friday tuesday photos

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog-reading to bring you a special Tuesday photo post! Photos are on Tuesday this week because 1) I missed Friday photos last week and 2) I'll probably miss them again this week since I'll be out of town.

I managed to cross two more items off my 101 Things list (I still haven't decided on the last two things, by the way, but thank you all for your suggestions): 1) I hand-picked strawberries, made them into jam, and canned a dozen jars of jam, and it's the most delicious jam I've ever tasted, and no, I'm not biased at all. Yes, I am aware that you can buy jam in the store, and yes, I'm aware of what century we're in. I think we all know by now that if a complete stranger were to judge me based solely on my hobbies, they would conclude that I'm at least 70 years old. I know. But making jam is fun! And really, really delicious.

Anyway, moving on. The second item I crossed off my list this weekend was a visit to Chimney Bluffs State Park, and that, my friends, is what you will now see photos of.

The park is named for the crazy bluffs overlooking the lake:

There is a lovely beach hike below the bluffs, where Evan happily threw rocks into the water:

And where James happily posed for photos:

And where James also spent a lot of time climbing on things:

It was a really pretty hike, and a really beautiful day:


I'll be heading over to central NY to visit with my mom and sister and niece for a few days. Not that I ever blog that regularly, but don't expect anything for a while.

Oh! And while I'm on the subject of photos -- Yahoo is shutting down their photo site, so I've transfered all of my photos to Google. I've even uploaded recent photos (there are actually some that don't make it onto the blog) so check it out.

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99 things

So do you all remember the 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge that I was going to try to complete? Well, I'm nowhere near completing it, but I am proud to announce that I'm almost done writing the list. Yep, yesterday I managed to get up to 99 items. Some of them are kind of lame, some of them are actually going to be a challenge, and a good quarter of the list involves things I want to do before I leave Rochester, which gives me a pretty short window in which to do them. I didn't anticipate what a challenge it would be to just write the list itself, so even getting to 99 feels like an accomplishment, even with all the lame things on it.

But the exciting news is that I've already completed 3 of the things on my list!

• #1: Buy suits for the boys for my sister's wedding. You've all seen the photo evidence. Done! (And that is a good example of one of the lame items on my list.)
• #10: Take my children camping this summer. Done!
• #40: Have a yard sale before moving. Done! (Back in May, but I can't link it because I never wrote about it on the blog for some reason.)

That's two percent! And three more items will be completed soon: clean out all of our old junk before moving, move out of this apartment, and play in a frisbee league in spring and summer. Again, the first two of those are lame items that I was going to have to do anyway, but it is hard to come up with 101 things to do.

Which is where you come in, friends. Anyone want to make some suggestions of something I should do in the next couple of years? Something random, something realistic that I might actually be able to do, something creative, something challenging? Just not something too lame -- I've come up with enough of those on my own. I'm open to pretty much anything. Two more items! That's all I need! And actually, if I get enough interesting suggestions, I might replace something boring that's already on the list.

So, fire away!

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spring things

Not much time for blogging lately, I'm afraid. I'm going out of town this weekend (a vacation! without my boys!) for my sister's bridal shower, so out of kindness to Greg, I'm trying not to leave him with piles of unwashed laundry and dishes, or shelves and drawers completely emptied of toys and books and games.

In addition to the routine cleaning and upkeep, we've also started spring cleaning. Last night we cleaned our computer desk, which was a much lengthier task than you'd probably expect for a desk. Today I'm tackling the basement, hoping to find lots of garage sale material.

I've also been working on my 101 Things list. So far the hardest part has been coming up with 101 measurable and (hopefully) achievable goals. A few nights ago I made it up to 77 in a burst of sudden creativity, but I've stalled since then. I could take the easy way out and list things that I know I'm going to do anyway, such as buying a wedding present for my sister, or going berry picking this summer, or taking the kids to the beach or the zoo or something, but I'm trying to challenge myself a little bit, and it's more difficult than I expected to even think of the possible ways in which to challenge myself. I'm still thinking, though.

Oh, but I've decided not to post the final list here, or maybe just an amended version, because some of the things on my list involve surprises for people who read my blog, and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise by announcing it. Or, you know, fail to actually do the surprising thing once I've said I'm going to.

Easter was kind of uneventful this year, as far as holidays go. I slept late and the boys did the basket-finding and gift-opening and candy-eating without me. I was kind of upset about that at first, but now I've realized that I've got about 37 other chances in a year to see them wild with gift-opening and candy-eating excitement, so it's not such a big deal. I wanted to post some photos, though, of what happens when you dye eggs with undiluted food coloring. First, the eggs -- the all-green eggs are the food colored eggs; the others are painted:

Lo and behold, when I peeled the first green egg:

They were the most beautiful eggs ever:

And they made crazy-looking egg salad:

The crazy blue-green eggs kind of made up for missing the Easter festivities. That, and the leftover candy. So it's all okay.

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101 things in 1001 days (part one)

Okay, it's been a whopper of a "My Kids are Driving Me Crazy" day (I made a third child cry today! How evil am I to expect a preschooler to carry his own sweatshirt?!?! Oh, the tragedy!), but I feel like I've been really negative on the blog lately, so I want to switch gears here and write something positive for a change.

From the blog Get Rich Slowly, I found an interesting meme: make a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days (roughly 2.75 years), and try to achieve them. I've been mulling it over in my mind for the last couple of days, trying to decide if I really feel ambitious enough to take on a challenge like this -- it'll be hard enough to even think of 101 goals in the first place, much less actually complete all of them! But then I thought, it's so rare these days that I actually challenge myself (instead of being challenged, in both good and bad ways, by various small children) -- why not give it a try? Worst case scenario: I don't finish everything (though I will surely finish some things. I've got almost three years, after all). Best case scenario: I accomplish 101 things! And I think it would be really exciting if I could do that.

I don't have a whole list worked out yet, but I'll post it in sections as I think of things. They won't all be monumental challenges; some will likely be pretty mundane. Some will be short term, some will be long term, some will be difficult, some will be easy. We'll see what I can do. To begin with, here are my first 10 goals.

1. I will buy suits for the boys for my sister's wedding. (This will be done by the end of May, or I'll be in trouble.)
2. I will toilet train Evan. (Three years should be enough time, no?)
3. I will knit another Christmas stocking, so my boys can each have one. (To be completed before Christmas 2007.)
4. I will bake a cheesecake. (I have never done this, even though I love cheesecake. I've just never had an occasion.)
5. I will clean out the basement (and the rest of the house) and either sell our things at a yard sale, donate things to James' nursery school's garage sale, donate to the Salvation Army, or throw away the worst of it. (Hopefully in the next couple of months.)
6. I will grow tomatoes and eat them. (And hopefully other delicious things, too, once I have the space.)
7. I will move out of our current apartment to go live somewhere else. (Lack of details aside, this will hopefully happen in 2007.)
8. I will register James for kindergarten. (In April, once we find out about extending our lease here.)
9. I will play in a frisbee league this spring and summer (and fall if we still live here then). (I will do this even though it scares me because I am ridiculously out of shape.)
10. I will take my children camping this summer.

Anyone want to try it with me? Anyone have any suggestions for things you think I should try to do?

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