glasses

eddie certainly didn't get his eyesight from me! although i am the only one in my family over the age of 15 that doesn't wear glasses and i'm pretty sure everyone over 10 wears glasses in memo's family. the red next to his mouth is chapped skin from licking it all the time. sometimes he makes me crazy! we're using bag balm to try to get rid of it. i'm actually not a big fan of bag balm since it has some seriously questionable things in it, but for now that's what we've got. maybe i should try the alba chapstick. anywho - here are some pics with the new eye ware. he got the titanium bendy frames.

and the best one... ahh, the hilarity of knock knock jokes at that age!

finally, SNOW! and some pintrest 365

the samoa bites i made... not as pretty as hers, but uh-mazing!

13 cutting triangles http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020219653/

14 dishwasher soap http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020172115/
15 brussels sprouts http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020188020/ ... not quite. they needed longer (maybe because i was using my stoneware, duh!) and i still added maple syrup.

16 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020197802/ hopefully self help can install a hook so i can hang this! and any future changes i make for successive holidays etc

the ear warmers so far... there's a pin somewhere! i need to find my darning foot to quilt this

17 file folder game, these will happen regularly on no school days http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020256838/

18 magnets! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020034780/

19 cake batter pancakes http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020168785/ and cake mix 20 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020262511/ + tumeric to make it yellow since i don't use eggs. these needed to cook a lot longer, but with no eggs i wasn't worried about them not being cooked. i made them again in the waffle iron - much better!

21 eggplant bacon: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020267543/ it needs some work on the seasoning and baking, but i think it will work for bacon crumbles and such.

22 did you know you were cutting an onion wrong? i didn't either http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020257256/ so dang smart!

23 fruit roll ups, kind of a combo of these two http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195019979443/ andhttp://pinterest.com/pin/210895195019979806/. i liked them ok, but they're a lot more difficult than i thought. with practice it'll get easier. lessons learned - stick the parchment paper to the cookie sheet (using oil or water) and make sure it is crease free. also make sure the fruit sauce is level. all that's really left is to find flavors everyone likes!

24 corn dog muffins http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020098669/ amazingly easy and the boy likes them!

25 i swear this is a pin! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020288720/

26 bean salsa, kidney instead of black beans, but still good! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020292634/

27 reupholstering the desk chair, it needed it! http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020073085/ no more tears or peeling faux leather

28 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020133305/ tar cookies (no pic) were delici

ous, but i forgot to take pics

29http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020197733/ fabric flowers... i need to figure out how to make the stem... i think i'm going to hot glue them to dowels

30 http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020041897/ pumpkin scrub

just 9 more to catch up!
it snowed! a lot... they all started shoveling the back walkway, and dad joined in. they were working on a fort...

...and then they all went sledding!

pintrest 365

nothing picture worthy came out last week, and i've now fallen behind, but here's what i did:

friday i made samoas inspired fudgies - these were delicious! i made pb chocolate ones on sunday which were not nearly as good.

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020192276/

on wednesday i watched a PBS movie on Irena Sendlar. if you haven't heard of her - go research her. i ran across a pic of her on pintrest and did a little searching on her. i found out there was a movie and one of the european libraries carried it. given the context, that she smuggled jewish children out of the warsaw ghetto, it's obviously very sad. it is also an amazingly beautiful story. i highly recommend it. if i knew of her when i was in Sr. Daniel's class - i would have done a report on her and not florence nightengale (i think that's who i got, i don't even remember)

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020194675/

on tuesday i made spaghetti and beanballs, it ended up just being a variation on veganomicon's recipe - and i didn't care for it. i'm not sure if it was the oats or that i actually used A1 steak sauce this time.

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020182842/

on monday i just made a spice mix for taco seasoning. easy peasy, something i'd been needing to replace for a while since i lost my last recipe!

http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020188142/

so i'm at 13 days of pintrest... time to catch back up!

pintrest 365

the makings of pizza pockets http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195019979770/

not so pretty, but...
eddie likes them and that's all that matters!
i made this http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020167997/ and added spinach
cinnamon sugar muffins ( http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020172062/ ) i cut up and added in the 3 pears we had that were past their prime. these turned out pretty good.
yarn wrapped wreath inspiration here: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020150583/ and that stinking cute flower here http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020170242/
after a few days of playing with adjustments and finding out that you can, in fact, make yo yos out of felt, here's the finished wreath
sourdough starter: http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020168074/
it was quick to bubble up!
2 pins in one dinner, out back bushman bread (http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020168723/ ) and outback potato soup (http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020171898/ ) for the bread, next time i'll be adding less molasses, but otherwise it was a pretty good duplicate from what i remember. the soup just needed more potatoes. i made a heavy cream with about 3/4c cashews and 3/4c water, then added the soy/rice blend milk to get 1.5c. i also blended the flour right into that, i didn't use all of it in the soup, but mostly because holding up a vitamix and whisking with your other hand is quite tedious.
i used this pin for inspiration http://pinterest.com/pin/210895195020179668/ and lots of weeds and wildflowers products! i made it 4x6 because that's what the frame said... that's not what it was. note to self - always measure the visible area before spending 20 minutes in PSE!
and in it's home, i knew i wouldn't get a good shot here, too much sun bouncing off the snow right outside the window!
so i'm at 9 pins so far this year!

wildgehege hufeisen

we went to the deer park on tuesday. and had a great time.checking out the boars... pretty sure these are what roam around the woods here.

no idea who bruno the bear was, but he's got a statue!
i'm pretty sure we're where we're not supposed to be here.
what a goofball :)
eddie kept looking up and pointing at how the trees looked against the sky. so of course, i had to take a picture of it.
the signs all over the park were like this. aren't they beautiful? you need to see this larger.
i love it when they get a little artsy with the trees that have fallen or needed to be cut. there were also mushrooms further on. eddie seems to like them.
we finally came across deer about 1/2 way around the track. this was as close as we could get, but they were certainly curious. they were obviously used to being fed.
check it out - a white stag!
yay! we found another machine that sold wild animal food - which we found out was just dried corn kernels (for those of you following at home, corn is pronounced "mice" in german).




the fawns weren't getting any corn, so we threw some at them. i think they wouldn't have gotten any if we hadn't bypassed the stags and obviously senior does.
she came up to us first, before we had any food. i got to feed her. she is beautiful. i have no idea what's going on with her eye, either she got injured at some point or it's simply glaucoma.
memo even got to pet one, twice!
what's this?! a second group, also with a white stag?! i didn't realize white stags were even kinda common.
i love his dapple pattern. he's just lovely.
the two white ones... i believe they are both the leaders of the individual groups
this went on for a while with these two. the white one is the one we fed, the brown one is from the other group. my best guess is that the other groups' white stag is getting ready to... step down. and this is the buck that will take his place. of the 20+ photos i took of them fighting, this is the best. often they were far apart, or another stags' horn was in the way... or blurry. i'm not the best at photography, but i'm learning!

all in all, we had a great time. we highly recommend this park. while i'd been pretty close to deer before, feeding them was a whole different story. watching them fight like that - while not nearly as violent as i'm sure it is in the wild, was very interesting as well. i'm sure that's not a common sight, but we lucked out!