Joy in the snow

Mike, Ky and Amos love the snow from Kerrie Griffin on Vimeo.



Here's my family having a little fun in the snow.

The best snow we've seen in 20 years

The snow begins to fall 

It begins to collect on the ground. 

In about an hour, everything is covered. 

We are warm inside, Amos perches on the couch-a little confused. 

The snow falls thickly and is very beautiful.

The lines "lovely, dark and deep" come to mind. 

We venture out, have a snowball fight, and build a cute little snowman. He has a carrot nose, penny eyes, M&M teeth, and a rope necktie. The M&Ms fall out and leave him with a tie dyed smile. We all feel very happy.

Spring today, ice tomorrow

Sunday, the weather was so warm and pretty. It had dried enough so that my brother-in-law could plow up a garden spot for my mother.

He discs up the ground initially to get rid of the weeds and break up the soil a bit.

Then he goes over the ground several times to loosen the soil and even it out.

Then he changes to the plow and throws the dirt into rows. Tomorrow, we have a 70% chance of snow and freezing precipitation. That will be good for the garden plot.

All ready!

In a few weeks, we plant! Yeah Spring!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

I had a package of frozen cranberries left over from the Thanksgiving season and I tweaked the bread recipe on the package to make these muffins. To make them a bit healthier, I substituted flax meal for some of the white flour and added carrots to go along with the cranberries. I made them twice, once with the original recipe and once with flax meal and a mixture of carrots and cranberries. Both were delicious. These pictures show the muffins with flax meal and carrots.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup flaxmeal

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

2 tbl. oil

3/4 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups cranberries-frozen is fine

optional-use half grated carrots and half cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Stir dry ingredients together with a whisk. Set aside. Place cranberries (and carrots if you use them), and orange juice in a blender. Blend until the cranberries are in small pieces. Add the egg, oil and orange juice mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Add the nuts and pour into prepared muffin tins. Makes about 16 muffins. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes until lightly golden.

Brag post #2

Another piece done by my daughter. I is a still life painting, demonstrating the value scale.

Brag post #1

This is a pencil drawing done by my daughter. She made the arrangement in our small half bath, turned out the light, and had me hold the flashlight in many different positions while she took photos. Her assignment had to do with shadow and light.

The School Stool

My daughter is attending college but still lives here at home. She is an art major and she has a lot of supplies that she lugs back and forth to school. I tried to find one spot where she could drop everything and designated this stool in the corner of the kitchen.

I call it the School Stool.

Of course, the supplies and outerwear collect in other places in the case of an overspill. Amos appreciates the soft pile of paper, drawing pads, and jackets.

He picks the sunny room and the jumble of school supplies to curl upon for his nap.

If I had waited another day, I could have photographed the additional couches, kitchen table and coffee table in the living room. They also sported art-in-progress, littered with cut apart magazines, pieces of collage paper, scissors, glue....hole punches...Mod Podge...

faithful friend

Lee visits us before he returns to school, then he and Amos take a nap together.

Random Magnificent Lines from the series The Magnificent Seven

I've been sick this week, first with a day surgery on Tuesday and then with a wicked virus which did not allow me to draw one breath through my nose or swallow very often--for 5 days! Wow, it was a fun week! I'm fine now, so it could have been much worse. I've never used nasal spray before and let me tell you, it is a magnificent product.

Speaking of magnificent, I was puttering around the house this morning, half listening to the Western that Mike was watching. I don't know if it was my "weakened" condition or the fact that I felt so much better, or if it was just the show itself but it was funny. It wasn't supposed to be but some of the lines caught my attention and my amusement.

Presenting random lines from a Western series (The Magnificent Seven)
1. A young man vowing revenge: "God loves this gun".
2. His mother, upon viewing this young man's gunshot: "Son, be a man". Of course, he had just shouted "Ma, it hurts!".
3. Another son, reminiscing about his late wife: "She always said that Sunday was the day for dumplings".
4.This same young man, recalling how his father-in-law tried to keep him from marrying his late wife: "At least he used rocksalt instead of buckshot, it was his way of saying he liked you."
5. Another avenger: "I shot him before he could say howdy do, I shot him 3 times, bang, bang, bang! The green eyed monster.."
6. One of the sons, trying to get his mother out of harm's way: " Don't shoot my ma! Ma, get the hell inside!" Ma, of course, replies "Son, don't blaspheme".
7.The preacher tells the family: " A little sincerity is dangerous. A lot of it is absolutely fatal".
8. The preacher's parting words: "An eye for an eye leaves us blind".

Hey, I like that last one!

The Magic of Ordinary Days

I watched this movie last weekend and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It stars Keri Russell, who was the lead character in the last movie I recommended (Waitress). She is an unmarried, pregnant grad student who enters into an arranged marriage with a young farmer in a small town during WWII. The movie deals with her friendship with 2 Japanese Americans from a nearby internment camp, the rejection by the baby's father, and the patient love of her new husband.
It is a sweet special movie and I'd like for you to check it out.