Nothing Much

The news around here is snow.  4 1/2 inches of the stuff!  Yes my backyard looks like a wreck because the oak lets its leaves go at the last minute of autumn and by the time it let go and my husband finished working his 16 hour days six and seven days a week there was snow.  Rick states that “at least” he cleaned up the front and side yards.  He did… and thank you for that.  The rest will become a spring cleanup project.  This year is the first in the 17 winters I’ve spent here now where there has been snow on the ground pretty much since the week after Thanksgiving.  There still isn’t a great deal of snow but it’s enough to shut this city down.  And usually it snows maybe three times giving us a snow day where everyone who wants to brave the elements runs out quickly to get a little sledding in and then the snow promptly melts and everyone goes back to the regular routine.  I must say I like a blanket of snow on the ground for winter.  Usually it looks so stark and dead around here in the wintertime.  By February I’ll be quite ready for Spring however. 

With the snow came two snow days.  I’m sure you can still see the blades of dead grass sticking up in the backyard but it got everyone two days off of school.  Tristan would have had two days off of school anyway since he came down with strep throat.  And Nathan decided to join him on antibiotics with a sinus infection.  Kaitlyn is running a fever of 100.1 for no apparent reason so she has to stay home as well.  Between cold, snow, sickness and lack of funds it’s beginning to feel like I may never leave this house again, except to run to the pediatrician and possibly the grocery store. 

So what are 10 of us (if you include the cats) doing roaming around the four walls of this five room home for days on end?  Some of us are miserably trying to regain health of course.  When can I open those windows again?  Tristan has voluntarily been in bed a few times and for anyone who knows him at all, that’s pretty serious.

Sandy looks for every opportunity that the kids might have left the lid off the JIF peanut butter.  It’s her favorite treat even if she has to feed it to herself.  Don’t tell my grandma!

Everyone has made a stop in the kitchen each morning three days running for Lindsay’s famous eggs which are a knock off of Pop’s famous eggs that she learned from him over the summer minus the “secret ingredient” of Greg’s famous eggs.  She is our official egg cooker now and loves her new job.  “Self employed”, she conscientiously washes all her pans and spatulas so they’ll be ready to go at the next breakfast.  We went through so many eggs that Rick and I had to pick up another 3 dozen yesterday when we made our “great escape” to Sam’s just to get out of the house and pick up a 25 lb. bag of flour.

More eggs?  And we dug in the freezer and found some english muffins which Nathan approved of as a breakfast treat.  He hasn’t been feeling too great so we are happy when he eats or drinks anything right now.  Beyond that we’ve been eating a big pot of homemade soup with homemade bread and apple butter, a few kids played out in the snow, I fed the squirrels and we’ve been playing games, reading, watching movies and keeping the front walk shoveled and salted so the mail can arrive with a window to the outer world and so we can keep the car cleared off for the next run to the pediatrician… 4 out of 5 kids in a 48 hour period made that run!  I’d like a season pass please!  And I might be ready for spring NOW!