TV and Arcade Half Cabinet

This is Greg and Kylen trying out the new tv and the arcade cabinet Greg made.  As you can see, there was still a lot of cabinet construction going on!

Digital Scrapbooking

I've been bitten by the digital scrapbooking bug!  That's where most of my computer time has gone the last few weeks, which partially explains the gap in blogging.  2007 was my last year to fill up an album.  How did I get so far behind?  Life, I guess!  But after making a couple of  calendars, small books, our Christmas card, and talking to a friend who does their albums that way, I finally decided to give it a try.  Plus, the idea of making progress, ANY progress towards catching up is appealing.  It's been more time-consuming than I expected, but I know that's partly due to my own pickiness.  Then there's the learning curve and the fact that I take a LOT of pictures.  I'm also doing quite a bit of editing, since pictures from our older camera are not at the level of quality I'm used to.  I've been aiming for 2-4 pages/day - a snail's pace - but I'm more than half through!  After that, I'll do 2012 while the memories are recent, back to 2009, forward to 2013, alternating between distant and recent past.  At least that's the plan.  But there will likely be long breaks between.

I was first introduced to digital photo books by my aunt, ironically enough, the same year I stopped doing albums.  It was one of the neatest things I'd ever seen, but I couldn't get past the loss of quality and rich textures that "real" scrapbooking provides.  Then I discovered print quality could be pretty decent, and well . . . I got over my snobbish attitude out of desperation!  I've done enough real scrapbooking to know that the digital version is WAY faster for me.  On top of all that, Mixbook has a good selection of backgrounds, stickers, and what-nots to feed my need for variety in a creative project.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

A screen shot of a two page spread about painting Kylen's room:

Dessert Fondue

Between finishing our basement and running around like chickens, we are dismally behind on entertaining.  (Not to fear, we are determined to remedy that over the next several months!)  So it was a real treat when friends joined us recently for dessert.  I dusted off our fondue pot and tried a new sauce: Maple and Cinnamon.  White Chocolate and Toffee Swirl is still our favorite, but this one was delicious.  Ideal for winter - the combination reminded me of apple pie.  I thought the most complimentary dipper was apple slices, which is funny, because that wasn't even listed as a suggestion.  Thank you, Hubby!  (His idea.)  :)  These recipes are from The Fondue Cookbook by Gina Steer.  It's a beautiful little book, although many of the recipes include alcohol as an ingredient (which we don't drink).  Broth could probably be substituted in most cases.  There's a nice selection of main dishes and appetizers, but we've only tried desserts.

Fondue is a lot of fun with company!  Many people haven't experienced it, making for a memorable experience and conversation starter.  We're limited to three or fewer guests, since our supplies only accommodate six.  Maybe someday we'll purchase another set, but right now six feels about right for the prep work involved.

White Chocolate and Toffee Swirl ~ Serves 6 to 8
8 oz white chocolate, broken into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp corn syrup
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp light cream

Suggested Dippers:
Pear and pineapple wedges, strawberries, hazelnut sponge and Italian biscotti cookies

Directions:
Place chocolate and heavy cream in fondue pot.  Place over moderate heat, stirring frequently until chocolate has melted.  Transfer to the lit burner.

Place sugar, corn syrup, and butter in a small pan and heat gently until blended.  Remove from heat and stir in light cream.  Pour the toffee sauce on top of the white chocolate fondue in a swirl.  Serve with fruit and cookies for dipping.

Maple and Cinnamon ~ Serves 4
1/2 stick butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups light cream
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp cornstarch

Suggested Dippers:
Strawberries, melon balls, pineapple and mango wedges, ladyfingers, and graham crackers.  We served: apples, strawberries, and two kinds of cookies: Madeleines (resemble shells with ridges), and Biscoff (taste similar to graham crackers)

Directions:
Place butter with sugar and a tsp of the ground cinnamon in a saucepan.  Heat gently until sugar has dissolved.  Stir well.  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute.

Stir in cream and syrup.  Blend cornstarch with 1 tbsp water and stir into the pan.  Cook, stirring until mixture thickens.

Pour into fondue pot and place over lit burner.  If fondue starts to burn, remove from heat for a short time.  Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon.

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I didn't plan this to be super fancy, but the spread actually turned out quite pretty and Valentiney.  I was originally planning to serve tea, hence the tea cups, but changed my mind at the last minute and opted for a pitcher of milk.  I'm glad I did!  The milk was needed!

Cabinets

Our basement resembles a furniture factory!

 

 



Unorthodox Homework Position

There are lots of kids who homeschool in their pj's, but do you know any who sit like this?

January Update

Happy 2013, and praise the Lord for a great 2012!  Last year had its share of trials and difficulties like always, but those often seem to grow us, don't they?  I definitely grew!  My goal this year is to work on OCD tendencies: letting go when life isn't perfect, not stressing about whether everything is just so.  I want to rest in the Lord and remember that He's in control even when it may not seem like it.  I want to NOT assume the worst in others, to love people more, and enjoy the blessings God has given us.

Our year started busy, but things are finally slowing down to a comfortable level.  We're back in a regular school routine with two days of co-op under our belts.  I'm taking my first break from teaching in a very, very long time and . . . LOVING it!  I actually laughed when we got out of the car the first day, and there wasn't a bunch of stuff to put away.  Planning lessons, gathering and packing supplies, transporting stuff, getting it out for class, packing it back up, bringing it home, putting it all away . . . the entire process is pretty tiring, and I'm unusual in that I bring everything but the kitchen sink.  Well, not quite, but it does get ridiculous.  It'll be nice not worrying about all that for three months.  I get to chat with members, help where needed, observe classes.  With such an easy schedule, I'll probably be taking the classroom pictures for our yearbook, which I don't like doing (interrupting teachers and walking all over the place with sore feet!), but that will only require two days.  The other six should be fairly low key!

We've added voice lessons to Kylen's schooling.  He's not big into singing, but he needs to while practicing guitar.  We're hoping lessons will help him improve in that area, and the instructor is a good friend, which is a huge bonus!  At co-op, Kylen's taking basketball and continuing with Latin/Greek roots and guitar.  So he's actually practicing guitar for two different instructors: one at co-op, and one through private lessons.  He seems to be handling it well.  We are continuing with math, history, science, geography, Bible, God's World News, German, and writing stories.  I also scheduled his annual testing for later this month.

Oh!  And we're happy with how the basement is progressing!  The main areas should be finished by February.  We'll be completing the office and bath later, but those areas will be behind closed doors.  It will LOOK finished when we walk down there, and that will be amazing!

Praying all of you are having a wonderful start to your year.  I'm looking forward to another 12 months of sporadic blogging and hope you enjoy stopping by occasionally, seeing what we're up to, maybe even finding something of use or encouragement now and then.  Blessings!  :)

Carpet

Greg and Kylen spent many hours over several days scraping primer/texture/paint off the entire floor to ensure the carpet would stick when glued down.  Normally it wouldn't matter with regular carpet and padding, but we decided on commercial carpet without padding.  We wanted the floor to be hard enough to bounce balls.  After most of the scraping was done, we were told it wasn't necessary.  Oh well.  The boys got a good workout!

Here the upper "less white" portion had already been scraped while the lower area hadn't.

The carpet people came two days in a row, only staying 2 or 3 hours each time.  The first day they added cement in a spot where the floor was too low and left it to dry overnight.  The second day they installed the carpet.  We were pleased with how well it matched our paint color!



Greg's been installing outlets.  Crazy how many of them are required by law!

 

 

The boys were SOOO excited about being able to play hockey again!  They had their first game that evening on the same day it was installed.

  

 

Next step: cabinets and trim!