1/8/13: Mornings before school

Cory is nearly always the first one up in the morning. He heads downstairs and watches TV. Usually it's something on Roku, unless we have DVDs from the library. These days it's often Transformers, though sometimes Mythbusters or something else that strikes his fancy.

1/7/13: Cory's first day back at school

Cory's first day back at school, and he was not terribly thrilled about it. Much sobbing last night, but this morning he was more composed. Still not happy, but at least not dissolving into tears and dwelling on all the reasons why this was a horrible thing.

Here he's perched on a little ledge by the front doors to the Little School Woods Building. When he's not practicing his ukulele skills in the 15 minutes or so after the doors open and before school starts, he sometimes sits here and watches the kids mill around, waiting for classroom doors to open.

The poster behind him is a list the classes came up with a few years ago that attempts to prevent some of the conflict over fort-building and use in the woods around the classroom building. If those rules were followed, I'm sure all would be smooth sailing!

1/6/13: Downton Abbey returns!

Finally, finally, finally. Season 3 of Downton Abbey aired tonight on PBS. Two full hours! I rarely watch broadcast TV but since we don't have TiVo or any other easy way of recording broadcasts, this one was an exception. Got Cory all tucked into bed, and tea made and channel tracked down (we have bizarre channels with our Basic cable/no settop box arrangement - like 65-275) just in the nick of time for the 9:00 start.

Niall watched with me, though he was not very interested. We usually watch a couple of sitcoms on Netflix before bed (currently one episode each of Frasier and Cheers) but last night we watched a movie from the library (the "Star Trek" movie that came out a few years ago about young Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.). So two exceptions in a row! I'm sure he'll be glad to get back to the routine tomorrow night.

For me, I was just delighted to finally get my fix of Downtown Abbey!

1/5/13: Niall as paparazzi

After a mostly-at-home/mostly-indoors day, took the boys on a mandatory walk up to 140th and back. Niall got out his camera and iPod for some paparazzi action on the way back. Where does he get that from...

1/4/13: Fast food dinner

Subway is a favorite quick-dinner spot (for the boys), with meatball sandwiches nearly always the choice. Found this Subway just down the hill from us at the new house (next to the cheapest Arco around!) so we go there now when we're home already. If we're picking up dinner on the way home from school, we head to the one near Little School. Cory's favorite fast food is McDonald's so we trade off.

Mom's favorite fast food is no fast food, so I usually just make a sandwich for myself at home or heat up leftovers unless we're eating on the run.

1/3/13: Much joy, much sorrow

Tears tonight. A delightful new sword, just uncovered in one of the many boxes we're still going through here, broke when Cory tried to bend it straight. He'd gotten all gussied up with holsters, dagger, and other weaponry only to have this favorite piece suddenly snap. So heartbreaking.

He's hopeful that we'll find another like it at a party store, but isn't yet convinced that anything will be quite as "just right." Poor guy. Life can come apart at the seams so quickly sometimes, bouncing from unexpected joy to devastation in an instant. Perhaps adding an ancient, brittle plastic sword to the mix was tempting fate a little too much this time.

1/2/13: Frosty mornings

It's been really chilly lately (for us, anyway!). Mid-20's and lots of frost on the car and leaves. Cory was fascinated by the "frost forests" that grew in the wet dirt in the front landscaping, and loved the frosty patterns on the leaves too. I'm not thrilled about scraping and melting all the frost off the car so we can head out in the mornings, but it's sure beautiful.