He passed! Now driving solo.

 It's January and it's cold.  We had another dusting of snow this morning but not enough to delay school and Little Man was disappointed about that.  The tempts are to be below freezing tonight and for the weekend and that might mean Matthew will be out skating again with his friends.  Last weekend he was skating Saturday night, went snowboarding Sunday and then skated again Sunday night.  His lungs must feel amazing with all that cold air flowing through them.  I asked if he doesn't get cold and he said not if you play hockey!

While he's outside in the cold, I'd much rather be inside our warm and cozy home finishing up the puzzle!!!  It's complete.  Which one next?

Sunday afternoon I grabbed my seeds magazine from last year and started dreaming about the garden.  There's a few things I would love to add to the garden this year!  Maybe some fruit trees?  Maybe some preannuals?  For sure lots more flower seeds!  More lavender plants!  I'm dreaming and made a quick list of seeds and plants I want to grow.  One thing I did learn while researching seeds is that there is two different kinds of fennel.  I grew fennel the past two years in hopes of eating the white bulb of the plant that we all love so much!  The plant did great and grew taller than Ashlyn but never got a nice bulb in the ground.  I just read that there are two different kinds of fennel and I want to make sure I find Florence this year to plant and maybe that will give me the final result I wish for!

School projects are never so fun but only because the kids end up waiting till the last minute and then they suddenly need tons of glue, paper and display boards.  This time the kids did their projects all alone and had it done by fair day!  Good job!

Houston Cafe is a new cafe nearby and friends of ours own it!  Mom and Jody met me there for breakfast the other morning and it was all so delicious!  The hot chocolate was so tasty!  The poached eggs, salmon and avocado on top of a sourdough English muffin was delicious!  I can't wait to go back!!!!!

I stocked up on groceries earlier in the week and I love to fill up the vegetables and fruits!  The kids have a new favorite granola bar that was introduced to them by Austin's basketball team snack.

We love all the Florida fresh fruits you can buy right now!!!!

And whenever fennel is to be found, I buy it!  We love this vegetable!

Our slow pace of winter is so great!  We have many evenings right here at home and love to snuggle and watch the new Magnolia Network Show or football or read.  Basketball has our first priority of events though!  Matthew is the captain of his team this year and they are playing great!  No losses so far!  Mike and I drove to the Berks game on Tuesday night and we love watching this team play the game so well!!!!

 

I made sourdough English muffins for the first time this week!  They turned out yummy but a little flat!  I thought my dough seemed a bit sticky and I can't wait to make them again!  They were easy to make and a simple recipe to follow!  As I mixed the dough the night before, Matthew and Mike were sitting by the kitchen bar watching me.  Matthew can't figure out why you would go to so much bother if you can just buy English muffins.  The next day, he benefited by eating a big boy egg sandwich before heading off to take his drivers test.

He practiced some parallel parking by using the dumpster and off we went for his driver test.  On the way there, I was reminding him where the lights are, hazards lights and telling him to watch his speed on the back development streets because usually they are low speed limits.  He finally said, "Mom, I think you are more nervous than me."  Enough said.  It didn't take long at all for him to take his drivers test!  He passed and said it was easy!  He's now driving solo.

Kids grow up too fast!  It just seems like yesterday that Matthew was my little side kick when Hadassah started school.  Now he's growing into a man right before my eyes and playing basketball with all his heart.  He's breaking school records, leading the team so well, sweating off some bad orders and thriving in life.  He loves his friends!  Now, he's off driving by himself!!!  No more 'pick me ups' or 'drop me off'.  You know, you do get to this place because there does comes a time to drive solo but there he goes.  "Lord, keep him safe!"  I'm so proud of him!  

And then last night he comes home after playing some hockey at Justin's house.  He walked in and asked if I could make him two turkey apple butter sandwiches?  It was 9:45 PM!  Two sandwiches!  I looked at him and said, "What happened to you?"  He laughed and said he got hit by a hockey stick in the eye and fell down and got a bad scrape on his arm.  I'm so glad it's nothing too serious and this morning he went to school with a shiner of an eye and a bruised up arm!

The one to three inches of snow that was predicted for today, wasn't much.  The roads were wet this morning and it didn't start snowing till around 7 AM.  It was one of those moments where you think "is school going to have a delay or not?"  Not today but the snow was pretty while it fell on the magnolia leaves outside our house!

The house got cleaned today and we are ready for another freezing weekend!  Tempts are dropping low tonight and staying that way all weekend.  We have more basketball games to cheer at this weekend and I can't wait for it!

Happy January winter days, friends!