Duke had a pack meeting for Cub Scouts last night.  They learn all sorts of valuable life lessons, such as how to pelt each other with marshmallows and mummify each other in toilet paper.

That’s Duke there in middle wearing the hat & scarf.  I was tempted to shout, “Freeze!” and scurry across the floor to take a close-up pic.  But I figured Duke is already warped enough without me emotionally scarring him with over-mommying, embarrassing moments.  However, I fully reserve the right to further scar him at some point in the future.

FYI:  While the zoom camera on the iPhone is handy, it’s no match for trying to capture perpetual-motion boys across a large, dimly-lit auditorium.

Have you heard of it?  Mommypotamus posted about it yesterday.  I’m in.  Even if I have nothing earth-shattering going on in our lives to post about, I still love taking random pics of the kids.  Now I have an official excuse.

The most exciting news of 2012 so far?  I organized the bookshelf!

I know, you’re thrilled to death, aren’t you?  Just ignore the pile on top, the scattered toys to the left, and the messy box of toys to the right.  Hold on to your britches cuz it’s even more exciting that way!

In other news, Steve’s been working on a back room addition.  If the wind ever dies down, he might get to sheet it before spring.  We’re having gusts up to 45-50 mph today so he’s opting to work down in the basement, cleaning and rearranging it yet again.  I’m hopeful that I’ll have my seedling area down there back by seed starting time.

What else?  Isaac and Charlie just went on a winter campout with their new Boy Scout troop.  (I really, really like these guys — both the leaders and the boys.  Not at all like the idiots at the last troop.)  It wasn’t terribly cold, maybe down to 32* or 33* but that’s still too cold for my blood.  They’ll be going on another, longer one at the end of January.

I tried snapping a pic as they were headed to the campout because, well, that’s what we moms do, right?  Charlie turned out a complete streak of blurriness.  At least Isaac was still recognizable as human-ish.  Very fluffy-headed human-ish.  He’s currently going for the handsome, hairy hippy look.

Hope you all have a great 2012!  (R.E.M. will be stuck in  my head for this entire year.)

The other day, I absentmindedly doodled while on the phone.  Finished with my phone call, I went on about my duties in the kitchen.  I came back several minutes later to find this.

The top two rows are mine.  (Not up to my usual doodling standards, mind you.  I kept getting interrupted and so left things lopsided and uneven and undone because, mind you, there are rules of doodling which one must obey.  Like all doodling within a single doodle must be completed within that single doodle.  You have one, uninterrupted session to perfect it.  If you blow that, you and your shamed descendents must forever live with those imperfections.  It’s a rule.  No, it’s a law.  But don’t forget about the law that requires you to quickly — and with a firm hand — box in that imperfect doodle before moving on to the next, destined-to-be-perfect doodle.  We wouldn’t want those imperfections uncontained, would we?  Why then those promiscuous little sluts would be free to roam around and infect the rest of the good doodling world with their misshapen cooties.)

Nellie had quickly swooped in, swiped my pencil, and copied my artistic genius.  Notice how she didn’t draw single lines?  She did feathered lines (another rule of doodling) just as I did.  Of course, after I took the pic, she went back in and colored it all pink.  *barf*  She apparently does not yet know the only-draw-in-monochrome rule.  I mean law.

The morning started with a clean house and family photo.  (Note the messy bookshelf on the left proves we actually read.  Or throw books at each other.)

It all went downhill from there.

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Starlene held a giveaway over on her blog and I won an apron!  How cool is that? Thanks, Starlene!!  It came wrapped for Christmas even but I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning.  I’m a very naughty girl.

It just arrived today and I’ve already broken it in.  The funny thing is the apron is a GAPS diet* apron and I broke it in by making cinnamon swirl bread.  Heh.  It’s for the neighbors’ Christmas gifts, though, so that makes it okay that there’s now flour all over the front of it, right?

*For those who don’t know what the GAPS diet it, it’s a healing diet that excludes grains (among other things).

Cody, Isaac, and Charlie have all signed up to do the Polar Plunge.

What is the Polar Plunge?  On January 28th, they will jump into the frigid Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri, along with several other nuts to have a delightful swim among the mini-icebergs.

Why would anyone do that?  To raise money for the Special Olympics.

Why am I telling you this?  So you can pledge money to the Special Olympics in the name of any/all of the boys.  All money pledged goes to the Special Olympics.

How do you do pledge in their name?  Go to Team SpeedKin’s page, click on one of their names, and follow the instructions to pledge.  If you’re not comfy with the online money thing, let me know and we’ll make other arrangements.  Each kid must have $50 pledged in their name in order to plunge in January but they’ve all opted to set a goal of $250 each.

What do you get out of it?  I will be there, giggling my butt off and making fun of them, supporting them and taking pictures to post back here on the blog so that you, too, can giggle your butts off and make fun of them, share in their joy in supporting the Special Olympics.

What makes it even better?  Isaac and Charlie will be doing a Klondike campout that weekend with the Boy Scouts.  They’ll be camping out Friday night in the freezing cold, waking up in the freezing cold, doing the Polar Plunge in the freezing cold, going back to the campout, and spending another two days and one night in the freezing cold.  What’s not to love?

So go pledge!!  I’ll be nagging you all again about this in case you forget.  If there’s one thing at which I excel, it’s nagging.  Just ask Steve.

Success!

Successful enough to drink by the glass.  Yum.  I simply used my usual salsa recipe, added whey that I drained from kefir, and let set out at room temp for 2-4 days.  Did I mention yum?  I can’t wait to try this with fresh veggies from my own garden this summer!

Duke & Charlie recently joined a basketball team and they had their first practice Tuesday night.  Their first game is not until January — a darn good thing since neither of them has ever played real basketball before!

I tried really, really hard to remember to take the good camera with me.  And then forgot.  So you get iPhone shots.  As we were leaving, I discovered that I had, afterall, remembered to bring the good camera and it was right in my purse.  Duh.

FYI:  Duke is in the black shirt on the left and Charlie is in the gray shirt right next to the pole.

Snow volleyball, anyone?

The forecast is for cold, cold, cold so we’re happy to see the snow.  Snow somehow makes the really cold stuff more bearable.  It still doesn’t make getting my butt outdoors to clean up dead plants any easier, though.  Maybe I’ll just pretend I’m leaving the dead sunflowers out there for natural bird feeders.  Yeah, that’s it.  I’m doing it for the birds, people.  I’m a giver.