I Hear It's That Short Month. The One With Candy.

Is it over? 
I mean January.
And Winter Storm Watch.
And Ice Storm Watch.
And school cancellations.

Besides the births of my first born and my life partner+.  I find January a highly over rated month. 
This monster storm (no Thunder Snow here.  bummer.)  was more annoying than monstrous.  It was kind of cool in a way. 
"It's raining ICE, Jesse."
"It's called sleet."
"No.  It's like little pieces of ice falling from the sky."
"Sleet."
"Whatever."

Until you have to use a pick ax to chip it off your car, it's neat in a not-used-to-winter-weather kind of way.
I miss our garage.  Let's get us one of those again.  They are an excellent idea.

School cancellations are great for one day.  You can do the homework you forgot about Monday night. 
The second day?  Yikes!  You kids are still here?  And why don't we have a television?
J came home for lunch so I went outside to shovel snow because there were too many people.  I kind of like my alone time during the day. 

From the call I got from the school today, it is indeed not January.  They told me that tomorrow is February 3rd and the kids are going to school (albeit after a 2 hour delay). 
Thank you robocall man. 

And the clear skies mean no snow.  Just really cold.  I can deal with that. 

Blah. January.

Is it over yet?  I feel as if my life has been snow.  shovel.  snow.  shovel.  repeat.

How cold is today?  Glasses frozen to bridge of nose cold.  Icy sidewalk cold.  Frozen respiration on hair cold.  Kids in the house cold.  High of 34 cold?  Wow!  Balmy.  But cold.

Happy-ish thoughts:  Miriam's birthday party is Saturday.  Eight nine year olds usually liven things up.  January is almost over.  And February is short.  I need a sponsor to send me to South America.  Any takers?

Snow Delay!

Am I the only parent who wakes up in the morning praying for a snow day?  The kids love school, but I love it when they're home and we get to have FUN in the morning.  Not rush, rush, rush. 

On Monday we baked some gingerbread cookies.  Today we shoveled snow and started making the steps from our back deck into a ramp for sledding.  So dangerous.  So FUN!  At first I was kind of bummed that our driveway is so long.  But then I realized that it gave us a whole lot of snow to use for our sled run.  Jesse wants me to come work out with him at the pool, but I think my 1 1/2 hour shovel fest will work for today. 

How is winter treating you in your neck of the planet? 

It's Really Cold Now

If anyone was wondering, 11 degrees Fahrenheit is really cold. As in your ungloved hands hurt after the one minute walk from the grocery store to your car.

Thank goodness for our south facing storm windows. They trap in the heat from the sun and have us at a toasty 68 degrees inside.

And now I brave the outdoors once again to get those last Christmas presents.

Snow Day

We got our first snow last night and this morning. It was pretty magical. Then I had to shovel the driveway. Poof. Magic gone. It's supposed to snow tomorrow night as well. I am so glad we got snow gear for the kids already.

Brrr

The weather turned today. It's warmed up a bit and the sun shone warmly for a few hours. I sat on the carpet basking in the sliver of sunlight this afternoon. I actually felt warm in my home for the first time in weeks.

This is my first winter in 14 years! I guess I did have one on my mission, though I was in southern Portugal. I'm not sure if that counts. It has been a LONG time since I've donned gloves and hats and even a coat. Lately, I felt like they're a permanent fixture. The first week was fun and novel. The novelty is over. We're ready for spring, ready for those hot summer days (which will come in full force in no time at all!).

Jesse and I have agreed that we never want to experience winter like this again. If we do, I'd insist on central heating, insulation, some electric blankets, and maybe even heated floors. I'm warming up just thinking of the list. What about a wood stove? Marshmallow anyone?

No hot summer days here.

photo by adam
Our M is learning to read and write. The other day she surprised me by asking me to help her write "hot summer days." After helping her sound out the words and write them in her little book she said, "You know why I wanted to write hot summer days? When it's really cold, I can look at my book and remember Hot Summer Days." Then she gave me the "isn't that the best idea ever?" look.

You have to realize that her bedroom has taken on meat locker frigidity. Jesse wears his down jacket when he reads to M at night. I tried to put G back in her bed last night. She woke up screaming "don't make me sleep here! I don't want to sleep in my bed! I want to sleep in your bed!" Who wouldn't feel that way after cuddling under a down filled blanket with the heater on. The kids' room only has an air conditioner and is naturally the coldest room in the house. There's the space heater option (expensive and dangerous), the electric blanket option (also expensive and dangerous since one of them has a wetting problem (could it be because it's freezing in their room?)), but we're going for the tough it out option and/or the just sleep in our room on a futon option. Only problem is that the kids snore.

Oh for those hot summer days!