You know what they say about good intentions…

The month of January has been full of ‘em and not a lot else!

I’m sorry that I have been away so long, Aunt Rose and others who care. I’m getting over a bout of Bronchitis, slowly.
I was a total slug last week! I was talking to my daughter-in-law yesterday evening and noted that though it seems that I rarely get things done, I must peck away at things all week. Because, when I am lying around like a slug and only the things the kids are in charge of get done (dishes, towels washed, vacuuming, etc.) things sure start to fall apart quickly. So, we are slowly but surely getting things back into shape.

Today, I did 4 loads of laundry and we did a pretty good clean of our keeping room (the large kitchen/dining room that we have). I also baked two cakes, a chocolate pound cake and a cinnamon-pecan pound cake. As I type this, the men and older boys of our church are gathering in that room to have a session meeting…and eat cake! And we did a full day of school, including watching the new president take his oath of office and listen to his speech.

Tomorrow, we will finish the keeping room, and make a meal to take to friends. We will also do a day of school including catching up our Middle Ages timeline… the last guy on there is Arthur, King of the Britons (c.537)…and we are up to Mohammad (570-632).

We celebrated Shayna’s 12th birthday yesterday. Gaelan & Emily came over and our friends the E family. The Dally cousins and D family are all down with bad colds and didn’t come. L (So, when cousins are better, we will have to have another party for both Aunt Kathryn & Shayna.) Shayna’s birthday dinner choice was philly cheese-steak sandwiches, we had chips to go with, homemade apple sauce and a green salad. I also made a brown rice salad that was very tasty, for our vegan family member, as well as for those of us who like that kind of food. Actually, Conrad likes that salad although he doesn’t remember having it before. I told him that the note in my cookbook says, “Conrad especially likes.” Shayna wanted to make cupcakes, so we made strawberry jell-o poke cakes and found little gummy frogs to put on them for fun. It was a fun evening.

I am trying to join in on the 12 Worthwhile Books Challenge, but I’m afraid that several of the books that I’ve picked are so big that I’ll never get through twelve. I’m currently reading a book on the middle ages that I think my dad used in college. It has been a good overview, but is 600+ pages. I am not going to read the Institutes in a year, because a few years ago we did a study of them with tapes from Greg Bahnsen…we didn’t get all the way through but that was enough for me! Does anyone else have a reading plan?