Welcome to 2017.  Two weeks of vacation almost done for the boys, along with the flu and a very subdued Christmas.  Boys are pretty much well, I'm still struggling somewhat.  This was a scaled down celebration, even with that, I should have started much earlier and finished sooner.  Not our best Christmas, but it needed to be done.  Hopefully next year can involve some travel, something we've wanted to do for quite some time and never seem to manage.  I'm planning to take this next semester off from school and work on the house and enjoy the last semester of Lucas's senior year.  Possibly look for a part time job too, college is looming and it's not cheap.  C managed to talk to most of his relatives.  I'm driving to see my mother and the grandies this week.  I guess I mainly logged on to record my goals for the new year (haha).  Also to try to leave some clues to boost my memory when we look back on these days.  Talking with my husband, there are some times that we seem to remember every little detail, and others that neither one of us have a clue about.  I hope to write more often to keep a record to fill in those blanks we're sure to have one day.

So in no particular order:

* Declutter and keep the house in order
* Get healthier
* Take care of house maintenance, finish painting, gutters, and flowerbeds.  Replace

bedroom floors.
* Travel more.
* Start reading again, I've been too burned out from reading textbooks.
* Bake again too
* Stay on budget
* Spend way less dining out, special occasions.

Pansy time

Yawn

Digging pups!

Puppy!

Pups should have her own blog, most of my phone pics are of her :)

1997

1997 a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

I've been uploading old pics to my computer/cloud... wow, time goes by so fast. Both of these kiddos are in college, a junior and freshman! Crazy..

Bird nest we saw while hiking

Bird nest we saw while hiking a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

We went hiking a couple of weeks ago at Turkey Mountain. I'd never been there, the trails were very nice. We're planning to go back soon!

I was thinking about exercise yesterday.  And for some reason started thinking about my Dad.  I don't think he ever did any formal exercise.  No running, walking, weights, jumping jacks... maybe back when he was a schoolboy, but probably not after.  He was always fairly fit, and never overweight, often leaning toward being underweight.  He just lived a fairly active lifestyle.  He was always outside working on cars or equipment during his time off. He was an electrician, so it wasn't a super strenuous job keeping him fit. (more active than a desk job, but still not like a loading dock!)  Just one of those things that dawned on me and made me think :)

Bosco!

Bosco! a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

My Bosco of the week picture. See the black dog in the background? Wonder why she's never in the picture fully, or she's turned away, or blurry? Yeah, she never holds still for pictures. I'm going to catch her sleepy and get a good picture :)

My Christmas Amarylis

Camera Roll-8 a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

It grew really tall, like crazy tall, but it did bloom and is beautiful, four blooms!

Coffee....

One of my favorite mugs.... I've started using smaller cups, three small cups instead of two larger ones.  Hotter coffee, and it feels indulgent :)  (third cup of coffee? why, sure!)  

Tomorrow is back to school for the kids, it's going to be hard to get back on schedule!  I've gotten up fairly early the last few days, and I'm dragging the kids out of bed this morning, so they can sleep tonight.  They still slept past nine, so they should be able to function today :)

I have a lot of  'goals' for the new year, so I'm trying to get organized and actually accomplish a few!  One of the main ones is to take more pictures, and use them in some way (blog, flickr, facebook....)  I grew up with parents who didn't take pictures.... I probably have less then twenty pictures total of my childhood, and no baby pictures whatsoever!   I want my kids to have those pictures to prompt memories, and for me too, for someday when I'm old :)


I also want to get to the beach this year, I've had this on my wish list for a long time.  The younger kids were babies when we saw the ocean last, they have no memories of it.  And I want to see mountains.  I see camping or cheap Pricelined hotels this summer :)  The last couple of years have been hectic and hard, planning and working to make this one  nicer.

Camera Roll-14 a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

Mmm

Mmm a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

Our tree blooming

Our tree blooming a photo by cmamcon on Flickr.

Pretty, but not the nicest scent.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Bosco taken with my new camera app

Snow day. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Still no school!

Another snow day.  C tells me the main roads are fairly clear, the worst part was our neighborhood.  The kiddos have music lessons this afternoon, I'm planning to take them.  Also going to make a trip to the library, it's supposed to be open noon to four.  I think we are prepared for more snow tomorrow night.  I might pick up another gallon of milk while I'm out (if I can find one, there has been shortages)  We should be okay either way :)

I refilled the bird feeders this weekend, the one by the window had a cute little bird feeding this morning.  I didn't get a pic though.  The backyard had many! birds... the pictures are taken through the door, so not great quality, but I didn't want to scare them away.

Snow and more snow!

Wow.  21 inches. I've never seen that much snow here.  Four days out of school and who knows if we will be back Monday. Kids are really happy though : )