Gotta Love the Snow.

Right now I can't imagine living anywhere else but a few miles away from the GW Bridge.

-Two feet of snow. Check.

-Shoveling for five hours and not being even remotely done. Check.

-Every muscle in my body aching, caused by previous activity. Check.

-Having tons of fun, skipping naps and reading for hours. Check.

-Heading out to sled with the friends. Check.

Julia's First Haircut.

Julia went from this:



To this:
in about 15 minutes.

As much as I didn't like having her hair cut, I also couldn't stand listening to her crying twice a day as we were trying to brush the knots out of her hair. Of course, if it was up to her, she'd have a haircut as short as David's. I actually like her hair's length now . It takes only a few seconds in a morning to brush it even if I still have to chase her around the house with a hairbrush.

P.S. My computer's barely functioning which means I can only use it a few minutes a day before it shuts off on me. So, I can post only short blogs and the longer ones are saved as drafts and need to be edited. Not sure they will ever surface though since I'm completely obsessed now with this project for David's teacher who is pregnant with her first child. I thought it was so appropriate since she's the one who's teaching him how to read. All I can say about it, it's a pain in the a** to knit, I'm not enjoying the process of knitting it at all and I would never knit it for any of my kids. I'm really hoping it comes out as beautifully as it looks on Knitterella's blog. I'm getting a warning sign on my computer which means I should be publishing this post or I'll loose it.

This Morning.

- Seth left to work.

- The kids got dressed.

-They drew some pictures using their new markers.

-One of them went to a time out.

-Breakfast. Washing dishes.

-Out to shovel the snow. Being a very eager new homeowner, I'm the first one out among my neighbors to clear my sidewalk and a driveway.

- 45 min later there's no sign of me shoveling. Realizing that after all, my neighbors are not lazy, they are just wiser.

-Building snow castles with the kids using their sand toys.

-Out to the town in their sled while one pulling the other.

-Stopping by a friend's house to say "hell0". No one's home.

-Talking to a friend who's surprised my kids are out of their pajamas and outside at this weather.

-Heading back home while pulling both kids on their sled up the hill.

-Home. Time out for both kids.

-Now we are all drinking hot chocolate. Now is only 10:20 am.



I've said "keep calm" to myself this morning more times than in some weeks. It's going to be one very long winter break.

Keeping Busy.

Initially, the title of this post was supposed to be "Staying Sane", but then I recalled having used it already and I wouldn't be surprised if it was last winter. I think a more appropriate title would be "Keeping Busy in Order to Stay Sane", but it's just too long and who has time for reading my novels again? So, I'll proceed straight to the pictures.

We invite friends who cheer us up and who almost always get sick after getting in contact with our kids ... sigh.

I notice when feeling helpless, I start knitting. The time goal for this shawl was 10 days, but it took me about 12 days to complete it. I think two of these nights I couldn't stay up past 11:30 pm.

I'll blog about the next picture sometime next month, but I've been keeping myself really busy with this project. I saw a link to it on my friend's blog and thought that even I could sew it.

My yarn is being used in other ways too. I helped the kids build paper castles. Then Julia asked me to make her a prince and a princess for her castle. I recalled playing with the dolls made out of yarn when I was a little kid, so I improvised and made Julia a boy and a girl dolls similar to those from my childhood. She found them amusing and actually has been playing with them since then.

What really helped me through the winter blues was David's teachers' positive report on his academic progress in school (according to Seth, positive behavioral progress ain't happening until David's in college). They showed me a pile of beginner books that David has been easily reading through and the list of sight words that he memorized. He's very stubborn at home and lately his favorite phrase has been "I do whatever I want", so it was hard for me to convince him to do much work. Once we realized what he's capable of, we ordered dozens of "easy reader" books from the library and he loves reading them especially before going to bed. Instead of us reading to him now, he insists on reading a few books to us for up to an hour every night. These books are very easy, but at least it's a beginning.

So, what's on my needles now? Here's a clue below. All I can say is that it's going to be a very challenging project. I'm setting the deadline for May. Stay tuned.

First Day of the New Year.

Eager Preparations for a Christmas Morning.