Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Full Holiday Weekend

I haven't had such a fun weekend in a long time. I'm tired, and a little shell-shocked by temperature extremes, but, hey, that's not uncommon around these parts. 

Wednesday night Rob put in a new floor in the mud room/aka puppy room. They have a room. :  ) With a nice big back door entrance and lots of easily swept and/wiped up flooring. 

The girls have been alone in their room a few hours at a time with just a couple barricades and plenty of room to roam. So far they are respecting "the crib." This move opened up more room in the living room where the kennel has been resting since May. So we rearranged the living room furniture a little bit and I finished up a functional project I've been working on. 

Thursday was a wonderfully laid back day. We had a simple brunch with & and her little ones and a couple of friends. Thanksgiving was the 5 month anniversary of the little ones moving in with & and it was a cherry on the top of the sundae. The kids have bloomed under her mothering and we all love them. They spent the day and we pulled out all the Christmas items and we decorated and loaded up the Christmas tree. I tipped it over and broke two ornaments. But a good time was had by all. And my house feels festive. & and I cooked all the goodies we were going to be eating later that night. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my folks house. Another lovely get together. And of course the food was pretty amazing. & and I made several vegan options (our main dish was mushroom seitan loaf that was perfect but which I will add maybe a bit more garlic to next time I make it.)  and my new sister-in-law and brother made a delish pumpkin cheesecake.  Super delish. 

Friday night found me at &'s helping them decorate their place. The kids had so much fun. The 5 and 3 year olds especially got into decorating little Christmas trees for their rooms. So cute. Pure excitement. 

Saturday night we headed over again to decorate gingerbread houses with Toad Boy and the Mrs. One more Christmas thing on Sunday night at church rounded out the whole kid centric weekend. But. In exchange for all the work, I got lots of hugs and kisses, and a raging cold. Ha. Ha. I'm good with that. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Maple Ginger Broccoli Slaw

A little tart, a lot refreshing. 

Maple Ginger Broccoli Slaw

I package of broccoli slaw. (I used Trader Joe's organic. It was probably 4 cups unleashed.)

1 good sized Granny Smith apple matchstick sliced (I left the skin on) 

2 TBSP maple syrup 

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

1 TBSP soy sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger (or shredded fresh would be great if you've got some and love ginger)

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

salt to taste

Toss all items together. 

Add dried cranberries to make it extra festive. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ That's Why it's so Satisfying to Read a Good Book...

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Crack Me Up

Seriously. The girls were crashed on the couch until we decided to watch Dogs with Jobs on Netflix.  Ha ha! The episode was the Cheetah parent surrogate Jack Russell Terrier and Rookie the Canadian Beagle who sniffs out food and agricultural items that people bring into the country. At the first sign of the Jack Russell Terrier the girls were focused in rapt attention. Too cute! And yes, we are still in the 20th century with our television. I think it's about the size of my computer screen. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Miscellaneous and A Beagle Shaming Moment

I took the day off work today. I had no x-rays and I have a serious MOP on my head. 

That said. My snip and tame girl had an opening and it was just tempting to take the day. And my house needs me. Real bad. I don't know how my house can get in the shape it does. Well, I do. But I don't want to park there, ya know? 

So before 9:00 a.m. I had swept, tidied, unloaded, loaded, loaded and washed, dried and folded. And painted. The pups always need to be right up in my bizness. But while they are in my bizness I know exactly what they are doing. 

It's when they are quiet and speedy in the opposite direction that concerns me. I had to wrestle an unmentionable from jaws, fortunately, the item had come from the dryer. But I missed this one. I got distracted hating on some clothes (and folding them up for the glorious drop off to a thrift store later today. Yay!) and one of the sneaks took a shoe from my closet floor. 

I am so glad it's a shoe I hated. Super uncomfortable, and they may have already been clamped in jaws and rescued once. But I still needed to shame those Beagles. Gladys finally accepted the shame. She's the one that gutted the shoe. However, if you notice in the lower picture that Gertrude doesn't seem the least bit sorry. Nope. I'm pretty sure she's the sneaky grabber, too. 

Do you wonder how I got them to kinda sit still long enough for the shaming? I was carrying a food item in my non-picture snapping hand. I didn't think I could pull off one of those awesome dog shaming signs. I think they'd eat it. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ I'm Sure You Want to See This...

 Yeah, or not. These were part of my in-my-pajamas until 4:00 P.M. Saturday frenzy of cooking, cleaning, purging. I needed to update my chalk art signs for the season. Yeah. Here's a peek into my crazy. The whole house around these signs is a huge mess because I'm pre-organizing so I can clean properly. Recycle bins here, bags for charity there, puppy chewings everywhere. But I took out time to play with chalk. When it's put back together, my house is going to look great... for 5 minutes. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Adventure Times Two

 So. It was an interesting Monday on top of an interesting weekend. I'll not focus on the computer issues aka crisis of monumental significance for the office (or sure seemed like it to a few folks). Nor will I focus on the furniture moving, the cleaning frenzy, the donating items I no longer want, the wearing of pajamas until 4:00 p.m, the wipe out on the back patio on Saturday. No, those are a story for another day. 

Let's talk about puppy digestion. I have just heard, twice, that pumpkin is a lovely binder and hence it will become a regular pantry staple item for the pups. Gertrude has a little tummy bug, she tossed her treats Friday afternoon and took a few extra visits outdoors for emergency style gotta-goes. I was a little concerned that she'd have overnight issues. I want to set them up for success. So I kept one ear open and sure enough a whining commenced at midnight. Because getting them in and out of the kennel, in and out of harnesses and wrangling them for leash attachment can be harrowing in normal circumstances, when a puppy has to go NOW that adds a bit of drama, so I decided to keep them in their harnesses and let them sleep with me on the couch. Every two hours we visited the frozen way-too-early-winter-wonderland to make a deposit.  

Night number one was a huge success. No accidents and lots of brisk fresh air. Saturday night the visits were even fewer to the great outdoors. And Sunday. Well. I think the fun factor kicked in. Maybe the tummy isn't feeling quite as punk. Maybe they are loving the freedom. But the picture of the back and front was pretty much a constant blur. One pup picked my hip, the other chose to sleep in the crook of my knee. But, wait, there needed to be circling. Lots of circling. And inching. And itching. And licking and then the growling because a sister crept a bit too close to a territory. 

Swimming with the dolphins, sleeping with the puppies, swimming with the sharks, sleeping with the fishes. Pick your adventure.