Beautiful Saturday

Mary and I started out the day early, and kept going!

We are getting the living room and dining room ready for the makeover. Today we move out most of the items (and there were a lot of them!) in preparation for the wall work and painting. But, the day was just too pretty for us to stay inside all day working! The temps were up in the 70's and we just had to get outside. I went for a bike ride, joining hundreds of other Marylanders out and about. It was like a spring day, and I was out in shorts and an a t shirt! In JANUARY!

Samuel came by to work on his science fair project. He did quite a bit of that outside, so he was enjoying the weather too!

Mary and I went for a walk before the sun went down and enjoyed talking with the neighbors around who were all gabbing about liking global warming. Sure, it is nice in winter, but when it is 112 degrees this summer, they will have a different attitude I bet.

Not much else going on, Mary and I laid around after a simple dinner of rice and carrots and just read books. It is almost time to go to bed, so I'll get this post done and out on the 'net.

Happy New Year!

2006 has passed into history. It was a very good year for the Kniskern's and the Hokanson's. We got lots accomplished, had some sad times, and mostly happy times.

To all of my family and friends, may the world bring you wonderful challenges, joys and triumphs in the year to come.

Mary and I sat 3 of the kids down last night for a conversation on accomplishments of 2006, goals/dream for 2007 and what are you proud of? It was very enlightening to hear what each of the kids counted for accomplishments, what they are dreaming about, what goals they are setting, and what they are proud of. I'm so proud of each and every one of them. Each has his or her own personal journey through life, and each has taken a different path to learning. But overall, all the children are good.

Mary and I have listed our accomplishments in our blogs. We have been busy as the year went by.

Some of my short term goals: get the living room ready for Mary and crew to paint it. I have to repair cracks in the wall, pound in the nail-pops, mud over them and patch a crack in the ceiling and match the textured ceiling. As I told Mary this morning, I'm not looking forward to doing this project, but I am looking forward to getting it done! I believe we will be starting on it this week. Hopefully we can be done by the end of January.

Apple Trees

I worked on pruning Dad's apple trees yesterday. There were lots of suckers, and trimming them was easy with my brand new reciprocating saw. The trees are dwarf, so we have them pruned down to about 10 feet high. It took me about 2 hours per tree and I got both of them done. The kids came out and cleared the branches away, and tossed them over the back fence. They were troopers!

It has been a nice trip. It has been especially nice to see Kyle. He has been a little careless of late and hurt himself a couple of times. It seems he got a wood carving set for Christmas. He was carving something when the very sharp chisel slipped and cut the base of his thumb on his opposite hand. That was before I picked him up. And last night, he was racing his Uncle Kirk, and lost his footing and skinned his knee and hand. (He may have fallen so that he could have an excuse for losing a footrace to a man 20 years older than he is!) - Just kidding Kyle.
Anyway, Kyle must be in that clumsy stage at 15.

My brother and sister asked all the kids over for a "sleep over" last night. I don't know how much sleep they got, because they haven't come back yet. I'm pretty sure they all were hanging out, watching movies and cutting up most of the night. I think they had fun though, even if they are sleepy today.

A very good holiday visit.

Wonderful Wednesday

It was a great day hanging out with my family. It made that drive on Tuesday worth it! My uncle came down, and my brother had retrieved my grandmother from her house, and we all were enjoying each other all day. My folks had laid out a snacky spread on the dining room table, and we snacked all day long. The kids amused themselves, or hung out with us and generally had a great time. My niece is 5 and she had a wonderful day! It is so good to connect with family.

Dad had purchased some firewood, and Mom asked me to build a "little" fire. I tried to keep it from getting too big, but sometimes it is more difficult to maintain a small fire than a large one. I managed pretty well, and it was warm and toasty in the family room all day.

Conversations ranged from current events to old family stories. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have all of them around.

Today will be a slower day, with Dad taking Granny back home, me and the kids doing some apple tree pruning, and just hanging out after that.

Boxing Day driving Hell

I left early to go pick up Kyle. I figured I'd get to his house about 3, and we would get to C'burg around 7 ish. Boy was I wrong. Driving around our fair nation's capital is a nightmare, during the day. The traffic was stop and go from Telegraph Rd all the way to Fredericksburg. But by that time I was committed to that route. I think I won't be going that way again. I'll take 301.

Anyway it took us about 3 hours from DC to get down to pick up Kyle. We got Kyle at 5 and then had to drive from Fredericksburg to C'burg. Wow. Lucky for us, the ride was much easier after we got out of Fredericksburg.

Now I'm happily visiting with Mom and Dad, with 3 of the kids with us. Mary and Tori should be arriving today, since Mary wasn't feeling like driving yesterday. It must have been fate or some other sense that she had, she really wouldn't have enjoyed the drive yesterday. We had to take two cars since we have 6 people coming down, and only 5 would fit in either car...

Looking forward to visiting with Kirk, Melissa, Jessica and Granny. Mom says that Uncle Glenn could make an appearance too!

Merry Christmas!

I'm so excited that it is that time again! Time to visit family and reconnect! I am so looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Love,

James

Good Weekend

It was nice outside. Mary and the kids and I didn't get into anything huge, just lots of small, simple things.

Samuel was playing around with the tennis rackets at the community college courts.

Miriam went to a couple of church parties this weekend.

I built two more garden bed frames.

Mary committed a few neatnesses around the house.

Samuel and I went to see the movie "Eragon". It was pretty good, but we agreed that we liked the book better.

Made dinner. Ate dinner. Life is good.