Category: Uncategorized (Page 30 of 201)

This cold snap is being called a Polar Vortex.  I know it’s a technical term to explain the temps, and wind and flow, etc.  It has definitely been chilly.  It frosted over the screws on the inside of our door on the dead bold.  We had ice in the inside of most of the windows–and a really thick layer on those with the shades closed.  And it closed down the schools for 4 days. Yup.  No school again today.  That means my kids have had 6 days off of school (if you include the weekend).  They will go back tomorrow for one day and then have another weekend.  Ha!

We are all feeling the effects of being home too many days.  Stir Crazy is in the air.  Poor Tim is feeling more of the brunt of it since I’ve been just teaching as normal.  I did move a few lesson to earlier in the day, since there was no school, in order to let them drive when it was still light out rather than dark.  Somehow the cold doesn’t seem as oppressive in the gorgeous sunny day.  I mean, look how lovely it was!  A bright, clear, sunny day–you would have had no idea it was as cold as it was!

So, we’ve been getting creative…

Tim made a big fort with the couches yesterday.  That was a big hit.  Today Chloe and I made special nutella cinnamon sugar cupcakes.  They were fun.

And I gave myself a haircut/trim. Obviously, I’m more excited about that then anyone else.  Ha!

Despite the frigid temps this morning, and school being cancelled, Tim braved the cold to take the big kids to the dentist.  Life must go on, right?

So, they were up and out the door early.  Our dentist retired, but a new dental company has actually taken over the space, so they got to go to the very same building.  The people were different, but we go so seldom that I’m not sure we would remember the other people much anyway.  They had a very pleasant visit and came home with smiles on their faces.  I’m very aware of trying to not pass along my fear and dislike of the dentist to them… Chloe does have a couple small cavities starting in her baby teeth, and Josiah was cavity free.

Currently I’m watching the wind pick up and snow billow outside.  Brrrrr… It feels like -34 right now in case you were wondering.  😉

Want a random picture before I go?  Ok!

Josiah has discovered he loves “ants on a log!”

We didn’t have school today (it was already planned to be off for the end of the quarter), but some other schools in the area were called off or had a delayed start due to the cold and snow.  Annnnnnd, it’s going to be so cold tomorrow and Wednesday that they have ALREADY called off school!  Yup.  It’s going to be THAT cold.

Tomorrow the high for the day is -5, but with wind gusts between 20 to 40 miles per hour, which will make the temperature plummet.

Then on Wednesday, the high for the day is -14.  With just as bad wind… that means it will feel like -50.

Yup.  That’s cold.  So, I guess it’s probably for the best that we don’t have kids walking to school!

New this year, however, is that the kids have “homework” to do on these days off of school.  🙂  They have to do things like… build a fort, play a board game, name 10 thinks you see outside, write a story about a snowman, do jumping jacks for 1 min.  It should be a fun couple days off of school!

I love Shutterfly.  I love ordering pictures, designing fun cups/blankets/bags and magnets as well as creating photo books and having everything delivered to my doorstep.  I simply love how my pictures can be preserved in so many different (and fairly cost effective) ways.  And I love that they do promotions.  Like the free 8×8 book every once in a while.

But why is it that I don’t put together my photo books until the day before the coupon expires?

I hate that.

But, I guess if I’m honest, I don’t hate Shutterfly.  I actually hate myself for procrastinating until the very last minute.  But then I do get the book finished and I re-love Shutterfly (and myself) once it arrives in the mail.  It’s a little nugget of happiness.

So……………please excuse me while I zip off to finish my photo book before the coupon expires.  Hehe!

Levi is starting to use his imagination more and it’s the cutest thing ever.  I’m sure I said this about all of my kids as I’ve watched this happen.  I just love watching him move his toys around and make noises and voices.  I can see he will be a little like Josiah (who is still so distracted by his imagination that sometimes he forgets all about his chores and we find him lying in the corner somewhere with a book or toy, happily in his own little world) and enjoy playing by himself.  And actually, that’s probably a good thing, since Levi and Maddie do not play particularly well together.  They are so close in age and each has a very specific way that they want to play… which causes a lot of stress.  And screaming.  And crying.

Needless to say, we are all very excited for Levi and Maddie to get to where they enjoy playing independently.

As an added bonus of cuteness, these toys (the Buzz Lightyear and Woody) are from Tim’s childhood.  I remember getting them a couple years back and Josiah loving playing with them as well.  So, now all the boys in our family will have loved and played with them.

Chloe and I have been at odds lately.  I attribute it to our very similar personalities.  Very.  Similar.  We seem to disagree about everything lately.  And our tone of voice (for both of us, I’m sad to say) is over half the battle these days.

So Tim suggested I make an effort to take time each weekend to do something special–just Chloe and me.  Chloe is very interested in baking and cooking, and actually checked out a book at the library this past weekend all about desserts.  She had been excited to bake something, so that’s what we did.

She chose the recipe and got out all the ingredients and even read the directions for us.  What was her choice, you ask?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.

Um… yum?  Well, it was an interesting pick for sure.  She really likes pumpkin flavor.  Actually one of her favorite things are pumpkin pancakes.  So, I guess it wasn’t a major surprise.  She had about 9 recipes that she had picked and had to narrow it down from.  It took her a few minutes.

The pumpkin bread was just ok (I’m don’t think I would make it again) but we had a good time together, which is the goal.

So, stayed tuned for more baking fun over the next few months!

Chloe and Josiah have been begging for a sleepover for a while, so we finally decided it would be a good weekend–since they didn’t have school today.  One more day to recover… ha!

Because of all the kids sharing rooms, it works best to have sleepovers in the studio.  We set up sleeping bags or air mattresses next to the piano and they talk and giggle for hours without keeping anyone else awake.  Chloe has been able to have a few sleepovers with her cousins over the past couple years, but Josiah has never had one yet, which is why they were so excited.

So we got Chloe and Josiah all set up on the air mattress.  They happily brought down their pillows, blankets, reading lights and a book to read.  (I took the cutest pictures of them snuggling together) To their delight, I even allowed an extra 30 min of reading.  They were awake for a long time before finally getting to sleep, but they were so happy.

Sometimes it’s the little things that bring such joy in life.

Well, I made our first pan meal tonight.  It was met with mixed reviews.  While it was easy (basically just potatoes and chicken–but with spices) the potatoes were a little raw still and the chicken was a little bland.  So, it was a good first try.  Levi wouldn’t eat it, but that’s not uncommon for him right now.  He’s being moody about food lately.  Very moody.

But Josiah liked it a lot and Chloe ate it, with some protest, and Maddie ate a little, with much protest.  Tim and I thought it was ok.  I think I’ll need to do some tweaking before it becomes a regular addition.

So, I wouldn’t call it a flop… but it wasn’t as amazing as I hoped it would be.

On to the next pan meal to try!