new year's here and we've been busy

Oh well, I see that I missed the first 2 days of my daily blogging resolution! Here's what we did each day:

Jan 1st: spent several hours with my college friend Susan and her 3 boys, ages 2, 8, and 10. We had lunch at the mall food court, played in the fountain area, hung out at their house. E had a great time and the boys were good with her. Then went to the grocery store, watched "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus" for a little while, and went to Marie's house for dinner. E tasted rice noodles for the first time, and forced down tiny bites of red pepper, yellow pepper, and chicken from our stir-fry - on the promise of tapioca pudding and cookies for dessert. When she complained about the noodles, Marie offered pink sprinkles to go on them, and that helped! We walked in their neighborhood after dinner with flashlights (E ran and ran, having a great time), the kids had a bath, and we came home and went straight to bed.

Jan 2nd: went to another college friend's house, Kimberly, and spent a few hours having lunch with them and E played with K's daughter whose 11th birthday is today. E got to find 2 fresh eggs from the hens! They've put golf balls in the nests which has helped 2 of the hens get the idea. E fed the chickens too, as well as their new gerbil. We had cheesy eggs for lunch, E's favorite, and then us grownups got to have real conversation while the 2 girls played. When we got home, E and I just relaxed, did a little playing, a little movie, and a puzzle. I cooked myself some real dinner (chicken, brown rice, peas, & mushrooms). I did some budgeting and recording of expenses before bed, which undid the relaxation but was useful. I also ordered some prints of photos from E's birthday, to give to the parents of the kids.

Today holds in store: getting to Friends' Meeting for the first time in months, more cooking maybe (potato soup, baking sweet potatoes for breakfasts this week) laundry, and hopefully writing an old-fashioned letter or two. E and I will need to get outside and exercise too, maybe a long walk. But it's been really cold.

David's out of town and that usually motivates me to post a few more photos than I would have otherwise, so stay tuned for that.