Rain, Rain Go Away

Seriously, I haz kids done with school. Home for the summer. Go away.

If I wanted this much rain, I'd move to Seattle where I'd at least have the benefit of good coffee on every corner as well.

This is the part of winter I hate...

I finally remembered why I dislike January. It's cold. Very cold! It is currently 6 degrees but with the wind chill, it's sub zero. I came down stairs this morning to find the heat dropped to a mere 60 degrees (which in the spring and fall is a great temp!). This usually happens when the mercury falls, the heathers need to work harder to heat more. I cranked the heat up, with hopes to kick the system into over drive. What I need is about 30K to install all new windows in the house. Gotta love a house with wicked old windows that let air in everywhere! And Husband doesn't believe in covering them with plastic (I know tacky, but he doesn't have to sit here all day freezing his buns off) or the gunky clay stuff (that you bead around the windows).

I also changed the air filter with hopes that will help. And most importantly, I fixed the air vent. The one on the floor 2 feet from where i am sitting. The one that collapses all the freakin' time and heats the basement more than the living room. It's fixed for the time being, but I'm sure it will collapse soon. We have forced air heating and this one vent just won't stay up. It's flexible ducts with the insulated tube. I would like to redo (and just this section for now) it to the permanent duct work so at least I can be guaranteed heat in the room we use most often. The room with not only a huge glass window/door to the deck, but also a large picture window. Did I mention the windows leak air?

It was so cold, I briefly thought about letting daughter stay home from school. But then I figured they would drive me nuts, after all, they've only been in school one day so far this week. Bringing her to school gave me an excuse to stop and get coffee!

Stay warm guys and lets hope March comes soon!

Ice, Ice Baby

Ice hurts. Or more specifically, what's under ice hurts. Even more specifically, falling down concrete steps because you slipped on ice hurts.

We just had our sand/salt bucket filled after the snowstorm last Friday. And we used all of it on the driveway under the cars so they would be able to get out in the morning. Unfortunately, we had none left for the stairs. And just my luck, leaving this morning to pick up Meenie from school, I slipped and hit three of them on the way down. Luckily, Moe didn't fall. And then, after walking out the door with Meenie, we both fell. Not fun.

When I picked Einey up from school, they warned us about the ice in the parking lot. The whole lot is like an ice rink! The teacher on car duty was going to complain after we left. She said if it was still like that in the morning, to call and complain. It's just not safe.

I found some kitty litter(don't ask why I have kitty litter if I've never ever owned a cat) in the basement and used it to cover the stairs and the front walk so the mailman didn't fall. It seems the have worked.

Now to get more sand/salt before it snows again.

Edit: 4:30 PM Yah! I have more sand/salt. Thanks Dad!

Winter Weather Rant

I'm glad to see snow. Really I am. I even went out and brought new sleds this morning. I can't wait until after nap time to go out and play with the kids.

But why, oh why, do you send kids home early because the roads are slick but NOT send out the snowplows before hand? We live close to the school - it normally tames me two minutes to get there. I live on a main road in town and have to briefly get on a main state road (one that is always on the list of most dangerous roads in the country). Yet when I went to pick up Einey at 12:45, none of the roads were plowed and no corners were sanded. Now the snow started to fall at 11:15. I had come home from a playgroup at 11:45 and the roads were not to bad. Forty-five minutes later, they were pretty slick (and yeah, the snow is coming down pretty hard and fast). It took me almost 20 minutes to make the 5 minute round trip drive. And the kicker - we've seen the plows (because the town owns several) out and about. Just not doing what they should be doing.

So again, why send school buses out on the crap-tastic roads without first treating them?

A tad chilly...

This is what one of the million 19 pumpkins from Halloween looked like yesterday:

I'm not sure why they are still hanging around outside, but I think it's time to pluck them and add them to the compost pile. I did finally pull the Mums (and while I was going to add them to the compost heap, I noticed that despite lack of water for over a month and freezing temps, they had new growth, so I trimmed them back and they are currently residing in the basement). I did finally get some poinsettia's for outside.

Kids in the Kitchen

Overheard today...

Moe: You like it Meenie?
Meenie: Yup.
Moe: Me like it too.

I thought the above conversation was cute. It was in reference to the sugar coated beaters they were licking. We had just finished making the cream-cheese frosting to top Husband's Carrot Cake Birthday Cake and they were enjoying the fruits of our labor.

This week we have baked the carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate banana bread.

The girls have helped every step of the way. Einey's been cracking the eggs, they've all been pouring the ingredients into the bowl, Meenie's been in charge of the margarine and then they each get 10 stirs with the wooden spoon before passing it on to the next in line until it is all mixed.

When we did the cookies -I cheated and used a package, the rest were from scratch- Meenie surprised me by telling me we needed one butter and one egg. She "read" the back of the package all by herself.

Einey helped out by using the directory in the cookbook to find the right pages and then helping me to read the ingredients and finding them.

Moe helped by, well eating the flour. At least she didn't run around, blowing it throughout the house this time.

When we made the banana-chocolate bread, I was going to use chocolate chips. Instead I thought of the ton of Easter Candy we had sitting in the secret hiding space. I gave each child a plastic bag, some candy and a rolling pin. They enjoyed smashing and rolling their candy into little bits. We had M&M's, bunnies, Hershey Kisses and Chocolate Eggs. And once they were smashed, we added them to the bread. The result? One of the best banana breads we've ever made!

Unfortunately, to date, this school vacation has been endless days of rain. I believe it will clear up in time for their first soccer games this weekend (which come after just one day of practice). Next week is fore casted to be sunny and in the 60's. It's about time!