Rebecca decorating cookies this morning with her mother Katie rolling them out in the background. If you look on the cookie sheet, you can see my special "IU" decorated cookies (that's why they invite me to help: my cookie decorating skills always add a little something...well, something). This is a Purdue household, so they humor me by letting me use the state cookie cutter in the first place, and by letting me decorate them with red and white. Rebecca made a yellow Purdue cookie next to them for balance.
READING: Shhh...don't tell Mark this, but he got a wonderful new book for Christmas by Graham Robb entitled The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, from the Revolution to the First World War that he has been conveniently leaving by his chair each day as he leaves for work, and I have been reading it on the sly, careful to stay just up to the point of his bookmark so that I don't turn the fresh pages or dislodge that new book smell, etc. It is really good...and kindoffundon'tchaknow to be scoring history on the sly like this. (There is a bad girl inside, not far at all from the surface. For shame.)
POOLSIDE READING: Carolyn Hart's mysteries.
LISTENING TO: Peter Frampton. Someone has to do it every little bit or so.
COOKING THROUGH: Alice Waters' new cookbook The Art of Simple Food. So far, I have done the early dressing and sauce chapters and done some checking around for a different CSA this year.
FAV NEW FIND: My favorite new find is a knitting class for beginners. I am finally going to learn how to do this in a class situation...I am figuring knitting would be a good thing to do at swim meets with all that sitting around time between swims. I gave up on it over the summer as we were on the move too much, but I am thinking these next couple of months will be prime time for learning how to knit. Can you even believe I am still thinking about doing this? Me either.
FAV THING TODAY: My favorite thing today is making and decorating sugar cookies with Katie, Rebecca, and Meredith this morning for their party this Sunday. They host this Epiphany party each year and one of the stars of the party is over a thousand or so cookies, all different kinds and styles, all on trays circulating about...all homemade from tried and true (and some secret) recipes. With Gary at work, this is a household full of girls and pink, so I always like to be invited to come over and help with some of the cookie process.
SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK: Okay, I did not actually scrapbook any yet this week (not a good start to my page-a-day resolution...) but I did get all the photos sorted and uploaded to the photo shop we use and they are ready to be picked up tomorrow, so I can work on them over the weekend. I am counting that as a step in the right direction. (Yes, it does SO COUNT!)
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS LIST PROGRESS: I just got the list, so I don't really need to have made any progress so far, right? See, I told you all you should not have made that list for me...now I feel obligated to attempt at least some of it. Compulsive people are like that don'tchaknow. Probably should attempt some of the ones on the "not keeping" list also. We'll see.
GOING TO: Sunday is officially Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, so in addition to the regular type things, all the Christmas/holiday decor comes down and gets packed away, and this year for the first time in I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG, we DO NOT have a swim meet this weekend and we can go to Katie and Gary's big annual Open House party and see a lot of friends and make some new ones!
PRAYING FOR: My friend Anne as she struggles to cope with her life without Rich...for her birthday today, the first that she has celebrated without Rich since they were 17 and fell in love in high school...for all spouses who are struggling this year finding their new paths without the other. Please join me.