Creating in January 2016

Instead of a typical New Years resolution, I decided to do something different...I wanted to document how I was creative each day...  Here is how it has gone so far:

January 7 Started knitting some fingerless gloves for a friend and built a Lego kit

January 8 Continued knitting
January 9 Baked bread and did some knitting

January 10 Band of fingerless glove almost done

January 11 Does taking apart Lego creations count?
January 12 Calendars and Agendas for Activity Days event

January 13 First glove almost done

January 14 I frogged the glove and started over (had some issues with unwanted holes)

January 15 Knitted a few rounds
January 16 Finished the wrist ribbing (all while riding in the back seat of my brothers car)
January 17 Started building Lego Palace Theatre

January 18 Some knitting - finished the Theater (the Parisian Cafe was built just after Christmas)

 

January 19 Knitting at the dealership waiting for my car to get fixed/battery changed

January 20 Baked bread :)
January 21 Knitted several rounds
January 22 Wrapped birthday gifts and made a layer cake with homemade frosting. Add in the dinner of Potato Stacks and meatloaf...

January 23 Knitted a few rounds while waiting for my car (again)
January 24 Prepared an extra nice dinner for family and Reuben, a nephew who came to visit...and made bread

January 25 Worked on Legos
January 26 Taught knitting at Activity Days...didn't get any photos
January 27 Started some homemade cards (from a kit)
January 28 Finished the body of the first glove...now I need to do the thumb

January 29 Worked on a Lego version of our home online using a program from Lego...it's not as easy as it looks!
January 30 Built some new designs of Lego with Steve

January 31 Made bread using my new mixer
February 1 Created a happy atmosphere in the home by being of good cheer :)
February 2 Baked fancy cookies and updated the Eiffel Tower shelf

February 3 Started a Jigsaw puzzle, started the 2nd glove and baked a cake for Stephanie which included homemade lemon buttercream frosting.

Stephanie teaches her Mom a new trick...

We have lived in this house for 11.5 years and I have used this stove-top all this time. There have been a few times when I thought we might have to replace the stove-top as the element for the big burner would sometimes not completely work. Sometimes only the inner element would get hot.

Well, last night, Stephanie was in the kitchen helping me prepare dinner, it being her month as kitchen helper. This time she wanted to be involved in all aspects of it...and I was delighted to have the help!

While I was preparing the potatoes for frying (peeling the baked potatoes and cutting them up), I asked Stephanie to get out the two frying pans and put them on the stove. We needed to cook the bacon first, so I asked her to turn on the burner for the big frying pan on the big element to get the pan heated up. I watched as she pushed the knob down and then turned it to the left until it was at the medium high spot. Now, I usually turn it to the right, but didn't really think anything of it...just as long as the pan heated up.

This time, it seemed like the pan was taking a very long time to heat up, but I put in the bacon anyway. I was right...only the center of the pan was hot...and checking the element below noticed that only the center was getting red. At this point I bemoaned to Steve that yet another thing is broken and might be needing to be replaced! We already have three other things in that catagory! (Air conditioner, lawn mower and computer monitor). Replacing the stove-top is not high on our list at this time!

So I switched the pan to the left burner, which is a bit smaller than the pan, but would be better than the small element currently working. During this switch, Stephanie noticed something I had never looked at before. Just above the knob for the bottom right burner, there are drawings to indicate that if you turn it to the right, the big element would work. If you turn to the left, only the smaller inner element would turn on.

Yeah for Stephanie...I can now cook a small pan on the big element! Or rather the inner element on the front. I am sooooooo willing to learn from my daughter!