Somebody Turns 4 Today!

Four dinosaurs for the 4-year-old!  Happy Birthday little-guy-soon-to-be-big-brother.  We love you endlessly and promise not to sing.  

Had his first injury trip to the ER last week after a fall split his lip.  Fortunately he remained relatively calm and no stitches were necessary.  When the doctor asked to see his lip he shook his finger and said "no, no, no"  and remarked when they put the blood pressure cuff on him "this is unexpected" and everyone laughed but he let them do what they had to.  The promise of a trip to WalMart for a treat and a toy helped.  

He is bursting with energy most of the time but I managed to snap this one without a blur when we were there celebrating his birthday.  

He shares a birthday with his great-grandfather, so wishing you a happy heavenly birthday too dad!

Edited to add his birthday celebration at daycare.

Jingle Belles - Holiday Leftovers

Leftovers.  Boy, do I have a collection of leftovers.  And not the kind in the Cool Whip containers in the refrigerator.  These are leftovers from Christmas card making.  They are easy to accumulate - those little extras and scraps.  I could probably do this challenge every week for a year.  But here we are at the beginning of May with the Jingle Belles Leftovers Challenge.  So into the bags and boxes I go.

I found some backgrounds that were stamped like snowfall and the little snowmen that had been stamped, colored and punched out with a circle punch.  In a bag I also found an assortment of die cut and punched snowflakes and was lucky when I dug further in to find a piece of dsp with the snowflake pattern that would cover the bottom of the blue panel that didn't have the snowfall.  Since there were two of the snowman circles and enough of the other elements I was able to put two cards together.

So hooray for all those extras that got to come off the bench and be part of a new game.

Now it's time to see what's been in everyone else's leftovers.  You can check out the Jingle Belles blog by clicking here.

Week 9 of The 100 Day Project

Somehow I lost a day while doing this group.  You'll notice that there is no 4/20.  I also got Michelle's age wrong but was able to go back and fix that after I took the pictures.

 

End of April Days

 April 14th was Look Up at the Sky Day - Here's looking up at the sky from under a frittilary looks like.

We had a lot going on in and around the house the last part of the month.  The house and garage got power washed and the new furnace was inspected (and passed).  We had already turned on the air-conditioner during the week of the 90° temps but also had the annual check-up scheduled for the next week.  The tall dead elm tree that sat on the property line was taken down (along with two more of the neighbor's trees).  And there were more health-related days with physicals and bloodwork, etc.  I did get to go to lunch with a former coworker that I haven't seen in months, and had tea with two of my good friends. 

They still had their upside-down tree decorated for Easter.

We had bananas on Banana Day (4/19), and celebrated pretzel day (4/16) with soft pretzels from Wawa.  HWNSNBP found Devil Dogs at Quik Check in time for Devil Dog Day (4/27) and an oatmeal cookie from Panera for Oatmeal Cookie Day (4/30).  

Big Word Day was 4/21 and here's one for you - Palimpsest - a manuscript or something written or created over something else that is still visible.  Something you see when an artist does a sketch and then changes it as they've painted without completely erasing or covering the original sketch.  Something also that they can find with scanning old artworks to see what lies beneath.  

Our first Table 7 member turned 70 this month and HWNSNBP suggested a theme for his card that involved his sports officiating.  I was lucky to have black and white striped paper in my stash as well as the football and basketball textured paper.

There were a couple of other birthdays.  I used these tags that I had created a while ago that were in my stash, added somemore embellishments to them and the card base.  Luckily one was hand-delivered and the other went in a box with something else in the mail so those larger flowers didn't get crushed. 

We delivered a raised bed planter to our son and daughter-in-law.  Here is GS1 helping set it up.

And the forget-me-nots are in full bloom both in the garden and everywhere else they've drifted.

May will be a busy month too.  GS3 is on the way, maybe sooner than later.  

Week 8 of The 100 Day Project 2023, Trees, and a Recipe

I'm pretty sure a couple of these are easy to decipher but good luck with 51 and 56.  

A view of the backyard from last weekend.....

And yesterday - saying goodbye to that big dead tree that had us worried.

I found out recently that those beautiful redbud trees are forageable.  The blossoms, leaves, and seed pods are all edible.  This came to my attention when I saw a post somewhere about making redbud jelly with the blossoms.  It was quite timely to see that as our trees burst into blossom last Friday and the procedure wasn't too complicated, I just needed to get Pectin and the right size jars.  

Picking the blossoms off the tree(s) doesn't take long, but I found that you need to pick what looks to be twice the quantity needed to get what's needed for the recipe because they grow in bunches and you need to pinch off the stems.  They say the stems can make them bitter, so I complied and pinched away.  I think that step took the longest time.  I needed a cup of blossoms.

Then I boiled them in 2 cups of water for 3 minutes.  See how the heat takes the color away as soon as they hit the water.

This "tea" is then strained and 3/4 cup of it, together with 3 tsp. pectin, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, and 2 drops of vanilla go back into the pot, stirred, and brought to a boil.  Then add 1 1/2 cups sugar and boil low/medium for 3 minutes.  You then pour the boiled liquid into clean 4 oz. jars, wipe the rims, and seal.  This is a refrigerator version, so it will only keep in the refrigerator for two weeks.  It can be canned for longer storage, but I opted not to do that this time as I didn't know how good it would taste.

Not quite as magenta as the trees, but pretty still.

It tastes a little like cotton candy with citrus and floral notes.  You know it would be sweet with all the sugar, but it really isn't too sweet, and it is flavorful.

I tried mine on an English muffin with a schmeer of cream cheese.  You could use this at a party over a small block of softened cream cheese using mini pretzels to "dip" into if you like that sweet and salty balance.  

They say you should pick the blossoms before they start wilting on the tree for optimum flavor.  After the first step, I still have enough "tea" left that I might freeze for another batch at a later date.

  The redbud has always been a favorite tree for me, not just because of the beautiful magenta blossoms, but the leaves are heart-shaped which I love.  There was a tree like this in the yard where I grew up, planted by my grandparents.  It is also sometimes called the "Judas" tree as it is said that that's the tree that Judas hung himself from when he betrayed Jesus.  They say the blossoms turned from white to red because of that.  We have had these trees for years in our yard and we get lots of small seedlings sprouting up everywhere from the seed pods.  Some of them we've replanted or given away.  I never knew that they had this edible property.

Big and Little April Celebrations So Far

Whew!  Is it already the third full week of April?  Time to catch up with those daily celebrations.

I don't think that there were any April Fool's Day pranks played here this year.  I told our GS1 that I was thinking of sending him a potato on April 1st but didn't get around to it.  Maybe next year.

I had the best Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich on PBJ Day using a giant jar of Bonne Maman 4 fruit preserves that was nearing expiration date.  And since it's now open, PBJ has been on the lunch menu more often these last weeks.  

Find a Rainbow Day on April 4th was me using my markers to catch up with my 100DayProject.

There was some thought put into the next couple of days but plans didn't work out as we were busy finishing up our projects for GS1's Golden Birthday.  What is a Golden Birthday you might ask (as some of our family and friends around a certain age have)?  It's when you turn the age of the date of your birthday - so in this instance, GS1 turned 7 on the 7th.  I think I promised pictures of the "Dots" project which was part of our birthday gift.  He's REALLY into Legos and our DIL saw something on IG that she thought Papa might be able to make in his workshop - a Lego Sorter.  It consists of series of wooden boxes of incremental height size with holes in each base in incremental hole size nested on top of each other with casters at the bottom.  The premise is to add the mixed up Legos in the top layer and shake the box so they will fall through the holes according to size making it easier to sort them.

This is the picture from the website she saw.  You could buy a finished one (for $199) or print out the free pattern.  You already know what we did about that.   He had to adapt the project to work with the tools that he had because this is made with a CNC machine that works in decimals. This wasn't too bad with the basic box(es).  But the size and spacing of the holes proved to be a little challenging converting those decimals to fractions.  (Guess who got to do that part of it?  Not the person with the degree related to math.)  The pattern had the size of the hole but not how far between each was so I pretty much had to figure that out with a little trial and error.  Thank goodness for a good eraser.  Then he had to find the drill bit that would most closely apply.

The top and bottom pieces.  (Each box is slightly larger than 12" square.) We opted not to put a knob on the top so 1)they could stack something on top of it if need be, and 2)they could add a plate for a build if they wanted (like in the picture).  He put ball casters on the bottom of the box.

And six more levels with the holes.

Including this level with holes that are for the "dust" - 720 of them.

He does have a drill press that he was able to use on the holes with the exception of the center ones that were just out of reach of the press - so he had to use the hand drill for those. I had made a pattern for each of the layers using parchment paper and using the measurements from the plan laid out one quarter of the square.  Since the paper is see-through I then folded the paper in half to mark the other side, then in quarters, until all the holes were marked for him to transfer to the wood.  You see that there are triangles without holes at each inside corner - they are there because the bottom of each level has a triangle of wood that extends from the bottom of that box into the one below so they stay together when shaking.  

It works okay.  DIL took a video of him using it but it was too shaky to use.  It was a learning experience for HWNSNBP - as are most of his first-time woodworking projects.   He considers it a plus when he learns new techniques like most creatives. Here is the card that I made for GS1.

That 7 was done with gold glitter paper and the happy birthday had a gold paper shadow.  Those "Legos" were 4 circle punches layered on top of each other to make them stick out like the real Lego bricks.  

His birthday was on Good Friday and he was off from school and his parents off from work.  They planned an indoor scavenger hunt for him that sent him through the house reading clues that were printed on some Lego scrapbook paper that I had given DIL.  The last clue led him to his suitcase and in it were tickets for a surprise, once in a lifetime, golden birthday trip to the Official Legoland and Kennedy Space Center in Florida over Easter break.  We were invited over for a grandparents brunch the next day and he was so excited about going.  We were celebrating with his choice of pizza and ice cream cake and there was a near meltdown that was avoided by the cake not being melted down when he was allowed to bring the cake in the box from the freezer in the garage to the kitchen and missed the counter.   Had it been a cake cake it would have been a disaster but you've heard of the 10 second rule - it was applied here with some trimming off of the icing before it was sliced up.

This is where they stayed in Florida the first part of the week.  He had a blast.  Actually, they all had a great time.

Following along at a build workshop.

And his very own Golden Birthday Brick. (I think it's on a keychain.)

That Saturday was also "Draw a Bird Day" and I managed to scribble some in my sketchbook when we got home that evening.  Cardinals or bluejays? Cedar waxwings?  Without color we'll never know.

We traveled to Delaware for Easter and got to spend some time with GS2 before SIL's family arrived later in the afternoon.  It's amazing what fun you can have with dinosaur cars, empty plastic Easter eggs, and a lazy Susan.

He got to go to the aquarium with his mom and dad the next day and now he wants "tentacles".

Two more days to share before I end this very long post.  Wednesday, April 12th was Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day and I made us some delicious grilled cheese with bacon and tomato sandwiches.

And Thursday was Scrabble Day.  I remembered that I had just come across some scrapbook paper that was a Scrabble board and one of the tiles, so I made a birthday card for my stash.  (I think it comes to 104 points.)

Thanks for sticking with this so far.  I'll be back with more tomorrow.