Happy New Year!

So clearly I have not been a faithful blogger, but I have been looking forward to making trying to be better at this one of my new year's resolutions. Let's see how long it takes me to break this one.
The sad part is that even though I have been looking forward to this and have been on the computer twice earlier today, it did not occur to me that I should actually post something until after my husband came back from the dog park and became involved in some British comedy series (curse you Netflix "watch now").
Now you may be asking yourself why my husband would be at the dog park. This is why:

This is Rover. Our son picked out the name since this is "his" dog. It is a classic dog name and yet I have never actually known a dog with that name, but I love it.
Anyway, Rover joined our family the week before Thanksgiving. He is a Miniature Schnauzer. Neither my husband nor I have had a Miniature Schnauzer before, but we think this one is wonderful. So far he has learned the commands sit, stand and come. If he thinks you have a treat for him he will go back and forth between sit and stand until you realize that you should have a treat for him.
He loves to go outside and being a terrier, I am sure that he would love to find a mouse or gopher in our yard, but so far he has had to content himself with pincher bugs and earthworms. My only hope is that the rabbit we had visiting last year decides to not come back again this year.

+91/+12.375

Conquer (a.k.a. the best card game ever)

A few months ago our son decided we should make Saturday a family game night. I am sorry to say that we haven't been entirely faithful about this, but when we have we have had a good time. Ds would like us all to play Pokemon or some other such game, but I insist that we play something that we can all enjoy, that we know how to play or that has simple instructions.

Last night, I taught my son and daughter how to play Seven-Up, which was a success, but then my son said he had a game he wanted to teach us. It was clear that he was making up the rules as he went. The usual result is a game more convoluted than Fizzbin (original Star Trek: A Piece of the Action). This time it resulted in a simple, fun game that had us laughing out loud, and even lured my husband away from football long enough to give it a try.

If you would like to try it here are the rules (I would advise playing on an empty bladder):

Conquest
The Object of the Game: To be the first to get rid of all your cards.
Dealing: The game is played with a standard 52 card deck plus the two jokers. All cards are dealt out. It doesn't matter if some players have one more card than other players.
Play: Once all cards are dealt, one player lays down any ace. Aces are low (they are counted as ones). There is no waiting for everyone to get their cards in order.
Any other player may lay down any card of an equal or higher value or one of the same suit.
Other players continue to lay down cards of equal or higher value or of the same suit as the top card on the discard pile.
When a player lays down a card of the same suit, it may be of a lower value.
A joker may be played on any card and any card may be placed on top of a joker. This also makes it possible to bring the value of the top card back down so more cards may be played.
There is no order of play, except that a player may not make two plays in a row, unless all other players are unable to play.
In the event that no one is able to make another play, the game ends and the person with the fewest cards wins.

zentangle quilt

zentangle quilt
Originally uploaded by jdphoenix

Look at what my daughter did with my zentangle sampler. She colored it and gave it to me for my birthday. Yes, that was back in February, but she only just posted it now. I think it is beautiful. If you click on the picture it will take you to where she posted it on Flickr. You should be able to hit the "all sizes" button above the picture and get a larger image to see the detail.

Mom Mosaic and Mother's Day

For some reason I am thinking about Moms and Motherhood today.

1. The Mother & Child Union, 2. A Massachusetts Mother And Her Four Children, Including The Newest One, 3. mom and grandma in 1953, 4. kiss your mom today, 5. Off to visit mom...back soon!, 6. ~~~FLICKR MOMS, FLOWERS FOR YOU, TAKE ONE AND ENJOY IT ON THIS MOTHER'S DAY~~~ WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY.

I also wanted to share this beautiful bouquet of flowers I received for Mother's Day from my son:

Two Hershey's kisses bottom to bottom and wrapped in cellophane. Aren't they pretty?

My daughter gave me the Tim Hawkin's DVD "I'm No Rockstar." We had to stop it a few times so our sides could rest from all the laughing.Here's a little preview:



Heather loves the Fire Ants song which you really have to see in it's entirety to appreciate.

Who Wants Dessert?

We came home from eating out and my son asked if anyone wanted dessert. He had been very interested in having one of the desserts at the restaurant, but we were all too full. By the time we made it home things had settled a bit and he offered to fix dessert for all of us. I was the only one who took him up on it, because I like to encourage him and because I didn't expect anything like this:


He calls it a mud slider and even though I've seen the name on menus I don't think I've ever had one so I don't know if that is what one really looks like, but isn't it beautiful? I was sure impressed. And it was tasty, too.
Of course, he wanted to pose with his creation. Isn't he handsome? Not that I'm biased or anything.

Hooray!

My daughter just received her college diploma in the mail. The pomp and circumstance of graduating mid-year can be pretty overwhelming, I know, but the important thing is that she graduated magna cum laude. Clever girl. And hard working. Just the sort of person who would make an excellent employee. Hint.

From My Grandma's Recipe Box Zine

Several years ago when my Grandma had to move into a care facility, I got custody of her recipe boxes. My Grandma was a good cook and it is interesting to read her recipes because many of them have notes about how she liked it, how she modified it, when she made it and other interesting bits.
For this last Christmas I pulled out some that I remembered her making or that she had written something interesting on, made photocopies of them and assembled them into zines. The inside front cover has a photocopy of the photo in the upper left corner (I am the girl in red) and the inside back cover has a photocopy of the top of her recipe box.
Later, my sister-in-law asked if I had a copy of Grandma's hot chicken salad. I looked the both boxes (one is about 4 times bigger than a regular recipe box) and couldn't find anything. A little later, Kathy found her own copy of the recipe and sent me a copy of it. Here it is:

Hot Chicken Salad

2 cups diced chicken breast
2 tablespoons lemon juice
____________
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 teaspoon grated onion
1 cup sliced water chestnuts
_____________
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
buttered bread crumbs

Mix chicken and lemon juice. In separate bowl, mix next six ingredients well. Fold in chicken and don't over mix.
Put in greased casserole. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Sprinkle buttered bread crumbs over all.
Bake at 450 degrees fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until crumbs are brown and crisp.

Serves 4-6

This Is A Job For Chocolate

Sunday I drove my daughter to my mom's house where she lives while she goes to college. I spent the night so that I could take my mom to the hospital for an out-patient procedure that ended up taking a wee bit longer than expected.
It was supposed to take half an hour (the nurse's estimate) to an hour (my mom's estimate). After two and a half hours a nurse came out to talk to me in case I might (might?) be worried. It seems that their first plan of action had not gone well and they had switched to something else. She wasn't sure how much longer the new procedure would take.
I don't know either, but the two procedures together took a little over four hours.
The doctor said that he thought my mom would end up spending the night in the hospital because of the pain, but she wanted to go home. I don't think she would have been in less pain at the hospital and this way she got to sleep in her own bed, and eat the food she likes.
Needless to say, this situation called for chocolate. This is the recipe my mom gave me to try for her while she was mending.

Fudge Buttons
12 oz. chocolate kisses, unwrapped
1 7.5 oz jar marshmallow fluff
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 5 oz. can evaporated milk
4 tablespoons butter
Pecan halves

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, heat the sugar, milk and butter to boiling.
Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, put kisses and marshmallow fluff in large, heat-proof bowl.
Pour hot sugar mixture over the kisses and marshmallow fluff. Stir until kisses are melted and everything is blended.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and push a pecan half into the top before it cools. Allow to cool thoroughly.
These can be stored in an air-tight container for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

I never understand the "can be stored . . . for up to one week" stuff. Is this in case chocolate-hating aliens want to make some to have ready for their human visitors? Why would they still be there a week later? I don't get it.

Chez Nick's Crackers with Toppings

Chez Nick's Crackers and Toppings
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

Yesterday afternoon my 10 year old son asked me if I wanted to see a menu. This means he wants to play restaurant.
The menu is hand drawn with pencil on a folded sheet of printer paper.
On the front in a decorative border it says "Menu."
Inside the menu reads :
Breakfast
crerios: brings down heart burn, made with honey

Lunch
sandwich: choose
crackers with toppings:
Ham, chedder, ollives and Deli crisp
chees sandwich: buns with melted chees

Beverges
Milk
Orange juich
slushie
water

On the opposite side are a hand-drawn tic-tac-to (with a note to remind me that x=kiss and o=hug), and maze and two coupons. One is for 3 cents off. The other, complete with a bar code, is for a free breakfast.

Next to the crackers with toppings listed on the menu is a circle with TOP!! inside. I'm sure that means that it is the chef's recommendation so that is what I ordered. You can see what I got.

Chef Nick is an artist.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. There is an elaborate mathematical formula for figuring her age that means she is now younger than me. In the how-old-would-you-be-if-you
-didn't-know-how-old-you-are model she is probably about 37.
Anyway, happy birthday, mom. It is especially important to wish her a happy birthday this year because she is having her kidney's pounded with sound waves to break up some stones today. That whole cake and conical hat and friends model of celebrating is just so last year, for those of you who, like me, are out of the loop.
Since she is not going the traditional route this year, I thought she might enjoy looking at some cool things I have been looking at this last week.
Mimi Kirchner has some wonderful pincushions here and here.
There are amazing paper sculptures here.
And because platelets seem to be important in the lives of my mom, who donates them, and my daughter, who went through a little episode when she was 3 where her body decided it did not need platelets cluttering things up (her body was wrong), I thought they would both enjoy seeing these happy little platelets (of love). I know they look like little suns, but they are platelets.
One last thing. You can find the pattern for the Matryoshka dolls here.

This Is Not a Doily

Nick's Not-A-Doily
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

Nick wanted to know how to use the loom and since this was the smallest size they had, this is what he made. It is a bit large for a coaster, or small for a hot pad. It is definitely not a doily. Don't even think it. Not. A. Doily. (Apologies to my daughter, the writer, who hates it when people do that, but this is serious.)
It took him three crafting sessions to finish this and the only reason he did is that I promised to put a picture of it here if he did. Once he figured out how the process actually worked he was over it.

Student of the Month

Today my son received a student of the month award. The character attributes for this month are friendship and loyalty. Each class picks two students who best demonstrated those attributes. His dad and I were very pleased and proud. He was too. Afterwards, the students got to take their family members to the multipurpose room for cookies and milk or coffee. Very nice.

This is a picture of my son and husband enjoying their cookies. The funny thing is Nick wore a t-shirt from his old school instead of from this school. Oh well. At least the principal of this school was the principal of the old school and a lot of the teachers from that school also moved to this new one.

I Let Them Cut Me Open. . .

so that I could wish my dear daughter a Happy Birthday today. "I let them cut me open" is the phrase I use to try to make her feel guilty about all I have done for her. She laughs because I first told her how happy I was when they said I would be having a C-section.

Regardless of how she came to be here, I thank God that she is my daughter. Proof that God is good.

First Post - Original Title, Sign of Things to Come

I promised I would do this today, so even though I have been up most of the night with a sick boy, to the doctor and running around to three pharmacies, I am keeping this promise. Too easy to make another excuse and I want to do this.

The name of the blog comes from one of my grandma's nicknames for me. It was the nickname of a friend of hers when they were little. She liked the name enough to have it stick in her head for 30+ years until I was born. I hope it will stick in your head, too.

The image at the top of this post is of a hot pad I made using No. 10 crochet cotton. I just wanted to have something fun to look at on my very first post.