day---I baked two beautiful loaves of white bread for the kids. I am looking for a good rye bread and pumpernickel bread recipe, none of the recipes I have tried are good enough--yet. If you have a good recipe for either, please, let me know!!

DS #1 asked me to make Chicken Alfredo for dinner last night. It was a more involved meal than I felt like making (since I make everything from scratch) but I agreed since he felt I hadn't made anything that he liked in a week, LOL! So, I spent 2 hours making this wonderful meal and at dinnertime his friends show up and he disappears. By the time he reappears, his meal is cold, but he says that it isn't a problem. He takes his plate and starts eating and then tells me that Alfredo sauce is too rich for him and he can't possibly eat it all! I look at him like WHAT???? I ask him why he wanted me to make it if he didn't like it---he said it just sounded good. He did end up eating it, though and said it was good.

For dessert, I decided to make this Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake that I saw Nigella Lawson make on her show Nigella Feasts on the Food Network. It turned out great, not too sweet and very chocolately. Quite rich after such a rich meal, but it was worth it!


One of the reasons I haven't been able to work on this quilt is the baby has been SO busy getting into everything, anytime I try to do something around the house, he is creating messes of gargantuan proportions! Or, he's climbing precariously on furniture or bookshelves or chairs, just one short iota away from landing on his head! DH and I put a padded floor in the bedroom to keep him safe, and let me tell you, it certainly got a workout from him yesterday! This kid climbed on EVERYTHING he could get his feet and hands onto and his new favorite activity is standing on things and flapping his arms and making noises like he is on his soapbox! It's actually very funny and quite cute--but I can't let him know that and encourage him further. If we are able to swing buying that farm, this kid is gonna have plenty of room to blow off some of this steam---along with his brothers!


Ok, well I'm off to get some housework done, feed the boys and hopefully have time to work on the quilt. I have some ideas for my next quilt which I am actually going to try and design one myself, instead of using a pattern. I saw some really neat fabric folding techniques on Simply Quilts last week and I'd like to give them a try. Oh, and I'd like to get all my UFO's done before summer (yeah right!).

Maybe I'll post later with news of a completed quilt, or at least one closer to completion!