musical men part 1 : the guitarist | nappanee photographer

my house is full of musical men... uh... boys.

both of the guys are in their 4th year of piano lessons & this winter we got the big boy a guitar for christmas.

now, he didn't particularly want a guitar for christmas, but sometimes mom has a vision and children need a little fire lit beneath them.

the guitar is totally new territory for me.

i can safely say i know nothing about guitar.

so i called up uncle brad (who's been playing "for forty years") and asked if he could help get the boy going.

i had no idea how different guitar would be from other musical instruments (my experience being with the piano & clarinet).

i had no idea that pain & calluses were involved!

but i think it's safe to say that the boy is enjoying his lessons & getting to know a lot about his uncle brad all at the same time ☺

so now we have a guitarist in the house & i can't wait to see where he goes with it!

2010 goals update #1

well, if you read my goals post back in january, you know about just a few things i'm working on.
i thought i'd give an update, just for accountability's sake, mind you.

i am laughing more. really.
we've watched this movie a couple of times in the past several weeks.

everyone loves it & has their favorite lines.


and, i'm singing & dancing around the house quite a bit. this is striking fear into the hearts of the younguns. the name "aunt jill" is brought up over & over when i do this... whyever would that be?

we're making fun of just about anything we can, even a few things i really shouldn't mention. suffice it to say "we're laughing with you, not at you" has been stated more than once.

this past weekend we broke out a new game.

this game is truly 'good for a few laughs'. you get to read cards with crazy questions like "would you rather eat a hair sandwich or an earwax omelet" and you have to choose, then the other players guess what you chose & so on & so forth....

one of the questions posed to my husband was "would you rather have to sleep in a bed with a full cup of cracker crumbs & a full cup of sand poured inside, or have to walk around all day, everyday, with grape jelly in your shoes?" to which my 10 year old says "that's easy, i do that (the sleep in bed with sand part) pretty much every day all summer long!"

so true, so true.... we had a good laugh over that one.

now, about hanging pictures. i'm trying. i really am. i framed one, purchased a mat for another frame & they're all lying around here someplace, but i'm trying to gather a few other pictures to hang in groups. so far, nothing's on the walls, but i'm making progress.

and more art. i have an art project in the works for this week. we will be studying the work of wassily kandinsky.

i have tried several different approaches to projects & one of my favorites it to take a master/classic and work around their style. hopefully i will have photos to post here showing all of our masterpieces.

as for the vacation...

still working on that one☺

and i have realized that if i'm going to do better & be better, i need to pick one or two specifics & hit them hard. it's too vague to just try to be better & almost overwhelming. so this goal in itself has a whole set of mini goals that need to be put down on paper.

i'll keep you posted....

christmas baking...down to the wire

this year we took a break from school this week to get ready for christmas.

we did all of our baking this week. i try to focus on favorites because there are just too many out there, and let's face it: i'm not as ambitious as i used to be☺


so we started out with the christmas canes....here's my very eager helper workin ever so hard ...



i love how they look all laid out here...i think they're pretty, just like this....


but then we have to bake them & they turn out like this... very "christmassy". yep, it's a word☺


then on to the mexican wedding cakes....i'm sure there are other people making these with another name for them, but that's what the recipe we had growing up calls them. i think there's a story behind it, but presently, i don't remember... (presently, i am lucky i remember tomorrow is christmas)



and then my other, not-so-eager, you're-gonna-help-because-i-said-so helper whips up the homemade oreo batter. i can actually walk away & let him do it himself... hey, that's kind of nice...☺ (see the chex in the background, there's party mix ...yummmmmy!)

aahhhh, there they are, all nice & finished. you haven't lived till you taste these guys. they'll make you forget about those store bought cookies. and no, they're not woopie pies....woopie pies got nothin on these little suckers. they are D-lectible!


and then there's the fudge. my love hate relationship with fudge. sometimes i can make it, sometimes i can't. i prefer to believe it's the fudge's fault, not mine☺ but this time it turned out. i'm not sure, but i believe fudge deserves it's own close-up, don't you think? this is my mom's recipe called "fantasy fudge" - it's the best!

and last but not least my babies.
my sugar cookies.

some years, these cookies are all the christmas baking i do....


because these babies can stand alone. they are extraordinary. my aunt gave me the recipe when i was a teenager and they have been a family favorite ever since.



whew...i'm ready for a vacation now!

along with the sweets, i've made a big yummy cheeseball & a big batch of party mix. we should be all settled in for the nasty weather of the next few days.

and if all goes well, i'll get a little more last minute christmas knitting done☺

merry christmas!

mother's day & the wildflower bouquet

did you have a happy mother's day? i have to say that i did.

early at breakfast the boys game me homemade cards. i always love that.

i have to share the story behind these cards, though. my boys are always quick to make me things, drawings, cards, lego creations, etc. but for holidays, they sometimes aren't aware of the dates, so they need some help.

a week ago last saturday, i went out for my birthday with a friend. after i left, troy came to the realizion that the next day was mother's day, so he started rushing around to try & get something done for me. he had the boys sit down and make me cards, after which jacob said "dad, mother's day's next sunday!"...so hey, better early than never, because sometimes we totally forget about it!

so yesterday the guys decided to make me lunch after church, which was really great. they made me one of my favorite "summer" meals, blt's, corn on the cob, and a fruit salad. this is the type of meal we eat in the middle of the summer when we're eating primarily right out of the garden.

it's a little early for the garden, but because martin's had their big produce sale last week, we had some good things on hand.

and the flowers. jon & i went outside on friday looking to cut some flowers. i brought in some of my dwarf irises and he went on the search for wildflowers.

this is one of my favorite things. lots of little & big vases full of dandelions & other various flowers of the yard & field!

so i had a nice, albeit shedding, vase of wildflowers on the table for my mother's day meal!

thanks guys! i love you!

do you know what i know?

traditions are something that we've made a point to set out & accomplish over the past several years & christmas is a perfect time to surround with tradition...

so while you're getting ready for christmas day, are you minding the little things along the way? one of the traditions we have is to get out the "christmas movies" to watch throughout the month.

a short list of the ones we watch are:

a christmas carol (we have the version with george c. scott cause that's my personal favorite)

elf (cause it's sooo funny, i love will farrell probably a bit more than i should)

home alone (this is a favorite of the boys')

white christmas (my all-time favorite that as of yet, the boys find sappy)

polar express

family man (if you haven't seen it, you should)

a charlie brown christmas (there's something about the dancing & when snoopy kisses lucy...we're all rollin'!)

the santa clause (tim allen is just plain good in it)

it's a wonderful life (we've yet to buy this one, but it's hard to miss it on network tv)

to play with clay

i don't know about yours, but my kids love to create just about anything and one fine day they got the idea to make creatures with some modeling clay that had been minding it's own business in the drawer since christmas! i think they spent the entire afternoon coming up with these charming guys...for your viewing pleasure...



tip: for those of you who don't get excited about the kids getting stuff out that is messy & tends to get all over & not get cleaned up adequately, we like to get the painter's tape out, cover the entire working space with waxed paper, tape it down before they start playing-voila! quick & painless cleanup (uh...except for the floor!)

thankful tree

for any of you out there, like me, looking to do something fun & creative that will inspire your family & yourself, i read about an idea (especially for this time of year) of a "grateful" or "thankful" tree.

basically, you make up a tree & leaves and your family writes things that they're thankful/grateful for on a leaf each day & glues it to the tree. we're doing this from nov. 1 thru thanksgiving day.

i used a piece of posterboard, drew an outline of the tree & branches & cut out leaves in a variety of fall colors from construction paper. each family member writes down something they're thankful for on the leaf & glue-sticks it to the tree after dinner. so far it's been fun to see what we're thankful for & everyone's been eager to get their leaf up on the tree.