Cuppa Joe

Come sit and have a cuppa joe with me! If we were chatting over coffee (or tea...or Diet Coke...whatever your poison is), I would tell you:

 

 

I hate to admit it, but I'm glad Christmas is over.  I.  Love.  Christmas.  Really, I do.  But by the time it's over, I'm always glad to pack the tree away and get things back to normal.  And the second all of the decorations are down, I start itching for spring.  I'm ready for sunshine and playing outside.

 

 

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Sydney might be the most frustrating child to dress...ever.  She has been hanging out in that land between sizes since her growth spurt last fall.  One size is just a bit too small, but the next size up is way too big.  (Mostly, the legs are just too long...looks like I passed along my pants curse to her.  I'm sure she'll thank me.)  So my strategy for dressing her is going to be dresses.  Lots and lots of dresses.  Luckily, she looks cute in everything.

 

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I've struggled lately with reading my Bible.  I used to use Journey magazine, but my subscription expired and I never renewed it.  Since then, I've had a hard time staying focused.  I do better with a devotional or plan of some sort, so I've been on the hunt for a good one.  Right now, I'm using a chronological reading plan.  It's designed to read the entire Bible in a year, but I'm not going to do that.  I'm enjoying really taking  my time and working through the reading assignments.  The chronological plan is really helping me make sense of things and put all of the stories I learned years ago into perspective.

 

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 Some parents don't want their children to watch too much television for fear that they will become couch potatoes.  That thought is simply amusing to me.  Am I the only one whose child has to act out the cartoons he watches?  No lying around contributing to childhood obesity numbers around here.  No...if there is a chase scene, Sam must race around the room at full speed.  Slapstick humor?  We of course have to reenact it.  And don't even get me started on the dancing.  My kids have got some serious boogie fever.

 

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A couple of weeks ago, Sam told me that he wanted a Spider-Man cake for his birthday.  (He's been planning his birthday since his LAST birthday, but since Christmas, his planning has gone into overdrive.)  Sydney chimed in that she wanted an Elsa cake for her birthday.  And also an Ariel cake.  And a Dora cake.  (To my knowledge, she's never even seen Dora.)  Each time she made an announcement, I simply agreed. Then, suddenly, without any warning, she was crying. 
"Mommy!!!  I just want caaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkeee!"

No drama here.  No, sir... 

Snow Day

We had a snow day today!  And when I say we had snow, I mean we had about 11 inches (and counting) of snow.  I got up thinking I was going to have to try to ski to work, but thankfully our administrators closed the clinic.

 

Sydney started asking to go play in the snow at exactly 6:58am.  Sam ate two bites of breakfast then disappeared.  He came out of his room wearing his snow bibs and declared it was time to go outside. 

 

 

 

We started the process of getting everyone dressed and bundled up.  The kids and the dog stood pacing and wriggling by the door while I wrestled them into hats, mittens and boots.  And FINALLY, we were ready!

 

 

Bonus points for Shawn for buying us a new sled just last night.  Sam loved it...Sydney fell off on her first trip down the hill and she was so over the sledding.

 

 

The snow was too powdery to make a snowman or snowballs, so we just had to make snow angels.

 

 

Even if the wind chill is -7, when you get smiles like these, it's totally worth it.

 

Personally, my favorite part about snow days is warming up with some hot chocolate in front of a fire and taking a long winter's nap.