Earth Hour

I have no pictures to show you (it would have been difficult to get good ones in the dark), but we had a great time participating in Earth hour today.  

At 8:30, Julia and I turned out all the lights, lit some candles and called the family together for some piano, charades, and Apples to Apples.  We tried to keep all of the lights off for the entire hour, but when Grant announced that he was going to have to pee in the dark, we made an exception and turned on the bathroom light! 

I don't suppose that the amount of electricity that we saved by turning off our few CFL's made much of a difference in the world, but it's kind of like raindrops in a bucket... they add up.  Maybe our electric bill will be a few cents less, but even better than that was the fun family time we had together. We had so much fun, that the hour turned into an hour and a half, and Julia said that  we should have "earth hour" more often!

MKMW: Ireland

I think I did more to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day this year than all the other years of my life combined. My sister and her family were here for the week, so we spent some time visiting, cooking, doing activites with the kids and visiting D.C. As luck would have it, we accidentally came upon D.C.'s St. Patricks Day parade, which thrilled the kids to pieces.

On St. Patrick's Day itself, the kids all wore green, pulled out the leprachaun hats and painted pictures of rainbows and pots of gold.

To honor my My Kitchen My World obligations, I made a yummy Irish Soda Bread for breakfast. My sister got the recipe from her copy of The Book of Days. Check it out.

Leslie and I also pulled together a Shepherd's pie from one of Rachel Ray's "30 minute" meals. I don't care what she says, I have NEVER made one of those recipes in 30 minutes! I suppose I could if I had staff, maybe!

After tweaking a few of the ingredients, adding some Italian seasoning and some Chinese soy sauce, we came up with an Irish meal that the kids thought tasted like Swedish meatballs.

Go figure!?

Regardless... the kids liked it so much that they were all disappointed that there weren't any leftovers the next day and have already asked when we can make it again!

For dessert, we made a Chocolate Guiness Cake.

I got the recipe from Mary's Blog, Chasing Some Blue Sky

Mary got the recipe from Nigella Lawson. Thank you Mary!!

You foodie people would love Mary's blog, she's amazing!

Sorry about the really lousy food pics. It's either me or the camera or both, but I'm just going to blame the camera!

I wish I had super human powers...

... but I'll settle for just a little extra energy.

I'm sitting here with my cup of Awake tea in my hands. This is my emergency tea. I only drink it when I absolutely need to be Awake! It really is amazing stuff, no false advertising here.

So, maybe I'll have two cups.

Maybe I'll find enough energy to clean a little more, or take the kids out to enjoy the last of the snow.

Please, tea, please kick in soon.

Nope! It's definitely not Spring yet!

Yay! Snow!!

The kids and Dan got out in it first thing this morning and again later in the afternoon. I spent some time taking pictures, shoveling and sweeping off the porch.

I think we have enough that it won't go away too soon. We'll get out in it some more later today and tomorrow.

Dan played for a while, but once the roads cleared up, he was off to work. :o(

Grant and Julia spent most of their time burying themselves and each other in the snow.

They probably have frostbite!

We are all inside for the moment, drinking hot chocolate and relaxing while we wait for the dryer to get those coats and gloves dry so we can go out again!

Is it Spring yet?

I'm in the midst of a serious case of the winter doldrums. Not a lot of interest is going on, the kids are cycling through a case of the flu, so we aren't going anywhere fun and we are watching a LOT of TV. As winters go, this winter has been fairly dull weather-wise, we didn't get much snow to play in. Today we woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground and we are all just thrilled, it covers up the brown grass and brown trees and just pretties up the place. I love snow. But still... it's March 1st and my thoughts are toward Spring. I'm looking forward to warm days and colorful flowers. This being our first year in this house, I'm wondering what, if any, bulbs might be hiding under the ground waiting to pop up this spring. I hope there are at least a few daffodils or tulips out there.

Now, since I just can't have a post without pictures, here are a few that I dug out from the last couple of weeks.

Julia's baby penguin that she designed and made herself.

Julia "decorated" Grant's door and effectively trapped him inside on his birthday.

He managed to get out.

Grant and his pirate's treasure.

Julia at Brownies.

This was a day for all the troops to get together and learn about different countries. Julia's troop covered Russia, the girls in the green hats were representing the Venezuelan rain forest.