Birthday Snow

So we expected a little bit of snow for Christmas, and got a dusting.  It was enough for us to call it a "White Christmas!"

It was quite a surprise for us to awaken on L's birthday to 1/2-1 inch of snow!  Luckily, our friend, C, spent the night, so the girls spent a couple of hours playing out in it.

Even Stella had fun.

 

I think L had a nice birthday.  It took most of my energy to bake her this Tres Leches Cake, so JP brought home Chinese take out for dinner.  We also tried playing her new Harry Potter Clue game, which is actually quite complicated!

This is a narcissus that she planted and grew.  It is the birth flower for December.

Over all, we had another nice vacation day!

It Happened Again

I had another birthday over the weekend.  I can't seem to refrain from having one annually!  This time, one of my favorite presents was the fact that my good friend from college drove up from VA to visit!  We had a lot of fun and stayed up way too late...just like in the good old days.

 

L baked me a carrot cake, and made cream cheese icing pretty much on her own.  She did a great job - it was delicious!

 

It was lovely and Spring like again today (we get a day like this here and there between the rain showers, apparently we are not going to have much of a winter this year.)  I spent several hours shoveling out the chicken house, putting more leaves on the garden beds, and shoveling out the culverts on our driveway before the next round of rain storms.

Tonight, my back and elbow are feeling the effects of being middle aged and spending several hours shoveling things.

Sigh.

After checking all of the roosting hens with a flashlight this evening, and getting pecked & pooped on, it appears that I have marked all of them with color coded leg bands.  We will probably have a butchering/canning day here soon.  Survival of the fittest, baby.

I'm off to find some Advil and a heating pad.  Nighty night!

Tis the Season

It always seems that Halloween ushers in a flurry of activity that lasts through the end of the year.  It has been no different this year, although I think we had a single week with nothing happening after school except for music lessons.

Last week, L began having Basketball practice 2 nights a week, but they begin right after school, so I only have to drive out once to pick her up.  Last weekend, we also attended a presentation of "Little Shop of Horrors" in one of the neighboring cities.  (It was fun, but the venue was not great and we didn't get good views of the stage.)  The following day, we had Mom & Dad over for a meal (homemade pasta, turkey meatballs and sauce) with cake and ice cream for dessert for Mom's birthday.

Yesterday was J's 14th birthday.  She was not feeling well - and has actually been somewhat under the weather all week.  She rose to the occasion, however, and managed to enjoy a tiny slice of cake and opening her presents when Mom & Dad came to join us after dinner.

 

Next week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving, and since JP is on call, we will be staying home and feasting with Mom & Dad.  Hopefully we will be able to meet some old friends for a meal later in the week as well. 

The Monday after Thanksgiving is the first day of Rifle Season in our neck of the woods, and I feel woefully under prepared for hunting anything this year. 

I just received notice that we were approved to hold L's Birthday party at the HS pool on December 10th, which is really just around the corner.

That will be followed by my thyroid surgery, which is scheduled for Dec. 22nd, and will involve an over night Hospital stay.  At that point I will need to be completely ready for Christmas, and L's REAL birthday (Dec. 27th), since it will literally be hours away from my discharge.

SIGH.

In the meantime, we are still having to haul all of the water that we use, as we have not had any progress on our new well yet, although the "PA One Call" folks were out to mark the buried electrical and telephone lines.  I spent 4 hours doing it on Friday, when the weather was a lovely 70* and sunny.

Today it looks like this outside, and we received an estimate for the well (which is higher than my guesstimate that I was HOPING was high, and does not include the actual pump.)  Good news though - he may begin work next week.

It's November 20th, and I'm already stressing about the Holidays.  Sheesh.  I think it's time for a cup of tea!

Sunday Muddy Sunday

Today was Miss L's 10th Birthday.  We decided to take a trip up North to Barnes & Noble for some post-Holiday using of gift cards, since it is another rainy day.

We have gotten over 2 1/2 inches of rain in the past week.  Just think how much snow we would have now if it was only cold outside!  Instead, everything is just soggy and muddy.

I noticed this morning that my Hellebores are blooming already!  They look lovely, and it's a nice change from the mud and dead leaves every where else.

JP made Swedish pancakes for breakfast, which is one of our favorite special breakfasts.  I have not eaten anything substantial since Christmas dinner, due to tummy issues.  It is keeping me from snacking on various Christmas cookies, candies and other treats lying about the house, but it isn't much fun.

L chose to go to her favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner.  She got the buffet, but I settled for a bowl of white rice and some wonton soup.


Isn't she lovely?

She chose a Tres Leches Cake for her Birthday, and got to open more gifts.  She is contemplating getting her ears pierced, and received several pairs of earrings recently, but is still a bit scared of the process.

I am ready to be done celebrating for the year.  Poor L has her birthday at the tail end of the season, where everyone is getting burnt out.  I hope she had a special day anyway.

Where Did the Time Go?

It has been a flurry of fun activities over our Thanksgiving Break this year.  The girls had a half day of school on Wednesday, and we started it off with J's guitar lessons...got home just an hour or so before JP's sister and husband arrived from NC.  The girls had a great time with their Aunt & Uncle, although they missed seeing their cousins.

We feasted on Thursday.  I was proud that much of what we ate came from Poplar Ridge:  the sweet potatoes, the mashed potatoes, the corn, and the applesauce.  I baked a sweet potato cheesecake, which was delicious (and the recipe is definitely a keeper.)

On Friday evening, after left over turkey for lunch (sandwiches) and dinner (tortilla soup), another of JP's sisters and her husband arrived.  We stayed up too late talking around the dinner table, but (as always) had a good time together.

One sister left early Saturday morning.  After another huge breakfast, I also had to leave.  I drove about 2 3/4 hours to OH to attend my Grandma's 100th Birthday party!  Both of my brothers were there, along with all of my cousins on my Mom's side except for one.  I was so happy to see them all, as it has been a REALLY long time since we've all been together.  (I was also happy that I recognized almost everyone - except for one cousin-in-law.  I also surprised myself by being astonishingly social, which is not my normal condition in these situations.)



My Grandma is in the middle with her 2 younger siblings.

Can you believe that this beautiful lady is 100 years old?

JP's other sister hung around until mid afternoon with JP and the girls in my absence.

After the 2 3/4 hour drive home in the dark and the rain, I was ready to take a day off today.  I didn't cook, but I did fold several baskets full of sheets & towels.

Tomorrow morning, I must get up early as deer season starts at 6:39 AM.  And that, my friends, will end the Thanksgiving Break for 2015.

Onward and upward to Christmas and double-digits Birthday for my baby girl!

Lucky 13

My oldest daughter officially became a teenager yesterday (although she's had the classic teenage angst going on for awhile already.)  I've actually noticed some signs of emotional maturity in her lately.  None too soon, either, as they had a bomb threat at her school earlier this week - evacuated everyone.  This is the second time since she's been there!

This is one of a multitude of selfies that I find on my phone at random times.

It's funny - she's been listening to Enya a lot recently (a vast departure from her fave punk groups with strange names like "Panic! At the Disco", "Black Veil Brides", and "Fall Out Boy.")  Enya was playing in the delivery room when she was born 13 years ago.

She has decided that she didn't want to have a party this year, just a quiet celebration with family at home.  She did, however, request a Red Velvet Cake.  She changed her mind when our "Cook's Country" magazine arrived 2 days ago and she saw the recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake.  This is a layer of Red Velvet Cake, topped with a layer of White Chocolate Cheesecake, topped with another layer of Red Velvet.  All of this is slathered with Cream Cheese frosting, and then Red Velvet crumbs are pressed into the sides of the cake.  It looks delicious!

The cakes have just come out of the oven, and in 10 minutes I can turn them out of the pans to finish cooling.  I'll only have 3 or 4 more steps to complete today in order to put this thing together!

It's becoming increasingly harder to find gifts for this child.  Gone are the days when a couple of books, a game and a Barbie made her beam with delight.  Now her gift list reads like the electronics department at Target:  iPod Touch, Lap top, mini fridge (?).  Sigh.

Happy, happy Birthday, my dear, sweet J Bird!  You are the light of my life and the reason I have grey hair...but I wouldn't have it any other way.  There is only one J Bird, and you make every day an adventure.  I love you Sweetie!

Finally...Snow! And a Party...

We finally got our first decent snow of the winter overnight on Friday.  It was/is gorgeous, with the trees frosted, and all the brown grass and mud covered in pristine white.

 

The only hitch in L's Birthday party on Saturday, was that one of the Moms slid off our driveway and did some minor damage to her car.  JP pulled her to safety with the tractor.  The girls seemed to have fun, playing games, touring the tree house, and making their own pizzas.  I was relieved, as there was quite a bit of drama ahead of time, with half of the girls L invited never responding one way or the other, and causing her some emotional distress. 

 

All of the birthdays on Poplar Ridge are now over for another year!

  It is snowing again today, on top of sloppy melted snow from the weekend, and rain overnight.  It looks gorgeous out the windows, but the roads are somewhat treacherous.  I headed North again this morning to see the Dermatologist, and am glad to be home safe and sound.

The girls will be glad to know that piano lessons have been cancelled for this afternoon, allowing them time to play in the snow.  They enjoyed catching snow flakes on their tongues after dark last night.

 

It's the Bomb

It's been a strange week.  The weather has been unusually warm for January in Pennsylvania.  The girls and I went for a walk with the dogs a couple of nights ago.  We all enjoyed the fresh air and a little bit of sunshine!  We had already watched the sun rise on the way to school that day, and watched it set on our walk, which served to remind us that it is still January, and the days are still way too short!

Monday was our first make up day for the 2 snow days that we accrued right after Christmas break.  At about 11:30, I got an email that there had been a bomb threat at the Middle School.  It stated that all of the students and staff had been safely evacuated and were "under shelter", that the Police were currently on the premises with bomb sniffing dogs, and parents were "implored" to NOT come to the school.  I was not truly concerned that there was actually a bomb at the school, but it was a bit disconcerting to have no idea for the next 3 hours where my child was, or what her emotional state was.

 

J filled me in on details when she returned home that day.  They were told to leave their lunches in the cafeteria where they had just come to lunch and to quickly proceed to their next period classes without asking any questions.  They were then escorted from the school, and walked 10 or 11 blocks up to the local University, where they sat in the gymnasium for the next 2+ hours.  They had to sign out to use the restroom, and were allowed to get up and "walk around" for 5 minutes every half hour.  They were given chips and bottled water, and returned to school to resume their lunches close to 2:00.  No bomb was found.

 

The girls had a 2 hour delay from school this morning.  Unlike the one on this day last year, it was actually a scheduled one, as the teachers had an in-service.  I was supposed to work today, but my boss (also known as my sweet husband) gave me the day off to "go have fun" with my friend in honor of my birthday!  We headed North to a little consignment shop, and although I tried on several things, including a cute chicken sweater, I only came home with a book for the girls.  We had lunch, and then after taking the long way home, called it a day.

 

I did have to run in and get my Driver's License Photo taken.  That was pretty lame, but I almost forgot about getting it done...the form got buried on the pile of crap on my desk.

 

Tomorrow I have to spend a couple of hours at the Auto Repair shop again...this time for a recall on the van.

 

Saturday is supposed to be L's birthday party with her friends, but only 2 out of 4 have even RSVP-ed!  I hope she has a good time anyway.

 

Tonight my mother is cooking dinner, which is wonderful.  That fact is allowing me to sit at the computer at this time of the evening and post to my blog.  I did not manage to watch Downton Abby yet today though, it was on the short list of to-do items.  Too bad!



New Year

A lot has happened since I last posted, and here it is - 2015.

We had a lovely, quiet Christmas Day.  We enjoyed our semi-annual beef tenderloin for dinner with my parents.

My brother and his family joined us after Christmas.  We had a very nice visit!

L turned 9 years old!  She requested a Tres Leches cake for her birthday.  She will have a party with her friends sometime this month.

We also visited the Natural History Museum at her request.

We invited the girls' friend over for a movie marathon, culminating in watching the ball drop in New York at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Today is the day where we finish up the being lazy bit, and transition into the back to school and activities bit.  We have had such a nice time being home, and without any deadlines.  JP was off work all but 1 day of the girls' vacation!  We did a lot of fun and relaxing things.  JP and I also cut and stacked a bunch of wood for the wood burner, hoping to keep ahead of the game this year.  I exercised about half of the days, which is something that I have NOT done in the past.

As I am slowly starting to take down the Christmas decorations (saving the tree for tomorrow when the girls are not around), I have been thinking about this whole, big year that stretches in front of me.  While I am not big on making New Year's Resolutions that I am sure to not keep, I have wondered what will be different this year.

Will this be the year that I finally finish reading "A Team of Rivals", or get on Facebook?  What will evolve from the 2 partial jobs that I am currently working?  Is it this year that we finally add more animals to Poplar Ridge farm, or actually harvest fruit from our puny orchard?

Above all, I hope this is the year when I can finally tame the yelling, and bring more peace to our family.  It's a huge job, but I think I'm up for the challenge!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Party!!

J celebrated her 12th birthday with 5 of her school friends on Friday evening.  She requested build-your-own mini pizzas for dinner and cupcakes for dessert.

The girls played something loud and rambunctious downstairs (that I was too much of a chicken to peek in on), Apples-to-Apples, a Jeopardy style game that she made up, and then watched several movies.  The got to bed quite late, but also got up late and played another loud and rambunctious game downstairs.  I think they had a lot of fun!

J seemed surprised that she received many of the items on her carefully crafted Birthday Wish List!  One thing she was given that she didn't request was an enormous teddy bear, almost 6 feet tall and big around as a tree.  We have been having problems finding a good place to keep it...more on that later!

The temperature yesterday got up to the upper 60's.  We took advantage of the sunshine and harvested the remainder of the root crops in the garden:  carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes.  I would say everything was quite productive!

Today the wind is howling up here on the Ridge.  I have plenty to do, but just returned from the Orthopedist, who injected my left thumb, where he says I have developed severe arthritis.  The procedure was quite painful, although pretty quick.  Right now it is aching and numb, and I'm feeling a bit queasy, so I thought I'd take it easy.

Poor Stella is feeling lonely and dejected since Kali is away getting groomed.  She tagged right along up into the tree house this morning, and kept me company while I got it clean as a whistle up there.  Kali should be home soon, and then all will be right with the world again.

Canning (Or - I Spent All Day in the Kitchen)

The girls and I spent about an hour and a half in the garden on Saturday.  The Mexican Bean Beetles destroyed my Fall Horticulture Beans, so we pulled the plants, and after picking all of the beans off of them, bagged them in a trash bag to kill off off the remaining beetles.  We also picked a nice bowlful of Fall Sugar Snap Peas, a few tomatoes, and all of the Jalapeno Peppers.

I spent Sunday afternoon/evening shelling beans and slicing peppers on my mandolin.  Today was canning day.  I had 3 gallon bags of shelled beans in the deep freeze, so all together, I canned 13 quarts and 7 pints of beans.

 I also canned 17 1/2 pints of peppers.  JP will enjoy these on his tacos for the next year!



A Peck of Pickled Peppers

I did find an hour or so between rain showers to paint the Northern eaves of the Chick-bit House,  as well as a litter removal door, before I ran out of paint.

A second window, a door and a litter clean-out door have been added!

 

On Saturday evening, we went out with Mom & Dad for Indian food to celebrate JP's Birthday.  We came home for cake and ice cream...and candles and cards and singing.

J had another soccer game in the rain on Sunday afternoon.  The good news is, they finally won a game, 3-0!  L said she played in "some sprinkles", and they did not win their game.

Another weekend (and Monday) are gone. 

Still not bored!

Happy Birthday Little LAM

L has long been waiting to have a Birthday Party sleep-over.  She has a handful of school friends that she had intended to invite this year.  She blew it, however, and lost the Birthday Party during her 3+ hour temper tantrum before Christmas.

Consequently, her party this year was small and quiet - just the family at home.  We did take the girls to Build-a-Bear earlier in the day as part of their Christmas gift, and each of them picked out a sweet animal to bring home.  I'm sad that L doesn't get that sleepover that she has been wanting for years, but I'm a bit relieved that I don't have to throw together another party in the next couple of weeks.  Is that terrible of me?

The brown puppy, "Mommy Puppy", was her Build-a-
Bear friend from age 2.  The polar bear, "Julia", just
joined the family this year!

L asked for "the kind of cake Daddy gets for his Birthday" this year...a 5 Flavor Pound Cake.  This was also pretty simple...no crazy design or fancy frosting, just an almond glaze (although I did go all out and sprinkle the top with gold sugar!)

Her favorite gift was a big box of art supplies:  crayons, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, water colors, and acrylic paints along with sketching pencils, erasers, and paint brushes.  She has already been creating some art with all of the above!

Happy 8th Birthday, my lovely girl!  Let's aim for that BIG party next year!

Thankfulness 2013 - J Bird

Today was J's long awaited Birthday party.  The theme was Secret Agent/Spy.  The guests were welcomed to the house by this:

 

They worked on a decoding a series of spy related words, before I set them loose on the scavenger hunt for their gift bags.  The first clue was a sheet of vellum that when matched up over a certain page in a certain Harry Potter book outlined the message "This clue is laid where fowl play happens."  The second clue (in Pig-Latin, since I don't know Chicken-Latin) was in an Easter egg in the chicken house.  It read "Find this clue where babies rock."  The third clue (in the tree house) had a riddle that led them to the tractor in the barn, where they had to decipher a code, which told them "Dear Spies, Find me near the big water."  The final clue was taped to the side of the pool, and written in mirror image, telling them "If you traverse the laser beams, you will find the prize."

Here are the laser beams, which Lauren helped me activate this afternoon.  The goodie bags are all the way at the back!

We tried to make it a little bit difficult!


After dinner, and the arrival of the final guest, it was time for cake and presents.  This year, J chose a Smore's Ice Cream Cake from Cook's Country.  It has a baked graham cracker crust followed by a layer of chocolate fudge, then marshmallow cream, then chocolate ice cream (I used chocolate peanut butter swirl).  I added another layer of chocolate fudge on the top.  Halved marshmallows are the crowning glory, and the whole thing spends less than a minute under the broiler to make them squishy and golden brown.  I have to say that the whole concoction was not overly memorable.


J opened her presents, and will be taking a shopping trip soon, based on the amount of cash and gift cards she received!



The girls headed back downstairs to play "Defuse the Bomb", where I tied black balloons to their ankles, and they tried to step on and pop each other's balloons.  **I'll try to add a video here if I can get it edited.**

After they were clad in jammies, they snuggled up to watch "The Spy
Next Door."

Right now, I am thankful that the ruckus has calmed to what sounds like 2 voices fighting sleep downstairs.

I am also thankful for my beautiful daughter, who was much wished for, and has been a delightful addition to our family.  Although she is beginning to reach that very trying tween age, she is *usually* lovely, polite, intelligent and inquisitive.  I sat outside her practice room during voice lessons on Friday afternoon, and marvelled at her beautiful voice as well!

Enjoy the pictures!

Blown Away

The wind is roaring outside.  We spent the afternoon battening down the hatches...bringing in windchimes, folding up lawn chairs, and putting away all non-essentials.  We have plugged in a non-electric phone, and JP has the battery ready to back-up his CPAP should the power go out.  We have showered, packed lunches, and have extra water ready...just in case.  There have been warnings of high, damaging winds and severe thunderstorms tonight, so maybe, (just MAYBE,) if we are all prepared, the power will NOT go out!

It has been an eventful week.  We woke to an inch or two of snow on Monday morning.  It was beautiful!  The hay bales in the field past Mom & Dad's house looked like giant frosted shredded wheats.

My Mom celebrated her 70th birthday on Tuesday.  My little brother called about a week before hand, and told me that he was coming out to surprise her.  On Monday evening, a car pulled up in my parent's drive while I was there picking up the girls after work.  Mom said that she didn't recognize it, and then she said she didn't recognise the man walking up to the door.  When I asked if she was sure, she said "Oh my goodness!" and jumped out of her seat when it finally clicked that my brother was there!  We had dinner and cake at our house to celebrate.

Here's me & my baby bro with Mom.  You can see the neck brace she's been wearing for the past 2 + months.

 

The girls decided to wake themselves with the alarms on their phones on Friday morning.  These are old cell phones that JP and I are no longer using.  They don't have service, but the girls like to take pictures with them, and play with the ring tones.  They awoke well, and were able to watch the streaks of pink in the sky turn to dawn with me.

Over the past week, we gradually removed the last of the produce from the garden.  The potato crop was AMAZING, especially considering that what I planted were left over from the year before that had been forgotten in my basement until I discovered them growing arms and legs 12 inches long!  We also brought in red beets and parsnips.  I worked slowly and stopped frequently, trying not to flare up my back.

The little box in the back has "seed potatoes" for next year.  The ones laid out to dry should keep for several months.  The crate full in front have blemishes and need to be used ASAP.

 

This is the biggest - and WEIRDEST potato
that we dug up!

 

Last night, we had friends over for pasta and karaoke.  It was a lot of fun!  When we all trooped outside to wish them farewell afterwards, the moon was full and bright, and was surrounded by a rainbow aura...very cool.  It was the Beaver Moon, time to set your beaver traps everyone!

J went from this look at karaoke...

 

...to this one the following day.  Whatevs.

I'm not sure what exactly prompted the Goth look?

 

There is much going on this coming week as well, including J's 11th birthday!  (I ordered all of her presents from Amazon...LOVE that site.)  L and her class will be putting on a Thanksgiving play.  I have 2 days of PT scheduled, Library Board meeting tomorrow, and I am working 3 days instead of 2 this week. 

I must close before the really bad storms hit.  Wish us well!

To Lime or Not to Lime...

With my Mom's help, I FINALLY finished digging all of the sorrel out of the bottom of the garden this weekend.  We essentially dug every square inch of that area (50 ft x 10 ft) with hand trowels and sorted out all of the weeds, rocks, and tenacious, spreading roots of that nasty sorrel. 

JP dumped 2 tractor buckets full of mushroom manure (aged horse poo, mostly), which we then spread around that whole area.  My intentions were then to spread lime, and allow JP or my Dad (they can fight over who will get that pleasure) to till it in with the roto-tiller.  I went on line first, however, to get an idea of how much lime to use.  That's when I saw the links with warnings not to use lime and fertilizer together.  Apparently together the two can form ammonia gas.  I got varying information from each site I visited.  Finally, I had to ask myself...how much of what is on the Internet should I believe?

What did I do?  I put the lime out there, of course.  I rarely follow directions.  Both the manure and the lime were dry, and the lime is pelletized for slow release, so I really don't think it's going to make too much of a difference.  I promise that I will report if I did the wrong thing.

After all that, I mowed the garden paths.  It looks so nice out there right now!

Garden Report:  We still have beans, and more corn to plant (in a couple of weeks, so that it doesn't all get ripe at once), as well as the seedlings - tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers.  Peas, greens, radishes, potatoes, spinach and onions are up.  The other root crops - red beets, carrots and parsnips are still not doing much.  Things are coming together!

The rest of the weekend passed in a flash.  L and I went on a field trip with some others from her cyber school on Friday to nearby Laurel Caverns.  It was an enjoyable trip.

Limestone Formations at Laurel Caverns

Someone gave JP another huge bag full of morels.

Fresh Morels

We celebrated my Dad's recent birthday on Friday night with a mushroom fry (2 big platters of fried morels) and home made cherry pie.

The remainder of the morels, we dried.  Hopefully we will be able to enjoy these later.

Dried Morels

Saturday morning, we attended a seminar given by the Apiarist who keeps 2 hives near our garden.  I had invited along a bunch of our friends with children, and a handful of them were able to make it.  It was fascinating, especially when he opened up a hive and let us all take a peek.

J all suited up for bee watching

Searching for the Queen Bee (the one with the crown)



L and her friend E looking at a tray of bees with the Apiarist

That evening, we attended a cook out at a friend's farm.  L found a horse to ride off into the sunset upon.

  

On Sunday, we all rode our bikes in the parking lot at the Elementary school.  JP and J rode their new bikes, and L graduated to J's old bike.  My bike was unchanged, except for the kick-stand that JP added for me.

That evening, we had a quick and unexpected visit from one of JP's cousins.  Afterward, we were finally able to collapse together on the couch and read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

And now, it's the beginning of another week.  L and I are still working on school work at 3:15 this afternoon, because we took some time off this morning to have a tea party with my grandma before she headed back home, and we planted 2 beds of corn after lunch.  It is supposed to rain tonight, so we were hoping it would get watered well.

Life keeps rolling right along.  Thanks to the love and emotional support of many of my friends and relatives, I made it through last week without a mental break down.  There are several "extras" on the calendar this week, but I think they are do-able.  I made it through the weekend, the crazy, crazy weekend, yelling only once.  (I stopped myself in the middle, so I'm not even counting it.)  That makes 4 days with no yelling!  Hooray!