It's a Cotten life: 2015

December 31, 2015

Around Christmas

Some rather random pictures of Christmas. I realized I never actually got out the camera when everyone was together. Ah well.

This is mid December. Can you imagine it being this warm in the frozen north? So warm that our October Pumpkin is still not a frozen/thawed mess?

Christmas Eve was 70 degrees and windy, so we took a walk to Grandma and Grandpa's

Lily and Gilbert being zombies

Lily and her walking stick

Clouds scudding across the sky

Hoyt's windblown look.

Gorgeous clouds

Before Cody left, he put a front loader on the Deutz. Which made it rather Christmasey.

Making sugared cranberries

Justin and Dad helped Gilbert put a new toy together. They both had things to say to whoever made the erector set. "You can't even get the wrench in there to tighten the nut up!"

Oranges and pinecones

My sugared cranberry cake. I really liked it actually.

A blurry picture of Lily and Orianna's wool felting projects being started. Dad says I depend much too heavily on Justin's goodwill when choosing presents for the kids. Which is sort of true--"Well that looks annoying, but Justin could probably figure that out..." It is a good thing I got such a nice Daddy for my kids.

Mom had some leftover decorations from work, so the kids got to decorate a little and they were quite pleased with themselves.

December 15, 2015

Various things

Well, we have been off antibiotics for less than a week and we have sore throats, fevers, and headaches again. So back to the doctor's this afternoon. Heavy sigh. I weep for our healthier selves. I have been telling people that I feel like we are the before picture of a healthy living blog--"The moment of clarity came when we were all on antibiotics for the second time in one month. We knew we had to make a change. Then a friend introduced us to...." (fill in with essential oils, gluten free eating, clean eating, veganism, apple cider vinegar, homeopathy) "and it made all the difference."

Except that no one has introduced us to anything miraculous yet. Get on that, you people. Find a cure for what ails us.

In the meantime, we will keep trying the same old, same old antibiotics and hope for a different outcome. (If the strep test is positive this afternoon, that is.) We had some blood work done on Friday and hopefully we will get some answers soon. Until then, don't expect us to swallow anything with abandon. Strep makes you stop and consider the pros and cons of every swallow you make. And inevitably, the question "Does drooling really look that bad?" comes to mind. So far we are still socially acceptable, non-drooling people. But if this continues, I make no guarantees.

And now that was have some sickness and drool on our minds, onward and upward to cheerier things. Like sunlight, squash, sunsets, and... squidlets. (Ha! I couldn't think of an s word for kids, but I persevered and came up with a Douglas/Uncle Scott word.)

Tricycle in sunlight

Butternut squash

Mom's Geranium's

Lindsey took a good picture of Mom's geranium windowsill and the Northern New York sky. So I will steal it. It doesn't look like late November does it?

Last month, when we had a dusting of snow. We haven't had snow since.

Steamy spaghetti squash and my poinsettia. I adore poinsettias. They are so flamboyant.

Moira sunset

Gilbert being proud of being a bucket filler

Some more geese. I love geese.

Dad made us all breakfast the morning Lindsey left.

And then, we decided to color.

The flash washes it out, but Lindsey's was quite vibrant

Coloring is hard work. What if you choose the wrong colors?!? You ruin it, that's what. I am not sure I like these colors all together. But I picked them with confidence, so that is something.