Dinner at the Diner - a year later.

This is it. I have come full circle and returned to where the blogging began on February 1 of last year. It's been a fun year in which I relaxed my own rules regarding the timing of the photo for the five o'clock hour, yet I still completed the goal I originally set for myself: to make a blog entry every day for a year with a featured photo. And with this last entry, I have posted 365 entries for publication, taken 5,440 photos (according to the counter on my digital camera) and posted just a slim fraction of them. Along the way, I've been to North Carolina two times, Virginia a half dozen times, Maine once and across the river to Pennsylvania or New York another dozen or so times. I've recorded the view from the Homestead in spring, summer, winter and fall, enjoying each season in its turn. I gave up sweetener in my tea and completed a 5K. I've gotten reflective on occasion and sometimes captioned my photo with just a single sentence. I've shared favorite recipes (old and new) as well as diner experiences and am still learning the skill of taking photographs while preparing a recipe!
But mostly, it's been the people in my life that have made the blogging so much fun. First there are the people who share in my blog from miles and time zones away. Though I didn't get to visit with these people in person, our shared experience and/or remembering times together has been the next best thing to being there. Then there are those friends who have spent time with me in person (and by extension you through the blog-o-sphere). Cultivating friendships is probably the best past time I know, and I am of the solid (and very prejudiced) opinion that my garden of friends has some of the most beautiful blooms and vibrant beauty that can be had in a lifetime. Last but not least, I have a family willing to be photographed doing the mundane things of life interspersed with the fun things like shopping with my sister-in-law (and the rest of the girls in the family) or joining my niece and nephew for ice skating, snow tubing, swimming, gardening, cake decorating, and overnights here at the Homestead.


During the holidays I realized the demands of writing my proposal for my dissertation dictate I consider new parameters for future blogging. Thus, with this entry, I am completing my blog here on Blogger. Blogger has been a great forum for helping me to get my blogging feet wet and it fit my needs for this past year. I've enjoyed the experience and look forward to continuing it on a regular basis, but I can't keep up the daily pace. I also have a collection of photos and videos that I'd like to share in a slightly different format that I have access through my Mac book. Therefore, my future blogging will be still be called, "It's 5:00, she's somewhere" but it will be "Made on a Mac" and available by clicking here (or anywhere else you see Mac on this page). So, I invite you to bookmark it if you became a regular reader (but not an official blogger follower) and/or subscribe to it through the RSS feed (to get notices about when it has been updated). When you visit my "Made on a Mac" site, you should see some familiar things but formatted differently. I'll be sharing some posts from this past year in the new format, and there are already some new things I couldn't post here, like videos of the kids having winter fun. My contributions should be a little more streamlined and coherent as they are grouped according to various headings in the site's navigation bar. When you get a few minutes, I hope you visit and explore around a little bit. I hope to update it regularly about once (or maybe even twice) a week, still using photos to ground the thoughts and experiences I share through blogging.

And finally, from me and mine, to you and yours, thanks for being a part of this experience.

Look forward to seeing you soon!

It's been years since I played that game on the playgroud

But wasn't it called "Red light, Green light" and not "White light, Green light"?OK, I am guessing it is safe now!

Baby, it's cold outside

When I lived in North Carolina and the car I had bought out of college was tiring of being driven (it had over 320,000 miles on it) I bought a friend out of her leased vehicle. It seemed like the perfect solution at the time for both of us. I wasn't in the headache of car shopping and she was ready to return to her Michigan roots and buy a Mustang in celebration of completing her master's degree at Duke. (Somehow I've missed out on celebrating the completion of my two masters degrees by buying a car to commemorate the milestones in my education - but that's getting away from the story.) The Honda has served me well and its been a smart buy - until I moved back to NJ a few years later to earn my 2nd masters at Princeton Seminary. By mid-November, I discovered on the 30+ minute commute the drawback to having leather seats - they are cold!! and a long ride in the morning can bring a chill that lasts throughout the day. The problem was solved that year at Christmas when Santa delivered sheepskin seat covers. They are wonderful regardless of the season. But this winter, either the sheepskin is getting a little worn or age is settling in for me, because I'm beginning to dream about my next car and the heated seats it will have. But being a perpetual student working on her third graduate degree, I am not in the market for a vehicle with said heated seats anytime soon. A little ingenuity was necessary if I am going to make it through the winter.....

And a solution was found - in the form of the rice/rye filled sacks often used for tired and aching sore muscles. In my case, I heat up the pad in the microwave as I dash outside to start the car to let the vehicle warm up for a few minutes on days when the thermometer's mercury plunges to icy levels.

Then, when the car is warmed up and when I am ready to head out, I remove the pad from the microwave and arrange it just so on the seat. This tartan rice/rye blanket is long enough that when I sit down, I have an extra little flap that can be tucked up between the seat and the lumbar region of my spine. Nice and toasty for luxury driving on my morning commute - and best part is that I can heat it up in the microwave for the ride home in the evening. Not every girl has custom manually removable heated seats - and I bet you won't find this option on just any car on the sales floor of your local dealership!

There is one upside to single digit temperatures....

Within 15 minutes, the temperature has doubled!

Snow tubing Sunday!

It's a three day weekend, there is snow on the ground....need you have wondered what my niece and nephew are up to? Of course, snow tubing on a sunny winter Sunday afternoon!

Sarah getting ready at the top!

Luke loves this hill!

There are a half dozen moguls on the one run which makes for lots of fun going down. Hay bales at the bottom of the hill keeps everyone safe.

The hill is steep enough for speed and small enough that lots of runs can be made.

I'll have a movie of all the action prepared and up on my new blog site in a few weeks!

Snacks are always a good thing.

A little nourishment can keep a kid going and going and going! Auntie enjoyed herself on a tube designed for water rafting until a patch of hay ripped it open. Then I was forced to use the flimsy plastic sled on several runs. Let me tell you, after going down on a cushy tube, the little skimmers are bone jarring in comparison. I'll be looking real close at some end of season sales in a few weeks, let me tell you!

Snow tracks!

The snow came as expected overnight and this morning much of New Jersey was blanketed with enough snow to justify the school closings made last night. We got almost 10" here at The Homestead and it was a beautiful sight to look out and see Mother Nature's latest blanket covering the landscape in a fluffy white comforter. At sunrise, the snowscape of The Homestead wasn't marred by a single human footprint, but there was evidence of foot traffic around the property from deer.

Yesterday, Luke and Sarah were absolutely fascinated with each set of footprints they found in the snow near the pond's edge. The rapid fire of questions like, "What kind of animal made these tracks, Auntie?" and "Auntie, do you think these are deer tracks or raccoon tracks?" gave me pause to wonder if we were there for ice skating or a nature walk. But as the photos testify, I eventually managed to get their skates onto their feet. This morning, I thought I would take a few pictures of the deer prints and email them, but along the way, the idea of a blog entry got the better of me, so today, we'll tour the Homestead and see what evidence of wildlife we can find.....

First off, just outside the backdoor, there are large bounding prints belonging to a playful animal looking for his morning playmates; the birds and the squirrels. Well, the birds and squirrels didn't get come out to play and I'm not really sure they like playing with the creature that makes these kinds of tracks in the snow as much as they like teasing this animal.

Hmmm, who could it be that makes these kinds of tracks so close to the house?It's Jake, of course!

On my way out to get a closer shot of the prints the deer left, I turned around and got a shot of Auntie tracks that had some Jake tracks weaving around them.

These intersecting lines are paths the deer made in the snow.

I guess deer don't always like to follow one another and sometimes like to make their own paths in the snow.
Getting closer to the deer trails you can see the places where their legs sunk into the snow. I guess they like to make lots of trails like Jake.

The snow is too deep to get pictures of their actual footprints.
But you can tell were they traveled!

Jake is enjoying himself as he gets out closer to where the deer were. He has got to be the loneliest dog in the world. Even if the deer had been here, they would have run away from Jake.

Can you tell which tracks belong to Auntie, which belong to Jake and which belong to the deer?

Let's see what we can find over in the driveway where Grandpop did some snowblowing.....If you think this belongs to Jake, you are right!

Hey, Grandpop's truck leaves tire prints!Anybody who has ever been to Freeport, ME will probably know these boots belong to the L.L.Bean Gumshoe Boot. This pair belongs to Grandpop!

This print belongs to Auntie's pink Muckboots she got last spring. They keep her toes warmer then the Gumshoe boots ever could and she doesn't even have to wear an extra pair of socks!
This afternoon, I wondered if I could find some rabbit tracks, but when I ventured outside, I found out all the little bunnies were burrowed down for the day. I did find some other interesting prints though.....

I found these tracks very close to the bird feeder.

And these were there, too!

(Maybe if Auntie had taken a class in ornithology - which is the word for bird identification - in college instead of dendrology - which is the word for tree identification - she would know which bird made which tracks. But she didn't so she doesn't know.)
I found these deer tracks out near the front stream, do you think they look like the tracks I saw this morning? These must be more deer tracks!
Oh, my goodness! Those are some rather strange tracks. And they are very big! Let's see if we can get a closer look.......
Well, that is a very strange track in the snow. Hmmm, what do you think could make a print that looks like that?

Oh! It's Auntie! But those aren't Muckboots making the prints this time, those are snowshoes! They let her walk on top of the snow so it is easier to walk in the snow.

But Jake isn't interested in walking in Auntie's snow shoe prints, he still likes going his own way!
Jake and Grandpop had a great time playing in the snow this afternoon. Grandpop would throw the tennis ball to Jake.....

And then Jake would find it in the snow

And then play 'keep away' once he found it. Jake likes that game even if there isn't snow on the ground!
Too bad the last grocery list didn't have "Moose Tracks" on it, ice cream would be a wonderful treat tonight!

Afternoon with Auntie

There's a snowstorm expected overnight and it did us the favor of holding off to let me take the kiddos skating this afternoon. It's been great to go ice skating earlier in the winter this year, but the ice on the pond has been ravaged by winds and snows. Dedicated skaters (including my brother and niece) have been clearing off a little rink out towards the best section of the pond but there's no telling what the conditions will be like after tonight, so we went while the going was good.

The cleared "ice rink" is a popular spot for hockey players of all abilities to do some stick-handling.

Auntie didn't just bring hot cocoa, but there were marshmallows too!

Proving sharing works.

I guess I didn't do a bad job with the hot cocoa!

Hey, you can't exactly explore the island in the middle of the pond in the summer -

there are no boats on this pond!

We stayed late and even skated in the dark! Then it was off to the Sunset Diner because we skated till after sunset (and it is the appropriately named conveniently located diner to the pond). Sharing still comes in handy when it comes to Auntie's colored pens. Thank goodness for paper advertisement placemats for handy coloring!

Sharing means Auntie gets to sit with Luke from the time we order till the food comes.
It also means Sarah gets to take a picture with Auntie's camera first.

And then Auntie got to sit with Sarah, and Luke gets to take a picture.

Here's a short video of the kids skating as the sun set. In a few weeks, I'll be moving to a new blog forum that will allow me flexibility with posting pictures and movies. By then, I'll have a movie of the kids ice skating ready. I'll be able to post it and the movie of our afternoon sleigh riding on that site - so stayed tuned to hear about those details when they are ready!