New Year's Eve

We rarely see the new year on New Year's Eve (usually opting for the Netflix countdown and an early bedtime.)  This year though, we made it to welcome in 2023!!!

We bought the makings for two different types of punch, but the second one was not good at all. lol

The first punch was sherbet and sprite, the second was lime juice concentrate with sprite.  I think you are supposed to use ginger ale with it.  Either way, it did not taste good in the least.  We did all enjoy the first round of punch though. = )

Happy New Year from the Crocksatrs!!!

later days

edit 1-17-23: backdated for continuity

Finishing out 2020

295th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was 34F.  I woke up this morning to a very quiet street.  When I looked outside, I was greeted with white everything.

By the time I got on my layers and made it outside with my shovel, several of my neighbors were also out clearing away the snow.

Against our snow gauge:

The consistency of the snow was strange.  It was fluffy and frozen on top, but mushy and wet on the ground.  So, I wasn't slipping around as I cleared aw the snow, and the road seemed to be pretty clear as well.  Once I finished clearing the snow, I decided to make the slow trip to Sam's club to get salt for the water softener.  My first stop was the car wash though, because Billy's side and back windows were pretty dirty, and I needed all my line of sights as clear as possible.

At the carwash I found that my mom was willing to make the trip out with me, so I went to Sarah's to pick her up.  All the roads were plowed, and some were only wet, not even slushy, until I got to her neighborhood.

The trip up was uneventful, and Sam's was not as busy as usual, for a Saturday anyhow, I'm sure.  Our next stop was the new urban Meijer in downtown Lansing.  There was plenty of parking, and it was a very nice store.  I'd heard lots of good reviews of their sandwich shop online, so we split "the Lugnut" sub.  It was very good!

When I arrived home, Billy and I had to make several trips to unload all the salt that I bought.  Billy had put together the camping stove in my absence, so once the groceries were tucked away, we loaded it up with wood and even cooked up some eggs!

The stove puts out lots of heat, and I can see how it would make a tent (or any enclosed area) warm enough to be hospitable. 

For dinner we had leftovers and sandwiches.  Everyone snacked so much on the fruits and other goodies that I brought home from Sam's that I didn't make the cornbread casserole that Juliet and I assembled yesterday.

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294th day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 32F,  which gave us a snowy rainy mix, and made the roads and sidewalks slushy and nasty.  Then tonight, they will freeze over. = (

For a late breakfast I turned the leftover bread from yesterday into French Toast!  It was quite good! 

For the afternoon and evening, I put out a charcuterie spread.  I also made some cornbread muffins, but they weren't nearly as good as the last round.  I must have used the other mix last time.

Emily was not a fan of my cornbread muffins.

Today felt like a good day to do a pantry clean out!  I threw out half a dozen expired things, and placed a few things that I hadn't even open in the pile to see if my mom or sister could use.  Once I finished that, it felt so good, I cleaned out the bathroom closet next!  I threw out bags of expired creams and medication, and managed a small box of things to send to the thrift store.

My resolution this year is to learn how to do something new every week.  This week was how to make a plastic bag rope, without using any tools.  It was a really easy start, and hopefully by the end of the year, I will know 52 new useful skills!

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293rd day of Quarantine.

32F was the expected high.  We got a little snow, but it must have been on the 'frozen' side of 32F because it didn't melt on the ground and just stayed powdery.

I finished my "winter break" to do list today!  The final item was to run copies of the the math pages for WGJ, and I did it!  Grace even helped me hole punch them and get them into binders this time. = )  

We broke out the hats early, so that we could celebrate the entire day, since I had no intention of staying up until midnight.

I made up an egg and ham casserole to finish off the rest of our Christmas ham.  I'm pleased to say that we threw out very little this year (and it had all be made into other things, but we just ran out of time to eat it!)

I also baked a loaf of homemade bread today! (I had to mix it up yesterday though so that I could sit for 24 hours.)  This is something that was super popular to do in 2020, but I didn't have a big enough, oven safe pot.  Since Billy got me a dutch oven for Christmas, I have now checked a box off the popular to do in 2020 list!

For dinner we had leftovers.

New year at 9:30, but we didn't get to watch the Netflix ball drop, because I could not find it. The kids didn't complain, since they got to make lots of loud noise and drink sparkling grape juice. = )

And, now I've updated my blog every single day, for an entire year!!! #resolutioncomplete

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292nd Day of Quarantine.

38F is the expected high.

Sandwiches made to order for dinner.

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291st Day of Quarantine.

The expected high was 30F.

Today I went to the thrift store with Emily, and we met up with Avia. It was the final Tuesday of the month, which is their 50% off of everything day.  Had we not been meeting my mom, we would not have even gone in.  We were after some puzzles, since we knocked out the one yesterday in one evening!  Sadly, they only had one 300 piece puzzle, and it was the type with a single interlocking shape (versus the lovely assortment we had in yesterday's puzzle.)  We waited in line a long time to check out, and they had all three registers going.

We did come home with 3 new puzzles, which Emily, Grace and Juliet put together all in one evening!

My mom sent us home with a pot of New England boiled Dinner that she made with the ham bone from Christmas dinner.  Everyone enjoyed it, once they got over the cabbage smell. I even had a second helping, since it's been years since I've had it. 

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290th Day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 32F.

Emily, Grace and I went to two different thrift shops today. We made a donation at our first stop, then bought some books, a puzzle, and a few toys at the second.  Our final stop of the day was menards to get some cedar blocks.

Juliet was very excited to work on the puzzle, so we spent some time working on in, before our "watch party" with Aunt Wanda.  She sent us a very cool Nutcracker popcorn tin that was a music box!  Then, at 7, we logged into Amazon and watched the Nutcracker ballet, while we chatted with her off to the side!

William wasn't terribly interested in the ballet, but did come over to enjoy the popcorn.

After the show, we finished the puzzle!  It turns out that it was one piece short. = (  So, we marked it on the box so that the next person will know.

Coming home so close to our watch time, all I managed to do was throw together some leftover ham and other cold cuts for dinner with some sliced up fruits and veggies.

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289th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was a dry 38F.

After online church, I ran the recycling over to Sarah's, but was noisy enough that it upset Seven and I woke her up anyhow. My next stop was getting gas and groceries.

Avia came over after her church service ended (and I wouldn't have run by the recycling if I'd known that!)  She played a long round of Uno with Emily, Grace and Juliet.

I knocked out my sewing project that was on my to do list.  Sarah requested a new (larger) Aggie dog collar for Seven.  It didn't take me long once I sat down and worked on it.

We had oven heated pizza for dinner,

I watched a couple of Christmas movies, despite Christmas having passed: Noelle and Godmothered.  Both were really cute.

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later days

New Year's Celebration

Billy had to work New Year's Eve, and it snowed.  Sarah came over and kindly cleared my sidewalk and driveway, since she'd already finished hers.

 I was glad she put down so much salt, because it snowed the majority of the day!

We played an abbreviated version of Bunko.  Each person rolls and whomever scores the highest in consecutive rolls (or a Bunko) takes the round.  All the other rules are the same.  The twins were able to play with us too, which was really nice, since the big kids tend to pick games that require reading.

We kicked off celebration just before Billy made it home.  We made a 7up and lime sherbet punch.  It's my favorite.  Only Grace seemed to enjoy it as much as I do.  I made a rookie mistake though and chilled the 7up which made the sherbet not melt as quickly so it was not as good fresh as it was after a little while on the table.

I had collected a nice group of hats and noise makers for my crew.  Note everyone participated :cough::Billy::cough: and Grace fell asleep, but the rest of us rocked our decorations!

Also, the kids discovered the sonic racing game on the Wii and have been having a great time with it. = )  William has been a super patient teacher with the twins, it's been really good.  Of course, after a while, the twins like to fight about everything, so the game quickly dissolves from there.

Eating our Christmas dinner (on New Year's Day) because my oven is back in buisness!

The holiday (today) was above freezing, so most of the snow on the roads and sidewalks started to melt.  It was a mixture of sunny and cloudy, but the high was probably around 40F with no new precipitation.

later days