A painting party.

We went to a painting party the other day and painted this.  

And ... back to the January blahs.

We've had snow a couple of days.  My husband worked from home one day.  I called in one day.  My son's school was canceled a couple of days and the school my daughter works at was closed as well.  So we've been home a lot.  It's been okay.  I always feel like it's a nice break until something gets canceled that I really want to go to!  We've have to miss our D&D and board game nights for 2 weeks and that annoyed me a bit.  I like to get out and do the fun things.  :-)

Before we know it, it will be February!

Goodbye Christmas 2017

We finally had our last Christmas party this weekend.  The weather was not great.  We had a snow/ice event on Friday and the temperature was in the teens, but hey, it was a white Christmas at last.  :-)   We were planning on doing it today, Monday, Martin Luther King day because some people had the day off, but then 2 of them got mandatory overtime and we made a last minute switch and did it on Saturday.   I couldn't make all the food I wanted to make because I couldn't go to the grocery, but we had enough and it was good.   It was the first time we gathered with my son and daughter-in-law in their home, which was cool.

My favorite 3 things from the evening were when the alfredo sauce got ruined and my daughter-in-law said she could make it again, but she didn't have any more heavy whipping cream and my sister-in-law-to-be said: "Oh, we have some in the car."  What are the odds?

Then we played Saboteur which is my current favorite of all the board games we have.

Then when we got home, youngest son had started getting a virus (not the flu, we don't think) and was feeling kind of pitiful and didn't feel like gathering up his stuff, so he said to his sister, "would you get my ear buds?"  and she said "where are they?" and he said "under Mom's butt".   LoL.  I don't know why he didn't ask me to get them.

January. Blah.

January, not my favorite month.  The weather is weird.  Reality starts to hit after the holidays.  It's gloomy looking outside. We still haven't got the Christmas tree down or indeed, finished celebrating Christmas.  We'll be having one of our Christmas dinners on Martin Luther King day.  We might ought to plan it that way every year, at least it gives us something to look forward to in the middle of the January blahs. 

I feel really fat from the holidays and my crazy consumption of white chocolate peppermint Hershey's kisses.  Those things are my kryptonite.  The time to diet is here and I'm not really doing it, although I have been eating my leafy greens and doing a little bit of the fasting.  I'm hoping that the discipline will come with that, like it did last year.  I built up to it and then was successful at it for most of the year, only falling off the bandwagon in September. 

This time of year I just feel like sighing every little while.

Sigh.

And they're predicting snow tomorrow which normally I'd be really excited about, but since I have an hour commute tomorrow, I'm not. 

Sigh.

On a more upbeat note, youngest son is back to school He's having a good time, back in chorus with his chorus friends and talking to people, speaking out in class.  He's going to join some clubs and groups this semester, hopefully.   The financial aid didn't completely cover his expenses this semester and so we had to cough up for that. 

Sigh.

It's January.

 

New Years Resolutions.

Eat Leafy Greens to Slow Brain Aging

Why Fasting could be the key to anti-aging.

New years resoluting - I always do it and even if I don't make it the whole year, I feel that my life is improved by my efforts. This year, I plan to lose some weight, get back into intermittent fasting and eat more leafy greens.  I need to keep my brain healthy.  Fasting aids in keeping your brain healthy and so does eating more leafy greens.  These articles confirm articles I have previously read.  I need to read them every little while to keep me on track.

My word for the year is going to be "LEAFY."

Yes, I'm aware I'm a week late.  New Years day and the first week of going back to work is too stressful a time.

Go ahead.  Join me.  Let's start now.

Finally.

My son was able to figure out the school's crazy website and get his complete set of college grades.  The report card that they had on there only had grades for 2 of the 5 classes so he had to go to other sites to find the other ones.  The school uses Blackboard and 2 other websites to post grades and assignments, which is kind of confusing.  Anyway, here they are.

Writing 1 - A
Freshman Year Experience - B
History - A
Algebra 1 - C
Chorus - A  (all you have to do is show up to get an A).

He said that ironically, the Freshman Year Experience course was the most difficult.  Algebra was not hard for him at all, but he did neglect to turn in 2 quizzes.  I don't know if that was due to the crazy websites or his forgetfulness.  His overall GPA was 3.30, which is better than I did my first semester of college and I'm not dyslexic/dysgraphic and ADHD.   He's doing great. 

He starts back next week and will be taking writing 2, history 2, physics, sociology, music, physics lab and chorus.  His dad and I want him to drop one class for monetary reasons and because we don't think his time management skills are quite up to this kind of workload yet.

We'll see.

I should have known.

No holiday ever goes without a hitch.  We were going to have a holiday party today (and I was really, really looking forward to it) but my daughter-in-law, our hostess, has the flu.  :-(    We have to cancel and try to reschedule it, taking into account 8 people's work and school schedules.  That's not going to be easy.  We're beginning a texting party to see when we can nail down another date.  :-P   Now my son thinks he's getting it too.  My daughter-in-law is feeling really, really, bad, so prayers please. 

Last night we played some of the new board games.   This one is Monarch.   It's pretty good,  though not my favourite type of game.  I like the silly party games and my family likes strategy games.