[day 6 ... january 6]

The living room is currently a jumble of wood blocks, race tracks, Army men, and race cars, with a sprinkling of dominoes rounding out the tableau. Cory and Niall spend hours creating bunkers and race track jumps, enemies and allies, towers and bridges, statues and landmarks. The possibilities are endless, and well worth stepping over and around blocks and other obstacles. Most days. Periodically, of course, they are all rounded up and dumped into their respective bins and boxes, and the rest of us enjoy a minefield-free zone to walk through for a day or sometimes just a few hours.

[day 5 ... january 5]

This is my "home office," located on a table in what was - in a previous life - the dining room. We use the room for all our computers, printers, scanner, etc. as well as a toy kitchen and assorted toys that spill over from the living room. Not exactly a dedicated office; but at least a place for my laptop, an Internet connection, and a printer. Here's where I work from home, check my mail at night, read my blogs, and upload my photos. Some days I spend way too much time in that chair. Tapping away at this and that is far too addictive.

[day 4 ... january 4]

Grandpa Stan and Grandma Marian drove down to visit today, since we were all snowbound over Christmas. Grandpa brought this cool little bath toy: a wooden boat that is propelled by air in a balloon that you inflate through the propulsion spout. Niall is demonstrating how to inflate it - though he wanted to keep going past "full"!

Cory tried it out in the bathtub and yes, it really works. Fun!

[day 3 ... january 3]

Niall is now officially hooked on Club Penguin - no big surprise there! Cory is just one tiny step behind him. He wants his own penguin too - of course. :-)

One of my photography goals this year is to use my flash less. I dislike the grainy look from a bumped-up ISO, but love the softer tones of non-flash indoor photographs. So I either need a better camera (wish list!) or need to figure out how to edit out the extra noise. Kellen is apparently an expert at the latter so maybe I'll sit down with him and take a few lessons.

[day 2 ... january 2]

Cory worked on fitting the geometric pieces together for this rocket shape, and then simply had to have a photo. Just one! said Mom. :-)

Then I headed out for another afternoon off. Two days in a row of Mom-time? Yes indeed! Grandma spent the night and played with the boys for another afternoon. Meanwhile, I met up with Sue for lunch, a movie ("Doubt" - excellent), a quick visit to Hallmark to browse the after-Christmas sales, and another visit to Starbucks to chat over cocoa and hot cider.

Ahhhh... That's the sound of me relaxing at last. It was glorious.

[day 1 ... january 1]

My first time off, to myself, completely free, in longer than I can even remember. Grandma Shannon came over to spend the afternoon with the little guys, and I left the house! When you're used to being on-duty, on-call, "on" 24/7, it's hard to downshift and decide what to do with free time when you finally have some.

So what did I do? Since it was New Year's Day, my options were a little limited...but not too much. I headed to B&N and browsed and browsed (and bought a few books, too :-). Then, a visit to Starbucks for a leisurely cup of cocoa. I addressed most of my (belated, obviously) Christmas cards, looking up to watch the flow of people coming and going and enjoying taking my time. It was just what I needed.