Happy New Year!

It was a BUSY day today!

Rod continued with his home improvements.

The back door into our tack room was

never right. We replaced the door this

summer, but it wasn't framed in right

so that was the project he tackled today.

He had to grind through inches and inches

of stucco that Bill (previous owner) put on.

And then figure out what silly thoughts

Bill was thinking when he built this room.

(Bill was the KING of building stuff

in the middle of the night so he didn't

need to pull a permit...

One day there was a patio, the next there

was a ROOM!)

(kind of)

Anyhow.

It was a much bigger project than he thought,

but its nearly done and good enough to get

him through until the weekend.

Meanwhile, I swept and mopped all

the floors in the house,

took down the Christmas tree

and all the decorations on the barn / front gate.

And then I hit the kitchen.

I just learned how to make "Wonder Wraps"

(a trim healthy recipe) on my fancy griddle

so today I made a double batch and they

turned out really well!

I'm getting better at making them round!

While those were cooking I was also doing

a big batch of black beans in my pressure 

cooker - my freezer stash was GONE so 

it was time to refill it.

And then I made a nice big "sheet pan dinner".

It's ready to eat... here's hoping its good.

Chicken thighs on top of roasted

brussel sprouts and cauliflower with bacon.

I forgot to mention Kyle made soap for

his Christmas gifts this year!

The green birchwood one smells especially yummy!

And it's shea butter, so it's pretty awesome.

This morning he, Jim and Jim's friend Tom went

down to Wabaso (on the river by Vero Beach)

and went fishing.

They didn't catch any fish.

Jim caught a crab.

But they had a GREAT TIME getting

away from work.

Both Jim and Kyle work WAY too many 

hours each week.

So it was a welcome break.