Hello, Blogging

Well, that didn't last long.

Thanks to this guy...

I am now learning to resize pictures to take up less space.  We also found out that a whole bunch of unused and doubles of my photos were being stored, but not actually used in my blog posts.  I still have a big project ahead of me going through 3 years worth of photos, but the bright side is it told me I am currently using 51.87% of my space (and when I clicked on upgrade storage this time, it said 52%- so I think that 15% message was just messed up).  That's with the few we resized and deleted today.
Like I said, it will be a long process to get everything sorted and resized, but... this does mean I will still have years and years of blogging ahead.  Hooray!

Goodbye, Blogging

I'm not going to be blogging for a while.  It's a bummer because I have so much to blog about.  But when I tried uploading pictures, it said I'm using 100% of my 1GB quota for storage.  But when I clicked on upgrade storage (just to see what it says, I am not paying for this), it says I've used 15% of my free 1GB.  That doesn't add up.  And I'm not computer savvy enough to figure it out.

So... Bye.

I'm Thankful For...

prioritizing, knowing that it is more important to me to help my husband sort balloons right now than write a blog post about things I'm grateful for like I did on Thanksgiving in 2010 and 2011.
I'm also thankful to know I can blog about those things later.

Joy Is...

Slowing down and enjoying precious moments like playing a game with your children.

Joy is also getting ready for National Game and Puzzle Week, November 18-24, 2012.

Homemade Bread of Kindness

Today, November 17, is Homemade Bread Day.

That's what we've been eating today. 

Tuesday, November 13, was World Kindness Day and the kids showed kindness by helping me grind wheat and make bread.

I also showed kindness... and patience. 
I love my big helpers.

How's that for a bread-themed post covering two holidays?  Oh yeah.

Pizza With The Works Except Anchovies Day 2012

November 12th, Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day.  Last year, we didn't have the best success with this holiday.  Check out my blog post from last year to learn why.
This year... success!
Homemade pizza.  Yumm.  We made three pizzas, each with two types on them.  I took pictures of two of the three finished pizzas, but the third someone got to before I got a picture, so I'll show you a picture of a slice from each of the six types.

From right to left-
Meat Lover's
Taco
Ham and Pineapple
Alfredo
Supreme
The Works

With The Works, we basically took leftover ingredients from the other types and piled them (and I mean piled them) on that half.  It was funny to see the difference in height on that one pizza from the Supreme half to The Works half.

This is the pizza I didn't get a finished picture of, but hopefully this view gives you an idea of what I was talking about with the height difference.

This was our second time celebrating this holiday and I think it is going to continue to be a tradition to make homemade pizza on this day.

Vinegar and Sandwiches

We've been so busy with certain things that I haven't written about a couple holidays we celebrated.

November 1st was Vinegar Day.  Jr. Jr. and I used vinegar and food coloring to color some macaroni.  I'd been wanting to make macaroni necklaces (which we never got around to doing but we still have the macaroni for when we do) and Jr. suggested we put the macaroni in the shape of turkeys, so we'll probably do that, too.  It is nice to know that we do have colored macaroni for projects when everyone gets over being sick.

November 3rd was Sandwich Day.  I completely forgot to take pictures, but we had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.  Anyone else have that when they were younger?  I found out that was something both my husband and I grew up with.  It's a comfort food.

Why Are You Crying?

Jeremy:  Do you want me to run over to the grocery store and get some more french bread?

Kristin:  No.  I can use the picture for a blog post.

November 8th has two holidays to combine.  It is Bram Stoker's birthday and it is Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day.  Like last year, I decided to celebrate by making garlic bread to go with our dinner.

While the garlic bread was in the oven, I decided to drain the spaghetti noodles I'd been cooking.  Unfortunately, I placed my finger in the wrong spot while holding the colander so when I poured the noodles and water in, the hot water went right through the holes onto my finger.  So as I tried to hold the pot and the colander with one hand and run cold water from the sink on the finger of my other hand and call Jeremy in to take the pot and colander, the garlic bread spent too much time in the oven and burned. 
When I opened the oven, smoke was coming out so I tried to call Jeremy to push the mute button on the smoke detector so it wouldn't beep beep beep at us, but I couldn't remember what the smoke detector was called so I burst into tears.
To go along with all of this, I have a cold, and there has been some excitement going on around here with the attention Balloon Bag End has been getting lately.  It's good stress.
So when the kids came in and asked, "Why are you crying?" I explained everything that was going on to them then summarized, "Hormones, pain, illness, and stress.  It can all be categorized into stress."

And guess what.  Nobody complained about the burnt garlic bread.

Hug A Bear Day 2012

Hug a Bear Day, November 7.  Some reasons we've hugged bears in our home today:
for a blog post picture,
to show love,
for comfort,
when frustrated,
just because.

By the way, the above pictures do not reflect all of these reasons, just the first.  I couldn't decide which picture to use so I used all of them.

Family Night- Chimpanzee

Last year I wrote about our family watching Oceans by DisneyNature and the theme food we had with it.
Tonight we watched another DisneyNature film.  Chimpanzee.
We were going to do it for Family Home Evening last night, but we ran out of time.  Though we did have lettuce with our dinner and my picky kids actually ate it.  For Family Home Evening treat we had flavored honey sticks, which we thought would go well with the movie (there was a scene where the chimpanzees were getting honey out of a tree).

Tonight we let the kids make a "nest" with blankets and pillows and the green thing (chimpanzees make nests in trees to sleep in).  Then we gave them "buckets" (empty clean margarine or sour cream containers) to put fruits and vegetables in (like they might put chimpanzee food in at the zoo- we wanted the food to be contained instead of all over the living room).  Then we turned on the movie and watched together as a family.
The kids again did a good job eating their fruits and vegetables.  We had a variety to choose from and they didn't complain but ate what they chose.  Yay!

I liked the movie and I liked the time spent with my family.

It was a good family activity.

Balloon Bag End

No more sneak peeks.  It is done.  Balloon Bag End. 
Jeremy built a room from Bag End from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" out of balloons.  It took up most of our living room and took 3 days to build.  It stayed up for a couple days then was demolished by our family in a couple more.
Jeremy and I had been working on putting together a time lapse video of it, and we finally finished.  Phew.
So here you go.