Author: Lois Houston

I'm a sweet tea drinkin' southern gal who loves to cook, bake, crochet, and read. Check out my blog for posts about parenting, faith, books, crafts, planning, baking, cooking, and life in general.

Project Life Tuesday ~ 14 May 13

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Hope your week is treating you well – so far so good for us here. It’s time for another update on my Project Life pages…

A little background

The Mom CreativeThis year, I’m doing my Project Life album digitally. I’m using Creative Memories’ Storybook Creator software and Becky Higgins’ Turquoise Edition (for the most part)  I’ve also purchased these nifty little overlays that allow my pages to look like true pocket pages (I’m loving them).

I’m planning to print my pages as a book – hopefully, it will all fit in one volume and take up less space on the shelf than the 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 versions which are 2 volumes (2 3” binders) each!

This week’s pages

2013 Family Album - Page 018

The journaling reads:

Spring is springing and one of the ways we can tell is that, for the first time ever, the farmer has transformed the hay bales into bunny rabbits! We are so excited. * One of our new traditions is homemade pizzas on Friday nights * My latest snack obsession are these “protein bites” that are made from oatmeal, honey, peanut butter and coconut. They are SO good. * My latest crochet project is this beautiful afghan I’m hoping to make for the living room.

And the right side page:

2013 Family Album - Page 019

Top journaling:

Taking advantage of his time off of work, Rob decided to paint for me. He spent the better part of the week painting the foyer, kitchen, stairs and landing. My SuperMan!

Bottom journaling:

Very interesting fortune cookie at dinner and even funnier text with my boss the next day ~ hee hee!

Love my little one’s Visitor’s Day at dance – one of the highlights of the year. I love to see how much progress she’s made since the beginning of the year – and then again between Visitor’s Day and recital day two months later.

What about you?

How are your Project Life pages coming along?

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Mother’s Day, Menu Planning and Counting Down to Summertime

Happy Day-After-Mother’s-Day everyone!

I hope those of you who are mothers (by nature or by heart) had a terrific day and were spoiled and pampered by your families.  We had a nice day here.

SuperMan and the girls gave me some beautiful plants ~ a fern and hibiscus for my back deck ~ and some very sweet cards that were made with lots of love and care by them.  I also got the devotional that I’ve been eyeing for a long time – very excited about digging into that one.

Little Bit made the cutest things for me at school:

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LOVE the answers she put – especially #10, #12 and #4.  A Spa Day at Disney World – so cute! And #7 – I guess she forgets that I do that for work! LOL

Here’s a shot of the three of us girls that SuperMan took yesterday –

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And moving on to Menu Planning and back to the real world, here’s what we have planned this week:

  • Fajitas (using up some freezer meats)
  • Grilled chicken breasts with pesto pasta
  • Hamburgers on the grill

What’s on your menu for the week?

We’re also counting down the days until Summer Break – 10 and counting. We can hardly wait!!!

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Field Day

Today was Little Bit’s Field Day at school.  Since SuperMan had the week off of work, he went to watch her ~ about which she was VERY excited.  She’s really missed her Daddy while he was working those long hours the past month.  She was really looking forward to having her Daddy with her today – so much so that she wanted him to stay at school all day.

SuperMan got some great action shots –

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First, there was the mud course (apparently)

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And then the marble moving race (?)

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That nasty water gives me the heebie-jeebies…

Then they moved on to the very large, oversized ring toss

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And your traditional relay races – the sack race and egg race
(except in this case it was a golf ball and not an egg – a fact about which the boys were reported to be extremely disappointed.)

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More fun – not quite sure about this one with the baseball bat – apparently she was supposed to spin around three times with her forehead on the bat and then run back to the group?  I told her that I would’ve fallen on my face if I’d tried that one.

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Hula hoopin’

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And her favorite activity of the day – the Tug o’War. I think it is because she gets to use those oh-so-strong dancer’s legs and annihilate the boys. (that’s my girl!)

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Look at that determination!

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I bet she will sleep good tonight.  What do you think?

Currently

Currently, I’m

Cooking a batch of shredded beef burritos in the crock pot. They smell SO good right now.

Listening to SuperMan shampooing the carpets for me. I’m such a lucky girl to have a man who spoils me so.

Nibbling on some almonds and dried cranberries – my new favorite snack.

Counting down the days until school is out. 12, if you are wondering. I think I’m just as excited as the girls.

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Planning my annual trip to California for work and hoping the flights are not too wretched. I miss the days of frequent flyer perks, even if I don’t miss the days of frequent flying.

Looking forward to my garden giving us some yummy foods this summer.

Enjoying the time we have at home with SuperMan between big work projects (and hoping it’s not too long-lived)

Reading Angelology ~ devouring it is more like what I’m doing. It’s really engrossing.

What are you up to these days?

Project Life Tuesday ~ 6 May 13

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Hope your week is treating you well – so far so good for us here. It’s time for another update on my Project Life pages…

A little background

The Mom CreativeThis year, I’m doing my Project Life album digitally. I’m using Creative Memories’ Storybook Creator software and Becky Higgins’ Turquoise Edition (for the most part)  I’ve also purchased these nifty little overlays that allow my pages to look like true pocket pages (I’m loving them).

I’m planning to print my pages as a book – hopefully, it will all fit in one volume and take up less space on the shelf than the 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 versions which are 2 volumes (2 3” binders) each!

This week’s pages

I had hoped to get more pages done over the past weekend because of International Scrapbook Day, but I was sick over the weekend and really didn’t feel like doing much more than just sitting still.  Sigh.

But I DID get some pages done – continuing to work my way through 2013 and hopefully get caught up soon.

2013 Family Album - Page 016

The journal cards are from Juli Fish: You Make Me Happy ~ I can’t find the download link anymore.

The other bits and bobs were from another kit  that came from The Daily Digi as part of the monthly kit. I love it.  Happy, happy stuff.

2013 Family Album - Page 017

I like the pages – I think they capture the fun of that week.  And I love that everyone in the family is in the pictures.

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Project Life Tuesday

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Hope your week is treating you well – so far so good for us here. It’s time for another update on my Project Life pages…

A little background

The Mom Creative This year, I’m doing my Project Life album digitally. I’m using Creative Memories’ Storybook Creator software and Becky Higgins’ Turquoise Edition (for the most part)  I’ve also purchased these nifty little overlays that allow my pages to look like true pocket pages (I’m loving them). I’m planning to print my pages as a book – hopefully, it will all fit in one volume and take up less space on the shelf than the 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 versions which are 2 volumes (2 3” binders) each!

This week’s pages

Making progress here – I’m into March with these pages.  The good news is that I’m catching up but that is partly because (the bad news) I don’t have a lot of pictures from Feb/March. I think it is because it was so cold and rainy during that time.  I just didn’t have the drive to take a lot of photos – and we weren’t doing much other than school and work!

2013 Family Album - Page 014

Embellishments from the page above are from Creative Memories’ Cheerful Winter Digital kit.

Love how the blues and greens tied in with the colors on the pictures.

I decided to use the blurry cell phone picture of the girls because it was so cute – them cuddled up by the fireplace with their laptops.

2013 Family Album - Page 015

Becky Higgins’ Turquoise kit for this page – kept it simple as the pictures were simple, too.

Love my sweet baby’s happy smile about her teacher’s blanket and capturing her sign language performance.

That’s it for my Project Life pages this week – what about yours?

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Is it Monday again?!?

Wow.

Where did the weekend go?

That was the fastest three-day weekend of all time.

I’m not sure where it went, but I am sure that I need another weekend – and soon!

It was a whirlwind – busy couple of days on Friday and Saturday and then Sunday I was feeling under the weather and so it was kind of a loss.

Oh well.

So, it’s Monday. Which means time for planning my meals for the week.

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I had a little help this weekend with the planning. The girls didn’t know it but they basically built the plan. They were asking for a few specific things here and there and so I just jotted them down on a post-it note and kept it on my desk. Then the week’s menu planning was pretty much done!

Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo Green chili chicken enchiladas
Spaghetti Homemade pizzas (with leftover spaghetti sauce)
Chicken Stir Fry
(served with Fried Rice)		 Grilled hamburgers
Fajitas

In other news, I think I’m making progress with the squirrel battle – I got a baffle and moved the feeder to the middle of the flower bed. The squirrels can’t figure out how to climb around the baffle nor how to jump the many feet from the porch railing (or shrubs) to the feeder. They keep sitting on the porch rail and looking in the window at me like, “Now, why’d you go and do that?”

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I love it.

Around here

Well, we took the day off yesterday.

Or, rather, the girls and I took the day off.

Kinda.

Sort of.

They had a school holiday – the last “inclement weather” day of the school year.  So, I took the day off of work to spend with them.  But it wasn’t really a day “off” for us – we were busy bees.

We spent the morning planting our garden – cucumbers, peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, radishes, etc.

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It’s not grand, but we’re pretty proud of it.  I’m hoping we get some yummy veggies out of it this summer.

While the girls were playing (school, no less!) I rigged up what I’m affectionately calling my “redneck irrigation system.”  I used a soaker hose and some random bits of flotsam to create a little irrigation track for the garden. I’m hoping we’ll actually remember to turn it on every day for a little while to keep things watered and growing.

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And then we spent a while spreading pine straw – 15 bales of it to be exact. And if that wasn’t enough, we went out to dinner and to a play that two of Big Girl’s friends were acting in.

And then we came home and collapsed. Literally.

Today is a little less ambitious although I have plans to catch up on the laundry and clean my floors… and maybe bake a cake… but that’s about it.

We got a new birdfeeder, too, today.  And we’ve been invaded by these cute birdies – a whole family of red breasted grosbeaks.

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Have you ever heard of them before? I’d never seen them until now but they apparently love this feed I’ve bought and they’re hanging around all the time nowadays.  They are a lively bunch ~ the only negative thing is that the smaller birds seem to be a bit intimidated by them and don’t come around as much. But I’ve got two feeders so hopefully they’ll all have a shot.

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Oh, and we’ve been battling the squirrels lately. I went to the feed & seed this morning and got some more of that habanero-coated birdseed. They don’t seem to like that too much.

Note to self: Don’t stir the habanero birdseed with your bare hands. Even if you wash them (twice) you’ll still end up sorry. Just sayin’

The girls saw this picture at the feed & seed and loved it –

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I told them I guess there’s always something to put our troubles in perspective, isn’t there?

And so now I’m off to do my baking and cleaning – and then tomorrow will be a day of rest for us.

I hope.

What’s up in your world?

Book Review: House of Silk

I read this book a while ago when I was looking for an escape – for something to suck me in and transport me to another realm where I could relax and unwind.

I have to say, this book really did the job.

House of Silk

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel

If you love Sherlock Holmes, you will love this book.  Written in the true tone of the original Sherlock mysteries, the story weaves in and out of two different mysteries – keeping you guessing and enthralled throughout.

The story is actually one of the only Sherlock Holmes novels to be officially sanctioned by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate, which, I think, says something about how true it is to the original Sherlock-ian style. It is written from the point of view of Dr. Watson and he is writing the story about Sherlock’s greatest mystery. It’s a story he didn’t feel he could tell until long after Sherlock was dead.

It was impossible before – and I am not just referring to Holmes’s well-known aversion to publicity. No, the events which I am about to describe were simply too monstrous, too shocking to appear in print.  They still are. It is not exaggeration to suggest that they would tear apart the entire fabric of society and, particularly at a time of war, this is something I cannot risk.”

Makes you curious, doesn’t it? What exactly DID go on in this story he’s about to tell?

The book is actually two stories in one ~ The House of Silk and The Man in the Flat Cap ~ and how these wove together and unfolded as I read kept me enthralled throughout the book.

As the book opens, a London art dealer asks for Sherlock’s help in tracking down a mysterious man in a flat cap who he feels is threatening him.  Sherlock takes the case and through tracking down the mystery of the man in the flat cap, he finds his own life in jeopardy as he is accused of murder, his own life is put in danger, and he finds that some of his methods are not always fool-proof.

Add in a mysterious Flat Cap Gang, art thieves, opium dens and other assorted bad guys and you have quite the tale.  Watson, as usual, is a few steps behind Sherlock in most things, but this loyal friend does his part to assist in bringing the mystery (mysteries?) to a conclusion.

I don’t want to spoil the plot for you – I want you to enjoy it, to savor it like a rich, dark chocolate confection – and so I’m not going to tell you much more.

This book is perfect for a rainy day with a cup of tea and a comfy chair.

Project Life Tuesday

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Hope your week is treating you well – so far so good for us here.

It’s time for another update on my Project Life pages…

A little background

The Mom Creative

This year, I’m doing my Project Life album digitally. I’m using Creative Memories’ Storybook Creator software and Becky Higgins’ Turquoise Edition (for the most part)  I’ve also purchased these nifty little overlays that allow my pages to look like true pocket pages (I’m loving them).

I’m planning to print my pages as a book – hopefully, it will all fit in one volume and take up less space on the shelf than the 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 versions which are 2 volumes (2 3” binders) each!

This week’s pages

Still in catch-up mode, but I’m making progress.

These two are from the middle of February-

(click on the images to view larger size)

2013 Family Album - Page 012

Keeping it simple and getting it done. That’s the theme for these pages.

Even though they’re simple, I like them. I like the bright pops of color and the way the pictures capture the “everydayness” of those weeks in February. Nothing fancy, but it’s real life.

2013 Family Album - Page 013

What about you? Any progress in your crafty world?

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