Around These Parts

Time for another installment of "Around These Parts".  I could take quite a few posts and update everyone - or bunch them into one.  I choose to bunch:

1.  Meet Keurig

This isn't a new addition - we've had it since May.  But whenever we leave home, Mike and I actually miss our coffee maker.  We seriously love it.  We can get around 2-3 cups out of pod so it isn't as costly as it could be.  Mike usually drinks the stronger first cup, I drink the second.  The third comes into play if he's using the travel mug.  He mixes the first and third cup and has the perfect blend for his morning.

This is the difference in brew between our two cups.  I generally add a little more milk, but doesn't that just say, "Good morning!"

2.  You'll find me at the computer a few nights a week editing photos.

We were recently in Iowa and I took our nephew's senior pictures.  Yikes....he's graduating next year!  Mike is getting old!

But I'm working on them....slowly but surely.  Missy, his mom, narrowed the images from 250 to 60 and I bumped them up to 80.  I'm hoping by the time it's all said and done we'll have around 30-50.

3.  Napping.

Seriously one of her favorite spots.  So weird.

4.  Jake's lunch of champions.

Jake's latest lunch obsession is chicken salad.  He loves eating it (thought preferably not on bread, but scooped up by Tostitos).  He makes this himself now and Mike and I have scammed our own lunches off his concoction.

5.  "Murphy Newz" - latest edition found here.

One of Maddie's bingo squares told her to create a family newsletter.  One morning we woke up to find an edition for each of us at our table for breakfast.  Four pages of family "news in review".  I think she had a good time putting it together and learned some things about layout.  It included recipes, about three articles, assorted pictures and a few jokes.  I don't know that she's ready to take subscriptions yet, but I thought it was a fun and am looking forward to future issues!

6.  Smooooooth.

Maddie is on a smoothie kick.  I think the blender is going to be occupying a permanent place on the counter - if we can find space.  This was last week.  I bought her some plain yogurt and this morning she just threw caution to the wind and came up with her own recipe that she wrote down as she threw it together.  She and Jake liked it and have already started suggesting new ingredients for tomorrow.

7.  Rockin' the Science.

One bingo activity was to make rock candy.  This is not a hard recipe to make - or so we thought.  But after 24 hours we had no crystals.  I emailed our resident scientist who was on vacation in Iowa.  She thought things over and gave us tons of advice on how to make it work.  We reboiled and are happy to report that we now have crystals growing on four separate strings.  No thanks to Mike.  The first night I was frustrated and as we were going to sleep I told him all about it.  He said, "Well, you had a string just hanging in there, so I pulled it out - maybe something will happen now."  I said, "No.  That string was SUPPOSED to be in there.  That's what the crystals were going to grow on."  Needless to say we didn't have crystals that next morning in that jar and there now resides a sign next to the jars saying, "Do Not Touch...Mike, this means YOU."

8.  Running like the wind.

Jake wants to practice running and one of his bingo activities was to run with Mom or Dad for 15 minutes.  He and I took on the loop around our house and did a few minutes of running followed by one minute of walking, then running again.  He got up to 4 minutes of straight running.  It's almost three miles and our goal was to do it in 40 minutes.  We made it in 39 minutes, 58 seconds.  We killed our last record which was 45 minutes.  I suggested we train for a 5K with the family and Jake was totally on board - so was Mike.  Maddie looked at us like we were crazy, but I think we can swing her vote to our side. 

You are now caught up on life at casa de Murphy.  See you next time.