Maternity Leave?

Oops. I thought I scheduled this post for weeks ago, turns out I scheduled it for 2011. Yeah. This is what happens when you have 3 kids.

Anyway, with the arrival of this not-so-little "little guy", I just haven't had time to keep up this blog AND Mollie's blog (www.allaboutmollie.blogspot.com).

I'll be back when Liam starts sleeping through the night... stay tuned.

Shutterboo Photo Challenge: Fire

We've been having fires every night this week because it's been chilly! It has been in the low 20's at night and a little higher during the day. Yeah, nothing compared to Boston (or Moscow, Toronto, etc), but pretty cold for the Deep South.

Matt and his dad cut down a dead tree in the yard a few weeks ago. We have now burned up all that wood, plus all the fallen limbs from our yard. Matt is anxious to cut down another tree (we have lots and some spindly and unhealthy).

My submission to the photo challenge this week, though, is a photo I took on Christmas Eve. Our whole neighborhood puts out luminaries and it is gorgeous. It is peaceful. Calm. Perfect for Christmas Eve. We walked with the girls in the wagon and enjoyed the soft luminaries lining both sides of the streets.


Be sure to check out the other photos in the flickr pool. There are some fabulous flames!

Shutterboo Photo Challenge: Brown (catching up from last week)

Last week's photo challenge was "brown". To me, that means chocolate!!

My mother-in-law made these "unbaked" chocolate cookies. They are delicious!

Here's the recipe:

3 C rolled oats
1 C shredded coconut
1/2 C cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C sugar
1/2 C milk
1/2 C butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix sugar, milk, & butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper until cool and hardened.

Merry Christmas!

Shutterboo Photo Challenge: Feet

At 9 months pregnant, I can barely see my own feet. I was hoping to have some brand new itty bitty feet to take photos of this week, but it was not to be. Mollie and Lucy cooperated though by putting their feet together while they were watching Frosty the Snowman. I kinda like it.

Here's another play in Photoshop:
To check out other interpretations of the challenge this week, check out the other photos in the flickr pool.

Shutterboo Photo Challenge: Road

Another photo of the beautiful Botany Bay Plantation in South Carolina. It is part of the Edisto Land Trust. We only had time to briefly explore it by car, but I can't wait to go back on foot!

Check out other entries in the Flickr group.

Shutterboo Photo Challenge: Cold

Yesterday it was 80 degrees here. Yes, 80. I could not bring myself to post about cold. Today is a full 35 degrees cooler. Much more like it. Still, the visions of cold that I have involve frost, snow, ice, etc. none of which are occurring naturally anywhere within a 200 mile radius.

My entry for this week is entitled "Cool beans". Frozen black beans, that is. I cook dried beans in big batches and freeze them to use later. I pulled some out and they had a lovely layer of frost on them.


I tried a few other shots before the beans. First, I was just trying to get a picture of my freezer. I hate my freezer because it's so skinny and it's always full and hard to find stuff. Here it is in all it's un-glory:


And yesterday, I captured this tree hanging on to it's last few leaves in the parking lot of Target. While I was wearing a short sleeve T-shirt and had the air conditioner on. In December.

It sure does look cold, doesn't it?