KWAKers snow help

The day started with a "take your children to work" day at CYC, compliments of winter break. It was a regular zoo of boys in Adidas hoodies.

The Kids With a Kause group (aka, my boys and their friends) helped shovel a driveway and walks for a senior resident today. 

They were awarded with some much deserved play time with friends we don't see often enough these days. So grateful to have the Giles family as friends.

Leo

Must be worried about the snow storm outside...

Haub Family Christmas 2015

I love this one :)  JJ, Gavin, Jr., Carter, Benji, Miggy holding Jayce, Jack, & Lily

They are "working"

J & B's office is the bathroom

Ummm, home cooking

Working full-time has made the obvious changes in our daily routine, and the way we manage time as a parenting team. One of the things I miss most is the ability to carefully think out our week's meals and have the time to shop, prepare, and cook them without too much rush (maybe I'm looking backward with rose-tinted glasses on this one, but still....). So for Christmas, I wanted to really enjoy some homemade food. Food is important to me, and I knew that my holiday would mean more if I got to enjoy that aspect of it. This, of course, meant making 2 dishes each night for days and days before Christmas, but in the end I was a happy camper. 

Christmas Eve:  

• Baked French Toast, oven roasted bacon
• Graziano Italian sausage & cream cheese stuffed portabella mushroom caps
• Lasagna, lettuce salad with warm bacon vinegarette, garlic bread
• Boston Cream Pie

Christmas:

• Egg bake with sausage
• Smoked turkey
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• Sauteed brussel sprouts with maple glaze and roasted chestnuts 
• Scalloped potatoes
• Blueberry pie                   
• 
  

What's on your table this holiday season?

french toast to the rescue of hunger! (this caption compliments of Jack)

yummy,yummy din din! (this caption also compliments of Jack)

I'm pretty sure this pie is giving me a crooked smile

Christmas 2015

I can't think of more beautiful winter weather for Christmas

I've always loved big bluestem in the fall, when it's tops turn purple. But today I discovered its majestic quality in the winter. 

Thank you for the soccer goals, Santa!

Mini icicles taste pretty yummy

Poor Jack is napping due to an ear ache. He rallies for most of the fun, but sometimes the darn cold brings him down. We all had persistent colds and post-nasal drainage and coughs for at least a month and half. We finally healed and had a good week off from being under the influence of a winter bug, until now and we've got it all back again.  I'm just grateful it's non-stop colds, which don't stop us too much, as opposed to full on strep throat or some more serious ailments. It's a good reason to warm up with a mug of hot cocoa and cinnamon whipped cream after being out in the elements.

Christmas cookies for Santa

Best gifts I could wish for

Best white elephant gift ever

The one-antler, Grinch's Santa headband for cats

Workin' Breakfast

Feeling prepared. Some days it's hard to get breakfast made and eaten for myself before I head out the door at 7am to go to work. Today I made 9 breakfast burritos and froze them individually for grabbing on the way out the door. This is the first bulk-and-freeze cooking I've done in quite some time. I've got more planned for my (much-needed) winter break from work next week. 

Cute breakfast date

Magazine catch up

Looks like this rainy Sunday AM may be the perfect opportunity to grab my coffee and settle in with my growing pile of magazines.

Bucket List

Being a short-term goal oriented person means not having a long list of to-do's that see very far into the future. So I've never really had a bucket list, but am instead continually adding new ideas for adventure into my more nearsighted future offerings. Over the past year I've developed a desire to go on a real, legit hiking trip. The kind where you see the "backcountry" sign and keep walking. Since having children, this kind of adventures feels out of reach. But if I were pushed to name something on a bucket list of sorts, the sole thing that'd be on mine right now....at least before I turn 40....is to make such a trip happen. From this moment, I've got exactly 2 years and 3 months to the day before that big 4-0 happens. Even more reason for me to be ECSTATIC that my dear buddy Alicia and her family are going to allow me to tag along at the end of July on their hiking trip to Glacier and Banff! She will probably never know how much this truly means to me. Double bonus points that I now have an excuse to renew my passport. Booyah!

Let the frequent trips to REI begin.  And please, oh please, let at least one of them end in the purchase of an outrageously expensive orange pack such as this:

Iowa Energy Basketball game

Working for a non-profit apparently means getting lots of free tickets to various events around town. Tonight, an Iowa Energy basketball game. Next week, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Des Moines Playhouse!

Squeal!

DNA- ancestry testing ready to ship!

More CYC Fun

My Homeschool Kids With a Kause group is really my pride and joy. An unexpected addition to my programs, this brand new group is full of engaged families who regularly show up to do good. We did our first direct service project last week at a senior center nearby. We went on a day when 40-50 refugee seniors from Burma, Nepal, and Bhutan go to play games and do programming with their translators at Lutheran Services. My families led a craft making birdfeeders with pine cones. Although we couldn't communicate, all the smiles showed us that this was something they enjoyed. And the senior center was over the moon with the success. I just couldn't stop feeling sunshiny even on that cold, cloudy morning.

Favorite photo ever.

I also had a great showing for my Saturday Kids With a Kause group, which has been a struggle for me to attract kids to. It's quickly become a Waukee/West Des Moines group as I encourage my kids to invite friends, but that's better than having no one show up. I was thrilled at the group size I had last Saturday:

I alao got in touch with a school board member in WDM who started a Kids Card Club at a local elementary. I observed their monthly meeting yesterday and was floored to see 100 kids showed up, kindergarten thru 6th grade, at 8am before school. Behold the power of a school-based program!

My final round of workplace happiness comes from our set of newly adopted guinea pigs. Yet to be named (though I'm fond of Cinnamon and Sugar), we refer to them as The Puffins.