My mother and her sister...

My Mother, on the left, Stephanie and her sister, Helen. They look so young in this picture but have been gone for so long. Her birthday was on January 26th. I think of her so often. I was sixteen when she died at age forty-eight. I use her recipes still to bake for my family. She had  a short time but had such a profound effect on me and the way I live my life. I still feel her love. In the last few years family members have shared old pictures that give me a little more insight into the person my mother was.

I am trying so hard not to complain about our incredible weather. It is so cold. -18 this morning. So much snow. Frigid. Windy. I wear a scarf and slippers in the house to keep warm. My old front porch is connected to an old house with an old furnace...

Cold on the porch...

            My porch is snow covered. Flakes are drifting down. The temp is -11. Everything is white.

                            Lake Superior is in front of me. The wind is so fierce I can barely stand. My fingers are         freezing through my gloves.  Being on the lake shore is so cold I feel like I am in the Artic.

!/19/14

                            The baby, we all still call her that, even though she is three, snowshoeing.

                               Hazel, stayed with me while I snowshoe in deep snow on Lake Superior.

                                             The snow in the backyard is as high as the fence.

TBR list on my Kindle...

Inspired by a book blogger (Lit and Life) who posted her list of unread books on her Nook I am making my own TBR list.

1. The Girl You Left Behind-JoJo Moyes
2. The Man in the Window-Jon Cohn
3. Walk Me Home-Catherine Ryan Hyde
4. Sycamore Row-John Grisham
5. Where We Belong-Catherine Ryan Hyde
6. The Last Camelia-Sarah Jio
7. Between Sisters- Kristen Hannah
8. Pigs in Heaven- Kinsolver
9. Angela's Ashes-Frank McCoy
10. Emily and Einstein-Linda Francis Lee
11. Twelve Years a Slave

I am not sure which book is my next read. I still have to finish The Rosie Project (hardcover) and Voyager on Audible. Hmmm...I do love a long list.

This week I went to a movie, unusual for me. I saw August, Osage County with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Oh, my goodness. It was awful. The actors were wonderful being really awful people. It made me not want to have a funeral dinner if there could be any chance it could turn out like the dinner in this movie. Not the feel good movie of the year! I also watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Painful but very good.

The Rosie Project

I may have found a solution to the Wife Problem. As with so many scientific breakthroughs, the answer was obvious in retrospect. But had it not been for a series of unscheduled events, it is unlikely I would have discovered it.
The sequence was initiated by Gene's insisting I give a lecture on Asperger's syndrome that he had previously agreed to deliver himself. The timing was extremely annoying. The preparation could be time-shared with lunch consumption, but on the designated evening I had scheduled ninety four minutes to clean my bathroom. I was faced with the choice of three options, none of them satisfactory.

Hmmm...should l read this??

Christmas on the porch...

 

Sarah's pics from the porch...

Sisters, Hannah and Alyssa

Sledders

Cade

Vi and Iris

Haven, Lauren and Hannah 

Waiting to open

Funny baby-mama

Thanks

Twister game-hand made

people and paper

Eh?

Big kids

All of us on the porch

piano players

The new kid with Daddy and Kenny-Bell

Mmmmm

Me,in the kitchen

sledders

Sledders

Dave and Christine from B.C.

Oh, we had fun.
It was my turn to host the Aman family Christmas this year. My daughter Cammy, her husband, Steve and family welcomed us into their Lakeshore home in da U.P. I made my "almost famous" marinara sauce, lots of it, and a parmesean cheese sauce. Ivan cooked two turkeys just to snack on! Yummy. There are 45 of us, including in-laws, and 40 of us attended  A Yooper Christmas. We met seven week old Jaxon, the new kid. Games, Tenzy and a funny gift exchange, were played. Many of us sledded on the park hill right off the porch. Joe, Alice and Sarah handcrafted Twister games. I made my traditional family calender with at least one missing birthday just like I do every year! There were special cookies and snacks, cheesecake and candies. Jeanne Ray's peanut butter fudge. Aunt Joanie, Ivan's sister, buttered our bread and helped keep food flowing.
I love you all. I thank you for making the effort to trek to da U.P. to be together.