Winter Wonderland

Today, I dropped off the car at the mechanics for an oil change (which reminded me of my favorite sign at a quick lube place: "How long has it REALLY been?") and I walked home. It is so beautiful today--the sky is a bright clear blue, all the sunlight is gold and it reflects and sparkles on the snow diamonds and all the shadows are blue/purple/gray. The time and temp sign at the bank says it's 21 degrees, which explains why it is so sparkly--it has to be fairly warm (relatively speaking!) to snow, but when it gets really cold it crystallizes all the surface snow so it is bright reflective prisms. It is very beautiful--although the wind was a bit brisk.

That last storm (the one where I could hear the flakes) was an ice storm that dropped ice pellets for hours and made a thick crust over everything. Walking across it is an adventure! SmallDaughter LOVES it--but she can easily walk on the crust--not so for me--every few steps I break through up to my shins!

Also, it froze the barn door shut, so I have to wait for the sun to warm things up a little before I can go feed the chickens!

Winter Wonders

It appears to be snowing again. That in itself is not surprising--we are supposed to have a pretty major winter storm (although we only got about 4" last night, which is not even close to the horrors they were predicting--of course!) The surprising part is the direction the flakes are coming from, and the noise they are making as they hit the house. Hmmm.

Inside the cozy house, we are enjoying our quiet snow day. BigGirl has been inspired. Over the weekend we had some of our favorite people stay over, and Miss V and I went through our fabric stashes and combined our fabric to make tops for Humanitarian Quilts. BigGirl helped me cut pieces on Saturday night, and on Sunday, she asked if she could work on a quilt by herself. In keeping with my "what the heck, why not tell your children "YES" and see what they can do" parenting, I gave permission--and by Sunday evening she had ironed, cut and layed out all the pieces for a twin size quilt! On Monday, she got it sewed into strips. I will post pix when she gets it done--it is very cute, and I am very impressed with her (I am still working on the quilt I started when I was expecting LargeBoy--so like, 13 years ago!).

SmallDaughter got to put on her snowsuit and boots and go out walking around and kicking snow for about 40 minutes. I had to force her to come back inside. She does not care how horrible the weather is, she just wants to be out in it.

LargeBoy has completed 2 Merit Badges. He was the awesomely cool big cousin/entertainment unit over the weekend. He is researching lots of exciting things that interest him.

I spent several hours on the phone, and paid the bills in bed--I find bill paying is a whole lot less stressful when I am in the softness of my cozy bed with the wonderful electric mattress pad on high!

I also read a really excellent book last week--"Coop" by Michael Perry. I just love the way he writes (I also loved "Truck--A Love Story"). I have a lot in common with him, but his humor--it just sneaks up on me, and I find myself suddenly laughing till I fall off my chair (the part about his dad joining the choir--priceless!)

I am whiling away the winter evenings by designing my dream retirement home. Not what people would expect, I'm telling you. More on that later.

PANIC!! or not.

I am getting pretty frustrated with news reporters--especially television news. "Now is the perfect time to PANIC!"*

Every time clouds move in they predict "THE STORM OF THE CENTURY--from 30 to 96 inches of snow! Highly dangerous conditions!!!! More snow than you can imagine!!!!!"

And then we get a little bit of winter. Yep, it can be dangerous to travel in snowy weather. Ditto hot weather, rainy weather, you name it. What is needed is more thinking and less panic mongering.

Just Sayin'.

We got about 3 inches of lovely white snow. SmallDaughter's school was canceled and she was out playing in it every time I turned around. She just likes to kick it and make tracks. I cleaned the sidewalk off with a broom, which indicates to me that it was not a blizzard--just winter!


*Monsters, Inc. quote

Busy Times

I have triumphantly finished last week! That in itself is a major cause for celebration, since every day had multiple back-to-back (or, sometimes, OVERLAPPING) activities. Also, My Favorite Gentleman is laid off, and is home--all the time. The readjustment continues.

The Ward Christmas Party (that I was in charge of, in my position as Activities Chairman) came off mostly smoothly, and was pretty much a success. We got our Christmas Tree before the storm hit--when we went to the tree farm on Saturday, it was so warm all the snow had melted off--and we were all seriously overdressed! The snow rolled in overnight. The Bishop canceled the last hour of church and sent us home early.

MFG has delivered one of his favorite rants (and I totally agree with him) about how the news coverage of winter weather creates and stirs up panic. What was built up as "THE STORM OF THE CENTURY!!" gave us about 1 1/2 inches of snow. Really? I thought that was just what happened if you live in the North and it is Winter. North+Winter=Snow. Not panic every time a snowflake falls. Just Winter--it happens every year, people!

A Little Poem...

especially for my cold blooded friends (this means you, Dad and Miss K!).

It’s winter in Ohio
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At thirty five below

Oh, how I love Ohio
When the snow’s up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I’ll hang around
I could never leave Ohio
Cuz I’m frozen to the ground!

I didn't write it--it was in our Spinner's and Weaver's Guild Newsletter, and they got it from another guild, but it pretty well sums it all up!

Still having computer issues, hope to resolve them soon (quick, before I lose what little brain I have left!).