Mini Piggies

Today's postcard from God: the cutest, tiniest little pig tails. Nothing sweeter than a little baby neck. Our great niece Iversyn.

Lori Lunch

My friend Lori and I had lunch on Monday. She is a friend of about 18 years that I met at the library. (She works there.) We do these lunches every few months, and especially for our birthdays, which is what this lunch was for. (Note the candle.) We get a lot of good talking done. Friends are a great help and comfort in life, and I have been blessed with some really good ones.

Snow, Again

We woke up to an inch of snow this morning, again. It's mostly all gone now, but it never got much past freezing today. At least it was pretty!

G, M, S Cousin Fun #2

Dressed for the day. Had to match, so they both had skirts.

We went to Lissa and Jesse's for a lasagna lunch. Group reading, with Tiger paint.

Mitch and Betty came for lunch too, and to see Mom. After lunch we took the kids to a pottery painting place where M. was attending a birthday party.

Basic Drawing Textbooks

This week in my art classes, we continued with our basic drawing exercises. I hope to teach a few techniques that the kids can practice at home to improve their own art. I wanted to finish up the lesson from last week with some shading. I knew we would have time left, so we did a few exercises from these two books. We went through the 7 rules of perspective from the Drawing Textbook, and in How Great Thou Art we did the line, ellipse, jar and ribbon drawings.

Little House Coloring

Top two by M., bottom two by W.


M. and W. have been using Prismacolors to color in the wonderful Garth Williams illustrations in their personal copies of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. M.'s friend Ann gave her the idea. M. asked me if it was OK to do, and they were "off" as soon as they got permission. They note that the shading is already done in Williams's illustrations. And so they have found a new way to enjoy their Little House books. If you do not want to "write in your books", used copies can often be found in thrift shops.

G, M, S, Cousin Fun

Cousin Piper and Uncle Marsh were here during their Spring break. It's great to have the cousins together for a couple of days.

We had a spirited game of charades. Teams were "The Youngsters" (Uncle M., Piper, and W.) against the "Good Looking." (Myself, L, and M)

"The Youngsters" started out strong, but the "Good Looking" matched them. We ended in a tie.

On Fri. Piper went to co-op classes with W.

We ate lunch after morning classes, and Grandma G. and the O's met us there. Then Marsh and Grandma took the 5 youngest to bowl while M. and L. went to afternoon classes.

M. and Miss O. show off their matching coats!

The blonde, the brunette and the redhead have a great time together.

New "Barn"

Mom is here visiting and brought the camera with pictures of the shed Dad and his friend Joe just finished after several months of work. We were there in Jan. visiting, and Husband helped a bit too.

Good looking women inside cooking for the "crew."

Dad and Joe.

A Flutter of Butterflies

My 5/6th grade class did these butterflies a couple of weeks ago. I finally got them framed and mounted and displayed at co-op today.

Daughter M.'s-great colors and beautiful wing designs


Mrs. S's-big and colorful (Why are the teacher's never as charming as the student's?)


Ann's-nature-inspired details, creative and delicate


Joe's-very cool, unique design


Adrian's-striking colors-great shapes
They all did a great job, and this makes a really fun take-home project. See earlier post here for the process.

Baking Powder Biscuits-Easy!

We had some leftover gravy and carrots from Sunday's roast, so I made a quick stew out of it yesterday for dinner (lunch.) The girls made these classic baking powder biscuits to go with the stew. This is a very old recipe that has never failed me. It is from the Bethany Cookbook that my maternal grandmother used. It is so old that it assumes "small" details will be known by the cook, such as the temperature you bake them at! I have expounded a bit where needed in the recipe below to help the less experienced cook. (Yes, the biscuits above are pink. It was just for fun.)


Baking Powder Biscuits

2 c flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. shortening (margarine, butter, lard, Crisco)
2/3 c milk

Sift all dry ingredients. Add shortening. Blend until like cornmeal. (Use a dough blender, large fork or two knives in a scissor fashion.) Add milk and egg. Stir just until blended. (Too much stirring can make your biscuits tough.) Roll (on flour dusted board or table/counter) to 1/2 inch thick. Cut (with flour dipped biscuit cutter or glass) and bake at 450 degrees (on ungreased cookie sheet or stone bake ware) 10-12 minutes until golden.

These can be made as dropped biscuits. We never roll and cut them. Just drop them (scrape a blob off with another spoon) from a large spoon onto your baking pan or stone. You can slightly flatten or shape them after dropping with a flour dipped utensil if you want to. Or not. (No need to grease pan.)

The Thief

Daughter W. is a great lover of puppets and dancing animals. Today she treated us to a classic W. show with her sock puppets. She made these puppets from a kit she received from Friend Sidney for her last birthday.

Four chicks.


Stolen!


One left!

Loving the lonely.

Someone sneezed on him!

Don't sneeze!

Who would steal them?

Look, a hairball! ( I don't write this stuff!)

Tug of war.

Replacement of chicks!

Taking a bow. (With help.)