Snowman

A certain someone wanted his photo taken with his snowman before it melted!

 

SNOW day!

Here, that means:

• getting the basics of school accomplished is like an ancient torture device
• fire going
• one outside, playing, getting cold
• hot chocolate consumption
• usually baking but I've done so much the last few days, we have loads left over
• random electronics being used
• coffee flowing and I am the only one consuming!  Think I might  be up late tonight!  Anyone want to facebook chat!  Cori, you're on the West Coast and might be a good time if I am still up at midnight.  ;)
• regular chores being totally ignored
• wet clothes everywhere it seems
• evening activities canceled
• pondering tomorrow's events
•  we aren't moving our cars if we don't have too!  To many D.C. Metro people don't know how to drive in snow and slush.  Safer to just stay home!
• dog really doesn't want to go outside
• something warm for dinner and in the comfort food category

Hope everyone is safe and your travels are easy!
 

Snow Removal!!!!

Who knew that several days in a row of 40 + degrees would get those living in Northern Virginia so excited!! The snow is beginning to melt.

The boys and I had a few places to go today. We were totally excited to see a few bob cats moving snow out of the road ways in our neighborhood. We wondered if they'd get to our street at all. Well, upon coming back there were a few on our street; two of which were working at our end of the street, taking the "island" we'd created and dumping it at the end of the pipe stem. Thankfully, they didn't cover the pipe stem ~ we would have been mad. They actually were able to knock down the wall that had been built and dump more down the hill. Following are a few pictures from our living room window.

dumping snow at the bottom of the pipe stem

bringing more snow down

Although not the best photo, the two bob cats
passing by each other!

And it snows again!!

This round began after midnight today. As of this posting, we've gotten about 3 inches of snow, slush, rain, and more snow. The wind is blowing pretty hard and sounds pretty eerie.

Thing One peeking over one of
the mounds of snow along our pipe stem.

Thing Two near a short mound.

This is a short video from our front porch. The wind wasn't howling when I took this as it is now. May take another video later.

On a cool school note, Thing Two wished "Katy" was here. That would be the Katy from Virginia Lee Burton's book "Katy and the Big Snow".

Yet another snow storm

Yes, another storm this season. The second, I believe, this calendar year or maybe I'm forgetting one. Pretty sad that I can't seem to remember how many times it's snowed around here. It truly seems like the snow from December had just finished melting and we got more on January 29th. The roads were fairly clear from that one, and we got another 24" to 30" today. I'm ready for it to be over, for the ground to dry out, and let the flowers grow!!

P.S. Just read some of my blog, this snow storm would be the fourth of the year; 3rd in one week.

Upcoming school week

Another school week is coming up (all to quickly after a very busy weekend I might add)! It's Sunday night, the boys are just getting ready for bed and I'm pulling school together; fortunately all of the lessons for the whole week, let alone all of Monday, don't need to be completed tonight. Ideally, I would have had the week finished by now, but like I've mentioned a busy weekend.

We'll be continuing our snow themed books by reading "Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. It's a wonderful poem and the illustrations in the book are great as well. Here's the poem:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Again with the snow????

It snowed again over night! Guess I am just not a total snow person. A good snow storm is enjoyable, however do we really need more than one covering (okay not a total covering today, but most of the ground is covered!)?

Snow does make for some cool photographs though! Below are shots from our front window and kitchen window.

Neat how the sun looks so orange and on fire.
Yes, it is on fire, but on earth we don't generally see
the flames shooting out of it.

Loved how the orange seems to be shooting form
the sun here. Very cool!

The above and below pictures are taken from our
kitchen window. Nothing particularly impressive about them
other than snow covered trees. We just enjoy living
in the woods.

Snow, SNOW, sNoW

and it keeps on coming down. From what the weathermen are saying, we'll end up with a couple feet of it and set a record for the most in December. The record hasn't changed since 1932 when our area got 11.6". Sounds like a good baking day here.

Here are a couple shots from about 8:00 AM today:

Williamsburg and Nature

The first day we were in Colonial Williamsburg we came across this hawk sitting near a squirrel bray. It was neat to watch the hawk and squirrel play "cat and mouse" as the squirrel tried to get to it's nest. In the second photo here, you can see the hawk's back and left wing extended trying to scare the squirrel away. It did finally make it to it's nest.















There was also a fair amount of snow on Monday as well in Williamsburg. Occasionally (possibly only the second time in about 9 years) I like to take a series of photos, focusing on one spot, but getting closer with each shot. Think it creates a neat effect. These three photos were all taken from inside the unit. In the first, you can see the unused patio, it was just to cold and winter like that day to eat outside (by Friday, it was almost 70 degrees and little sign of snow).


Here, no signs of man, just a white lawn where no one has walked and the woods.









The shrub before the forest, covered in snow.









So, this was Williamsburg and our nature shots. Not many, but interesting non-the-less.

Miscellaneous Musings

It's been a bit since I've blogged about very random things. Life's been busy with school, chores, snow, church, birthdays, Legos, Pinewood Derby, on and on it goes. So, here is my life in pictures and musing over the past few days.

PINE WOOD DERBY DAY
It seemed hard to believe this was our third Pine wood Derby. Thing One still enjoys this event even when his car doesn't win. He's got two more years to figure out how to do that and then go to Districts. His car is below, far right, mostly blue with white where someone would sit.

Thing Two seems to have more fun each year too. He actually has a few scout friends now, as a result of swim team this past summer, and a neighbor friend (whose older brother is a Web 2 in our Pack) came along that Saturday. Nothing like two wound up 6 year olds along with a bunch of other boys of varying ages. Thing Two's car, below, is the one being placed on the track. It is suppose to be a Star Wars fighter with R2D2 (the blue thing behind the brown window). No surprise if you know my son.

WINTER WEATHER MUSING

We finally got snow and more than just a dusting. Here's the view, early in the day, through the front screen door. The boys have been excited by the snow today and it sure has been an interesting one. Have you ever tried to Home School two boys who are totally stoked by the snow? It became more interesting when we noticed about 6 deer running through the woods behind our house. We went to the front window, thinking they might come up the pipe steam, but they stayed in the woods.

I was impressed with the contrast, here, of the daffodils growing in glass mason jars, that I had placed in my potted hydrangea, with the snow accumulating on the deck. To have such Spring flowers growing, albeit indoors, and to have snow falling outdoors. It was interesting to me.

Oh, and I am sure my cat's vet would appreciate the daffodils, hydrangea, and fern (not visible in this photo). All can be toxic to a cat, but Gremlin seems to leave them alone. She's more interested in playing with the legos and math manipulatives the boys leave laying around.

RECENT ATTEMPTS AT DECLUTTERING & REORGANIZING

I suppose we're becoming a book family. This small corner of the house is not for Kevin and me, but the boys collection. I worked today on combining the two different stashes of books, made room in a nook for both book cases, going through the books, and general reorganizing of their stuff. Didn't come close to finishing today (definitely a two day project), but got the big thing done - books.

The other reorganizing I did, was actually from yesterday. I spent time rearranging furniture so that all the boys games could be in one spot. It actually turned out better than I had hoped. Yeah!! They even helped with putting the toys back on the shelves and were happy to have a spot to display their new Star Wars Lego ships.

So, it has taken me about an hour and half to do all the uploading of photo's and dialoging for this post. Still haven't figured out an easy way for doing the photos. My way just seems backwards, but it works. Time to save one last time and post.