You Don't See That Every Day

I'm getting a crown this month. Unfortunately it isn't gold, it doesn't have diamonds, and there is no title associated with it. No, I got to wade into the swamp of dental work this week. Not something many people look forward to, except for maybe the dentist. My back tooth needs a crown, so earlier this week my first appointment included a number of drills and numbing material and 2 hours in the dentist's chair. And then a week (or maybe more, who knows?) of not being able to chew on one side of my mouth. And not eat hard, crunchy food. (So long beloved cashews.) But there is a positive side to this! I've been much more aware of what I'm eating. I haven't been prone to mindless snacking, -- which has played right into the journey I have been on since summer ... Back in August I went clothes shopping with my teen girls. It was depressing. Nothing fit right, everything looked dumpy on me. And I was not used to this! I was the kid who could eat anything an...

Some people make St. Valentine's Day into quite a production. We don't usually. The kids make cards for friends and sometimes family members. This year the girls made cookies as part of a math lesson and then handed them out to neighbors. But then we got a little treat of our own... I am trying to do home school a little differently now, instead of just bookwork. I want my kids to love learning, not just have a list of work to cross off. Since the oldest girl is studying Greece this week, we decided to find some Greek food! There is a Greek restaurant in town I love to go to, because they make the best lamb ever, and that's the only place I can get it. So I took the girls out to lunch. Now, I didn't realize when I made my lesson plans that it was a 'special' day. A day when many restaurants might be busy. Thankfully, we went at lunch time, and the place was basically all ours. We ordered a couple of combination plates, and I told the girls we all had to ...