It’s how we raise ‘em round these here parts.
Archive for the 'Photos' Category
Barefoot and frog in hand.
Published June 12, 2011 Country Living , Homeschooling , Photos 5 CommentsHere’s my 10-year-old, doing something she loves:
That last one makes me cry.
For joy for her.
For the joy of her.
I have no real excuses regarding my long absence from this blog.
Reasons, I got. Tons of reasons. Tons of obligations that moved posting further into the background of my days. I’m going to tell you all about it real soon. I’d tell you now, but if I tried, I’d end up late for a swim date we have this afternoon.
But I did want to show you all this picture:
because it factors quite a bit into the stories I’ll be telling in the days to come. I’m not trying to make excuses or anything. I’m just saying that we need to talk about this picture. 
We’re off to swim now.
Please stand by.
Thawing out.
Published February 11, 2010 Country Living , Homeschooling , Photos 6 CommentsTags: blizzard of 2010, Homeschooling, snow days
We managed to get through the blizzard with only a half day interruption in our phone and Internet service. But we never lost our heat or our electricity, so I really have no complaints. I’d rather sweat out 12 hours of email-withdrawl than deal with serious power outtages.
Anyway… the sun was out this morning, and the cardinals that live in the big pine tree were flitting around before I’d finished my coffee. This is what it looked like outside my bedroom window:
After I’d had my coffee, I got everyone dressed and fed, and announced that we’d be taking another day off of school because I had more shoveling to do. And also because I’ve got a cold right now, and that on top of all this snow makes me think this is a good time to not do math.
HOMESCHOOLING SIDE NOTE: One of the most common questions we get as homeschoolers, particularly after a snowstorm, is if we take snow days or not. (This question is often following with a knowing look and an irritating chuckle, as if to say: ha! gotcha on THAT ONE, don’t I? Your poor kids will never know the joys of having a SNOW DAY.)
The answer is, quite simply, not usually. We prefer to save up our “snow days” and use them up on those first really great spring days. We call them “Nice Days”. So, while most kids are stuck in school staring out the windows in May, when spring really starts rolling in, and they’re wishing they could take the day off because it’s SOOOOOOO NICE OUT… guess where we are: At the lake. Or at the park. With Subway sandwiches. And no homework waiting for us when we leave.
However… when we get a big giant blizzard… a snowstorm that’s actually IMPRESSIVE, and that storm falls in the same week in which Mom Has A Cold… well, then… yeah… we take a snow day. Or two. Or three.
The point I’m trying to make here is twofold, actually: 1. We take days off whenever we want to. And 2. That snow-day question is actually kind of annoying, and does not make you sound nearly as witty as you think. So you should stop asking it.
Anyway…where was I? Oh yes… Thawing out. So, I went out after a while and shoveled the half-inch of snow that fell after RegularDad finished shoveling last night. I also found the mailbox:
which is always a good thing. I brushed a foot of snow off of it and dropped the mortgage payment in there. Hopefully, a mail carrier will come along at some point and pick it up. Shoveling the last of the snow off the driveway wasn’t too bad, and now our house looks like this:
and my arms are kinda sore.
RegularDad came home from work early so that he could play in the snow with the kids. I went out there with them for a few minutes to take pictures, but the wind drove me back in pretty quickly. It’s cold. And I have a cold. So, no snowball fights for me. But they were out there all afternoon, having a blast.
Of course, not everyone loves all this snow. These guys, for example:
These guys aren’t all that impressed with the white stuff outside. Not in the slightest. In fact, they’ve made it clear that they really don’t want anything at all to do with snow. The only good thing about it, they’d say, is the way it chills everything just enough that the heat kicks on more often and the humans keep leaving fleece blankets all over the place.
Yeah, these guys are all: wake me when it’s May.
I so totally get that.
Blizzard of 2010.
Published February 10, 2010 Country Living , Homeschooling , Photos 7 CommentsTags: blizzard of 2010
Haven’t seen snow like this since the morning we flew out of Denver to move here three years ago.
Here’s a shot of the first storm we got about four days ago:
Notice how accessible and visible my mailbox is? Yeah… haven’t seen that thing all day long. Mail service is suspended anyway.
Now here’s some shots of what it looked like here earlier this morning. BEFORE the blizzard proper actually began:
That’s my 6-year-old’s snowman. She built it yesterday afternoon. Half of it’s buried underneath last night’s snowfall. We went out again for a while today, during a lull in the storm, before the real blizzard started, to get a little fresh air. The puppy messed around in some snow drifts and tired herself out nicely. But now, after several hours of actual blizzard, she can’t even leap herself out of the drifts anymore. So, we tramp down little runs for her so she can find her bathroom and then we hurry her back into the house.
And here’s what it looked like at about 4:00 this afternoon, when I went out again, to shovel out the driveway, so that RegularDad might have a fighting chance of pulling his car in:
Technically, those steps are part of my front walkway there. I’d just finished shoveling it clear. Honest.
That right there is my driveway. See the two giant piles of snow? Yeah, that was a wall of icky snow mixed with road salt blocking the whole driveway when I went out there to start shoveling. I’d gotten maybe a tenth of it done, when out of nowhere a plow truck came along and the guy driving it gave me a big smile and then plowed the whole mess off to the side for me. Dude… whoever you are… you ROCK. Thanks.
By the way, my mailbox is now buried under that pile of snow on the right. You can’t see it, but it’s there.
Of course, not five minutes after that dude who plowed my driveway for me drove off, another plow came along and started a whole new wall of slush across the driveway. I could have cried right there. But instead I just plodded on back to the house for my shovel.
But just as I was reaching for it, RegularDad’s car appeared and he rolled right over the new wall and up the driveway and parked with no problem.
Because the gods are kind like that, I guess.
The best part of a blizzard is seeing your husband arrive safely home, isn’t it?
I made beef and barley soup for dinner. Because it’s his favorite. After he ate it, he went right back out to shovel more snow. He was out there for over an hour, and just as he finished, a neighbor came walking by and said: “hey man, you want to borrow my snow blower?”
Note to self: get RegularDad a snow blower for his next birthday.
We’re staying warm in here. Hope you are, too.
Her favorite place to be these days.
Published July 12, 2009 Country Living , Homeschooling , Photos 5 Comments
Heather over at the Learning Umbrella tagged me for this quick little meme. It’s easy. Go to your 6th picture folder and find the 6th picture in there. Post it on your blog.
Here’s mine:
These oak leaves had seen better days, I guess. This was from a nature study we did about 18 months ago.
This meme is so quick and easy that I tag all of you. If you’re reading this, consider it a tag, and go get that picture. Let me know what you find.
Thanks, Heather.
is the unexpected one. The one that wasn’t supposed to happen, or if it was supposed to happen, it wasn’t supposed to amount to anything, but then it did.
Last night and today, we’ve had snow and ice and then rain – the kind that makes the day dreary because there’s no going out in it. And by the time you DO get to go out, it’s all turned to a pathetic, good for nothing slush. And we knew it was coming. The local news and the Weather Channel just couldn’t shut up about this storm. How dull it was, listening to them go on about it, knowing that it really wasn’t going to be such of a much, that all it would amount to was some extra work with a shovel. La-dee-da.
But, a week ago Monday was totally different. A week ago Monday was just supposed to be a slight chance of flurries. The newscasters barely gave it a minute. And Monday afternoon, we got a little flurry. The girls looked out the window and cheered.
“Don’t get too excited,” I said. “This isn’t supposed to last.”
They grumbled. But then the flurry just kept on flurrying. And flurrying. And flurrying. And by 3:30 I had to tell them we’d have to skip karate because I didn’t want to be driving in this. They wailed. But then I told them to get their snow gear on because we were going out into all that delicious snow. And the wails immediately ceased as they scrambled for their boots.
They’d been waiting a long time for a day like this. A day with the Good Kind Of Snow.
In fact, now that I think about it,
This was the first good snow they’ve been able to play in since we moved here two years ago.
I know this because I bought these red sleds for them for Christmas back in 2006, right before we moved.
And they never used them once. Until this Monday a week ago, when the snow we weren’t supposed to get turned into the best surprise ever. The whole time they were sledding, I kept hearing Etta James singing in my head: At Last….
So, it was funny the next day to hear that song played over and over again because that was the theme song for the President and First Lady’s inaugural dance. I suspect that if they had watched my daughters sledding down our little hill for the first time ever, they’d totally understand why I had that song stuck in my mind. They’ve got daughters, too. I think they’d get it.
But the best part about that day was the laughing. I laughed in a way I haven’t laughed in years. I laughed because I saw the joy light up their faces as the sleds picked up a little speed and they were sailing in the gorgeous snowy dusk and I saw in their eyes, in their excited smiles, that it was better than they ever even expected it could be. I laughed with them, and at one point, I’m pretty sure I was jumping up and down with excitement.
And then, the next day… THIS happened
and it was the icing on the cake. The best kind of icing. The kind you weren’t expecting, but turned out to be exactly what you wanted all along. The kind that was worth the wait.
Like much of the United States this weekend, we’ve been batting winter weather. It’s not as bad here as it is elsewhere, but it’s enough to keep us indoors and on each other’s nerves. I’ve got the kids doing yoga videos as much as I can until this ice melts enough for us to venture out and see what we can see.
The sun did come out, quite briefly, early this afternoon, only long enough for me to step outside alone with my camera for a few minutes. I snapped pictures until the cold wind drove me back indoors to where pre-Christmas chores awaited.
It’s dark and freezing now, and the kids are finally asleep, and now I’m sitting here looking at these pictures, and reliving that crisp, momentary dazzle from earlier today, and I find it’s better than the brightest, cheeriest Christmas lights.
Right now, sleet is rattling against the windows in my study. It reminds me of what it sounded like outside this afternoon, when the world was melting a bit and pitter-pattering down onto the ice-coated grass.
I don’t know when we’ll be able to get outside again, and I don’t know how many trees we’ll lose in this mess, but I’m still glad of a little ice storm now and then.
Call me crazy.
