Wordless Wednesday: March 18, 2008

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Thursday Thirteen #18: Thirteen Ways to Keep Your Hands Warm

13 Ways To Keep Your Hands Warm

1. mittens

2. gloves

3. sit on them

4. put them in your pockets

5. wrap them around a warm drink

6. blow on them

7. pull them up into your sleeves

8. hold a bowl of soup or oatmeal

9. pet your dog

10. Put them in someone else's pockets

11.warm them by a fire

12. use handwarmers (they scare me though)

13. wear a muff

SEE MORE THURSDAY THIRTEENS HERE

Boy or a Girl?

The kids got a "snowman kit" for Christmas, and since our snow is likely to disappear with record high temps over the weekend, we decided to make a snowman.

"What do you want to name it, Zoe?"

"Frosty!"



How original.



Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful!

We did it!

I pointed out Frosty's heart was anatomically incorrect.

Daddy pointed out, if it was a "he," that the wooden "nose" could be used for a different part of his anatomy. *ahem*

So we switched it.

The heart, not the "nose."

Taa daa!

Zoe: "Mommy, how do you know if it's a girl or a boy snowman?"

"Ummm."

Dmitri: "It's a boy. Girls don't smoke pipes."

With that question answered, it was time to go sledding.

While the snow"man" watched...

But I'm still not sure about the gender...

It sure acts the part of a diva!

Buried in White Stuff

Twelve inches.


That's right.


It was at LEAST that much.


I honestly think it was more.


Appeared more like a monster fifteen inches to me.


Utterly buried in white stuff.



Snow, of course.

What did you think I was talking about?


And we had to go over the river...

And through the woods to Grandma's again...

Which was an interesting experience, now that we live in a rural area. They don't plow dirt roads.

They barely plow the paved ones.

Even when we got into the closest "major city"...


We saw several cars stuck in the ditch on the way there.

But we, luckily, weren't one of them. Lots of tractors out plowing their driveways. Michael was jealous. He had to use the snowblower. But it was better than a shovel!





We made it to Grandma's and back again without incident.

And it was a truly lovely drive...

School's Out

We had a snow day this week, and I forgot what it was like having the littles home full time. They had a half day today, and now they'll be home until after the New Year.

When I was going to Weight Watchers with a friend (a million years ago) there was a group of us who would go out to eat afterward. (Don't even start on the twisted logic there, alright?) One of the women said she couldn't wait until her son started first grade the following year, because he'd be in school all day, and what a relief that would be! Then she asked me when mine started preschool, and I replied, "Oh, we're homeschooling."

You would have thought I had five heads.

But now that they're in school, and we're getting used to that whole thing, I didn't realize how much I missed them until they were home again all day during a time they were usually in school. Granted, I get a lot more done with them gone. Dusting, laundry and dishes can be completed without interruption.

But still... I have to admit. I miss them.

Am I strange, that I miss the endless interruption, the "Mom, will you tie this cape around my neck? I'm Super Anteater man!" and the "Can you put this (impossibly small and made for dolls whose arms actually BEND) shirt on my Barbie?"

Do most Moms simply wait for the day that the state relieves them of their charges for half the day? Am I the only one who finds that rather strange? *sigh*

Anyway, I'm glad we've got the next week together. They're building a dragon fort right now and they have all of Dmitri's firetrucks lined up outside the fort to put out the dragon's fire. Barbie's manning the hose. Can't wait to see what they're going to do with all the new Santa toys. Should be an interesting week!

Fossil Fuels Suck!

My brother-in-law in Kansas was without power for three days, and apparently, there are still people in Oklahoma and Kansas who don't have power. And unless you have a generator, without power, you don't have heat. Which makes it pretty cold, even inside the house, right? Since we've moved out in the middle of nowhere and now heat our house with propane, we've become much more aware of our energy consumption. Our tank is now depleted down to 20% - and it's not even January yet! Which means we're going to have to buy more propane soon. Again. In bulk. Which means another $500 we're going to have to pull out of thin air. (I wish!)

So Michael got the idea... why don't we just turn off the propane? Let's see how cold it really gets? I mean, nevermind the blizzard we just had and all. Really. Because our bedroom and the upstairs are SUPER warm when the heat's on. Sometimes we'll even crack a window at night. We have steam heat, and man, does it rise! Maybe we don't even need heat, we reasoned... I mean, the people in Oklahoma have gone ten days now... how cold can it get?

Let me tell you. Really fricking cold. Finger-numbing cold. I can barely feel mine as I'm typing, actually. Standard framed houses were built for fossil fuel heating on the grid, period. Cold seems to seep in from everywhere. So, no luck on the "Let's do winter without any heat" idea.

The thing is, when Michael turned it off, the pilot went out. And since we haven't had this kind of setup before, he's not sure how to get it back on. So he's going to call today and find out. In the meantime, I'm freezing. Two sweaters, two pairs of socks, a down comforter, and my nose and toes and fingers are still frigid.

So I decided to start a fire. I've started fires before. How hard can it be?

You see where this is going, don't ya?

No, I didn't blow up the house. Thank god. But my fire sucked. It sucked so bad I called Michael at work, my teeth chattering, to complain about my fire-building skills. He said, "Let me call you back in ten minutes."

Instead, he came home. Nice, that he works only six miles away still. He came home and built me a big, warm, toasty fire that is still burning two hours later. All I have to do is keep putting logs on it.

Don't I have the sweetest husband ever?

And thankfully, I'm not blue-faced and chattering like Alvin and the Chipmunks anymore. Now I just have to cough up the dough for more propane. *sigh* I'm seriously considering Michael's talk of moving off the grid and building solar!

Wordless Wednesday: December 19. 2007

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Operation Decoration

I forgot how much drama and work it is to put up a real Christmas tree - quite a balancing act!

But the decorating is finally DONE. We had two ornament casualties during the process, and the cat has tried to climb the tree once already. The dog, on the other hand, keeps mistaking the Christmas tree stand for a toilet bowl and drinking the water.

Can I take a nap until Christmas now?