We have enjoyed a reprieve from the cold weather.  Amazing how warm 25 feels when it has been below zero!   We are due to get some snow tonight and then not much precipitation the next 10 days or so.

I recently won, in my opinion, a huge victory on the home front!!  I am trying to make small changes in what we eat.  If the changes are too drastic, someone will balk.  However, the other morning I made waffles that everyone loved and even got upset when we ran out of them.  The 2 main ingredients....cottage cheese and cream cheese!  And then the syrup, they all went for the cream cheese frosting.  Yay.  I just have to remember to keep the recipe out of sight, or they will for sure declare them no good.

We hit the ice rink last weekend.  Went for a moonlit skate.  Our Friday night dinner group moved the weekly meeting to the outdoor ice rink.  It was a beautiful night.  We had a fire pit, s'mores, hot chocolate.  I always enjoy those nights when we have way more kids than adults.  All of the kids, with the exception of one, is between the ages of 8 and 16.  So fun to watch them all.  I think the most rad out on the ice was a 14 year old girl...she put everyone to shame!  None of my boys had skates...I think they got put in storage and I don't even know if we had appropriate sizes.  (My intention is to always buy next size up, so eventually we will have them all, but it never seems to happen.)   Today I went and bought them all hockey skates and hockey sticks.  I know what our weekends will be spent doing!

JR and I went and looked at a house recently.  The location and price were amazing, but there was a reason that only 1 of the 4 bedrooms was pictures online.  We both liked it and saw the potential, but it did not fully grab either one of us.  Will be curious, with the work it needs, to see how long it stays on the market.  I am going to look at another one on Friday.  I am still not sure if we are quite ready to buy, but just praying when the right house comes along, it will be obvious to both of us.

All three of the boys are currently doing CrossFit Kids classes (it is month by month, so depending on other extra curricular stuff, they may not participate.  They really enjoy it.  I think Benjamin surprised himself with how well he did.  Jacob stars YMCA basketball in a few weeks. 

One of the things I really enjoy about winter, is the early bedtimes around here.  Since it is dark so early, the boys are usually home pretty early.  I think one night they were all asleep by 7:30!  Sure love the time to read and get to sleep early myself.  The last 24 hours I have felt a huge head cold coming on.  So I have turned to my standby.  A mixture of honey, minced garlic and cayenne pepper.  It has kept it at bay so far.  (Because I know my sister will want the recipe :-), it is tablespoon of honey, tablespoon of garlic and then as much cayenne as you can tolerate!  Oh, I love it and eat it by the spoonful.

A quiet weekend on the horizon.  I am hoping to do lunch and a movie with Kristine (niece) on Saturday and church on Sunday!!