2020 Blue Jeans Week 4

We had a great week.  Lots of basketball with a tournament this week, then I headed to St. Louis to meet up with Miss A for a few days as she looked at a grad school there.  I have been seeing a few American Bald Eagles, and finally was able to get a picture of one.  Pretty awesome to see them in the wild.  It has been a good week, take a look...

With an extra day off school, Mr J got out his train stuff and make a cool train track around the house.  Brought back lots of memories when he did that every day as a little kid!

An American Bald Eagle that we saw while out walking.  I have seen several lately out walking on the trails and in the back yard and while driving, This one I was able to get a picture of. So awesome!

Basketball tournament week--Miss E made the front page of the sports section one day this week as they covered their game.  They played awesome!

Girls ended up getting 3rd place in their tournament which was great!  An awesome group of girls!

And Mr J had his first forensics tournament this week.  He did a poetry piece and got 1st place and qualified for state!  Their team as a whole got 1st place too which was awesome!!!

Miss A flew to St. Louis, MO and I drove to join her as she explored Washington University in St. Louis as an option for grad school.  They have a beautiful campus, and she was very impressed with their program!  She is exploring a few more schools over the next few weeks, so we will be excited to see where she lands in the fall!

Visited the Arch in St. Louis.  No, I did not go up it.  Heights are not my thing, and Miss A had been up it before when we had been to St. Louis for a summer vacation a few years ago, so we just walked around and admired it from the ground level.  St. Louis is a fun city with lots of stuff to do!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 3

Hello!  Hope you all had a good week!  We are enjoying being back into basketball--lots and lots of basketball.  Mr J is in the pep band that plays at the basketball games which is fun.  Staying connected with our college girls and enjoying life.  Take a look at our week...

Miss O is taking an ASL class and has to teach someone 15 minutes each week, so when she video calls on Sundays she teaches Miss E and Mr J.  It has been fun for them.  They can pray in ASL now which is cool!

I walk in the mornings with a friend at an indoor gym.  This was the scene one morning this week.  So pretty with the frosted branches and the sunshine!  It was cold, so I was happy to walk indoors!

Our school board.  We had elections and had one change, so they got a picture of the new board.  I was reelected for 4 more years.  It doesn't seem like I have already been serving for over 4 years.  Time flies!  Great people I am privileged to serve with!

Basketball game and Mr J playing in the pep band.  Fun to see him play.  His older sisters also played, so it was fun to send them this picture of their brother following in their footsteps!

One of my goals for this year is to try a unique and different recipe each month.  For January I made Challah bread--a Jewish bread served during celebrations.  It is soft and slightly sweet, and we all liked it.  I have never made a braided bread before.  Trying to decide what to make next month.....I think I might attempt creme brulee??

We were going through some of the storage rooms in the basement and found this old accordion.  Ben used to play when he was in elementary/high school.  This one isn't totally in working condition, but it was fun to get it out and hear it.  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!  Come back soon!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 2

Back to school and early morning schedules this week.  Ugh.  Welcome 2020 and back to "normal" after the holidays, if normal really exits, and I don't know that it truly does.  Anyway, it was a good week.  Take a look....

For years we have had the tradition that the first Monday of each new year we write down our goals for the year. We focus on 4 different areas--physical, temporal, spiritual and intellectual.  We make posters of them and then put them up in our rooms where we can see them daily to remind us of our goals.  

I was re-elected to the school board for another 4 year term and went in to do my swearing in for the office this last week.  

We had breakfast for dinner this last week and had cinnamon rolls for dessert.  I love cinnamon rolls, and this recipe is so quick!  It is a flaky buttermilk biscuit type cinnamon roll versus a yeast bread one, and my family loves them so much!   They prefer these over the traditional yeast ones, and I don't mind because these are so quick and so yummy!  We had friends over for dinner tonight, and they said they were the best cinnamon rolls they had ever eaten.  Good stuff!

I do a lot of baking, and I personally feel like using real vanilla makes a difference in baking, but real vanilla is so dang expensive!  So last year I looked into how to make my own vanilla, and I did it!  It was so good!  I have about used up all I made, so Miss E was helping me make another batch for this year.  

More games.  We are loving different board games and playing new ones when we have time in the evenings and especially on weekends!

My mom is out of town, so we enjoyed having my Dad join us for dinner.  We all love hearing his stories!  Grandpas are the best!

Got a winter storm this weekend.  This was Ben shoveling Saturday.  It was pretty, and we didn't need to go anywhere, so we could just enjoy it from inside!  I like it when that happens!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week!  Come back soon!

2019 Reading List

Every year one of my goals is to read as many books as I will have candles on my cake that year.  I do pretty good.  Most years I go over, some years I have barely made it, and I can only think of one year I didn't make it.  I have been doing this goal for many, many years.  I try to read at least 5 non-fiction books a year.  They are normally not my favorite.  I just love fiction, but I did get the 5 non-fiction in this year.  These are not in any certain order, just in the order I read them through the year.

1.  Seasons of Salvation by Dennis L Mangrum
2.  As You Are by Sarah M Eden
3.  The Spy by Clive Cussler
4.  Kiss of the Spindle by Nancy Campbell Allen
5.  Saving Mona Lisa--the Battle to Protect the Louve and its Treasurers from the Nazi by Gerri Chanel--non-fiction
6.  The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews
7.  The Race by Clive Cussler
8.  Glimmer of Hope by Sarah M Eden
9.  The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
10.  Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
11.  The Book of Mormon--non-fiction
12.  A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
13.  The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen
14.  Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
15.  A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen
16.  The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
17.  The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley
18.  The Lost Airman:  A true story of escape from Nazi-occupied France by Seth Meyerowitz--non-fiction
19.  The Book of Mormon--non-fiction
20.  Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
21.  Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan
22.  Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
23.  Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
24.  Audrey Hepburn:  A Biography by Warren G Harris--non-fiction
25.  Ranger's Apprentice:  The Red Fox Clan by John Flanagan
26.  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
27.  The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
28.  Ranger Apprentice:  Duel at Araleun by John Flanagan
29.  The House I loved by Tatiana De Rosnay
30.  The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman
31.  The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope J Stokes
32.  The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
33.  The Things we Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
34.  The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
35.  Palisades Park by Alan Brennert
36.  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller--non-fiction
37.  The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley
38.  Lies Jane Austen told Me by Julie Wright
39.  The Art of Healing Heardbeats by Jan Philipp Sendker
40.  Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
41.  Church of the Small Things by Melanie Shankle--non-fiction
42.  The Lady in the Coppergate Tower by Nancy Campbell Allen
43.  The Christmas Basket by Debbie Macomber
44.  Christmas Letters by Debbie Macomber
45.  Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
46.  Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber
47.  The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber
48.  The New Testament--non-fiction

Can't say that I had an absolute favorite this year.  Lots of good ones.  Lots of good World War II historical novels.  Looking forward to more good reads in 2020!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 1

Welcome 2020!  Started the new year off right with a great breakfast and enjoyed the last few days of having all the kids home.  College girls had to fly back Friday as school started for them the 6th.  Sure loved having everyone home and sad to see them go!  Take a look....

Ben made aebleskivers for breakfast on New Year's day.  That is a tradition he got from his Dad.  They are a round Danish pancake that we love!

Enjoying some relaxing family time and doing puzzles!

More fun game time before the older girls leave!

My mom and I are part of a fun book group that meets every other month.  This month my mom hosted and we had read an English Regency Christmas book, so my awesome mom decided to do an English style tea for our book group.  I brought along Miss E because she had read the book, and several others joined us a little bit late, but it was a lot of fun and yummy food!

Our English style "tea" which was actually wassail and mini chicken and cranberry sandwiches, lemon curd pastries and scones with clotted cream and jam.  Yummy!

Welcome 2020!  Hope it is a great year for all!!

2019 Blue Jeans Wrap-up

Wrapping up 2019.  It was a good year.  The theme of our Christmas and New Year's break has definitely been games.  Since last summer when I made it a goal to play one game a day, we have been loving lots of different games.  It was the Christmas of games.  Everyone got at least one new game to play.  So much fun!  Take a look at our end of the year and hope your had a wonderful New Year!

Sunday we volunteered at the soup kitchen we always do.  It was nice to have the whole family there!  It was sweet to see the people visiting with Miss A and Miss O and having missed them just like us!

Just some of the many games we got for Christmas and have been playing over the break!

Playing one of the new games!

And relaxing and doing puzzles is another favorite activity at our house.

During the day of New Year's Eve, Ben and I went on a bike ride on the trails by our house, and there were these two goats on the trails.  Weird!  And then we rode past them and they ran after us!  They followed us for at least a mile (and we were not going slow!)  We got into town and called the police.  They had collars so we knew they were somebody's.  Thankfully the owners were found.  They had been walking them on the trails and lost them, and they found us!  A memorable way to end the year!

New Year's Eve we spent playing more of our games.  It was a fun way to celebrate the end of a great year!  Welcome 2020!

Thanks for following us this year!  Hope you had a great year and looking forward to next!  Come back soon!