Year 4, January 12th-13th, 2018: SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

Our family and our world STOPS when we see snowflakes!  Seriously, we will voluntarily give up everything to go out and play in it!  Winter isn't complete without at least ONE dumping of snow!  We got 7 inches!  Not much to my friends on PEI, but to Indianapolis, it's a decent amount.  It will probably be gone before next weekend, so we have to drop everything and enjoy it NOW.  It snowed from Friday evening until the early morning hours today, Sunday.  Keturah and Abishai got to play in it yesterday while it was falling and Justin and his friend Eliot joined them today.  We scrounged up just enough snowgear for everyone.  I was a little sad when Jared took a nap instead of joining them to help them set up a proper fort, and in fact, they only used the sleds to make one up against the playground instead of making the snowballs.  Sigh. I should have bundled up and made an effort but didn't feel up to it.  They manged to make a little snowman for me.  And we'll go sledding on Tuesday when the sledding hill is quiet because everyone else is in school.  I'm sure lots of kids went today and packed down all the snow.  And with a couple of days of melting/freezing, I'm sure there will be a bit of ice to help them go fast.  We'll go to the same hill as last year, too.  I just have to make sure Abishai doesn't get too bold!  And I don't get stuck at the top of the hill again, because I simply fear hurting myself now.  But, maybe I'll start from halfway up.  We'll see!

Otherwise, Keturah's basketball game was canceled on Saturday, but Justin and Jared made it to his Bible Bowl competition.  It was an extra competition that had been rescheduled from last week, so it went a little longer than normal.  Justin had to leave at 6:30 with Jared and Benaiah, because Benaiah worked from 7am-2pm.  He said CFA was very quiet and in fact, several employees went outside to try to build a snow cow.  They aren't allowed to stand in the drive thru lane either taking orders, so they were kind of bored.  Gary went and picked up Benaiah for me, although I heard the roads were ok.  We made the cookies for the ugly sweater cookie kit, but Justin didn't want to frost them that night, so we'll do that tomorrow or Tuesday.  We had "storm chips," "storm doughnuts," and "storm snowman ice cream pops" as treats.  Sunday was normal.  Benaiah drummed, roads were clear, Benaiah and Justin had youth group stuff, Keturah had KP worship and Jared had nursery.  The sermon was on what God has to say about debt, so at least that wasn't a trigger for me, because we know Gary's stance on it.  Pretty low key weekend overall.  Not looking forward to trying to get school done in between appointments and Thursday we'll be at the Homeschoolers' Day at the Capital Building.  That's one event we will not miss, even if it's just me and one kid.  Gotta show up and support those who support us.  We'll be taking a tour of the state library this time, instead of the state capital building, and hopefully be doing the scavenger hunt and listening to the reenactors this time.  I know it's not my kids' favorite thing, but it's important.

But now you want to see snow pictures, right?  Well, here you go!

Videos first from the last two days!

Snow Weekend Jan 12-13, 2019

Storm doughnuts! (Like storm chips)

Wow! I'm kind of glad we left the trampoline up so they could play like this!  Don't worry, they did push a lot of the snow off on purpose because we told them it would hurt the springs.  But, why not play on it just a little bit and see how you can slip and slide!?

It was fun to see the snow kind of bounce up and down.  Keturah shoveled some of the snow off, or tried to, but it hit her head instead.

It was still snowing but we knew Sunday would be busy, so out they went.  At least two of them!  Benaiah was at work and Justin had his Bible Bowl competition.  I was actually sad that it was only two of them.  Do they have to grow up?

I got to take the big snow boots out for a spin again!  Crunch, crunch!

Backyard!

Nice and sturdy shed!  I went in it to get the sleds out and it was sealed up pretty tight.  Not necessarily frozen but a tad hard to open.  That's a great thing! Everything looked clean and tidy, no water, all as it should be.

We thought that they could make a nice fort underneath and I think Keturah went under there to scare Abishai.

I'm so glad I took the time to capture up these up close shots.  Snow doesn't stay easy to compact or pretty for long, especially when the temperatures are right around freezing.  The snow did melt pretty quickly after that.

Very happy bouncy dog! He loves the snow and face plants in it, eating it every time!

Ewwwww!!!  We had left the table outside so it would dry out but then never put it away.  Two months later, it's a frozen blob of nasty.  Eeek! And then it had fresh snow on top.

Swinging in the snow.

You can see the snowflakes falling!  We never got around to eating snow ice cream, but at least we got to use the snow gear.  Keutrah looks very happy!

Keturah was protecting herself from Abisahi.

Catching the snow!

Cleaning off the trampoline.

Snowy front yard.

Keturah and Abishai found the old slide that was on the side of the house that was intended for the trash.  I'm glad we procrastinated and now they could use it to slide into the snow!  I think we used to do that in Beech Grove, maybe Charlottetown, too.

Snowy wood pile.

When Daddy and Justin got home, they helped clean up the driveway and played in the truck.

Jared likes to shovel the street in front of the driveway so that it melts faster.  He did that in Charlottetown, too.  I say it's a waste of time, especially here because it does melt pretty fast.  Our street doesn't get plowed.  And I learned that Indianapolis only has the budget to plow every single street just once a year and only if it is more than 7 inches tall!  What?!  They do the main roads, but not the neighborhood streets.  I saw online that people were complainging about the subdivision streets and I'm like, "Wait 24 hrs, it will be mostly melted." And besides, you can still drive on snow.  It's ice that is worrisome.  The average inches of snow we got in the city was something like 6.6 inches, so below the need for all the streets to be plowed.  This would not work in places like Charlottetown or New Hampshire.  But, they know that and set aside bigger budgets.  I wonder what happened in the 2015 winter when Indy got more than the average amount of snow, just like we did on PEI?  They had to have plowed and gone over budget.  Growing up, our street also didn't get plowed because it was considered a private street.  But some plow guys would still come down and give it a couple of passes after they did the main roads.  It was pretty treacherous because we were in the valley and both of the streets leading up to the main one where these huge hills.  Many a times my mom had to put the car in second gear so we wouldn't slip.  Our average blizzard type storm in NH would be about 18 inches.  The end of the driveway after the snow plows went through would equal 3 or sometimes 4 feet, just like in Charlottetown.  BTW, Jared and I both roll our eyes so hard when people hear complain about snow or close stuff down too early.  If you don't like snow, move south.

The truck makes a great place to slide and jump in.  But you have to be careful because you'll slip, too.

Happy dog frolicking.

They played outside for over an hour.  Yeah!

Making snow angels on the trampoline.

The ice was still in the water table at this point, and they were getting the snow off of it.

Official measurement on the back porch was almost 7 inches!

Going backwards into the snow.

It snowed!

Did you know you could hoe the snow? Or rake it?

Red cheeks, red nose, and I think a sweaty head because he worked so hard outside.  And yes, he wore pj's underneath his snow gear!

Walking around with buckets on his feet.

Storm chips! (A new maritime tradition).  All the kids got their own can of Aldi brand "pringle" chips.  This can was $1, the half size Pringle can, at Aldi's was $1.29.  Hm, which do you think is the better choice?  I can't eat pringles because they coat them in wheat before baking to make them crispier.  Appropriate image on the nightgown, too.

Last treat of the day: snowman ice cream! No, I don't usually buy popsicles and ice cream in the winter.  But, there were only 4 in the package so they each could have one.  So cute!

After a 7 hr shift at work, and a fairly early warning from me, Benaiah cleaned the bottom half of the driveway so Jared could get in.  I told him that I just needed that part done, especially since Jared shouldn't shovel because of his sciatica.  I think he was out there about an hour with the wrong shovel.  I know he was frustrated and thanked him for what he got done.  I try not to add to his plate anymore or expect him to do things out of the goodness of his heart.  The poor boy has been going to bed super early when he can, like 9pm, because he knows he'll feel better.  He's also been sick, too, and bought his own vitamin C stuff.  I don't feel guilty about him buying things like that because he doesn't physically do anything for the house.  After one of the sermons recently about debt, and thinking about how some kids stay with their parents between high school and college (or longer if they don't go college), especially if they take a gap year, to get a jump start on savings and paying their own way, some parents charge their kids rent.  And, I was all for that, and for making a covenant of rules, as an extension of the current set up.  But, after realizing that he already provides 1 meal a day for himself, plus snacks, pays for his phone, will pay for his insurance and car stuff, and pays part of his tuition already, I don't think it's wise to take anymore from him if his goal is to stay debt free and save up for college.  Any of the added costs of food, electricity, water, garbage, etc. are already factored into our budget.  So, as long as we are agreeable and he doesn't take advantage later on, we'll be fine.  But it is helpful to sit down and talk out the responsibilities as adults after he turns 18, not as parent/child.  What kind of obligations would you ask of a young adult living in your home?  And be specific, not a chore list per say, but who is responsible.  Point is, the relationship should change.

Making storm cookies!  I don't make cookies often because it's tedious and I usually can't eat them.  But these weren't too bad.  Small package, a dozen cookies.  And now that it's been a week (I'm typing this up the following weekend), we still haven't gotten to decorate them yet because it's been a rough and busy week).

Well, I can say I made cut out cookies with every kid now.  It's been years since I did it.  These cookies are from an ugly sweater cookie kit!

Little sweaters baking (that sounds weird!)

After playing in the snow with Daddy up front.  More red cheeks and wet clothes!

Get the brother!  "I have a nudder budder!" Abishai is still shocked when Benaiah actually spends an afternoon/evening home.

3 times his size, 'Miah pins down baby brother Justin.

This kid is looking bigger and more like an almost 4 yr old every day.

Sunday

Ignore the text alert, but this screenshot just proves that we had moderately intense snowfall. And yes, Gary brought Benaiah home from work on Saturday.

I hate that they name them.  But this one and the one that came the next weekend covered a ton of states! All the way to New Orleans and New England.  Crazy!

Huge storm front!

Snow all day in the forecast.

Saturday's forecast.

A little bit of changes.

Now moving off to the east.

Close up of the storm and how it can easily change over to freezing rain here.  You just never know what you'll get.

Reading while sitting on Daddy's belly.

Covering Daddy's head in his blankie and laughing because Daddy said don't do it.

Jared said it's this tree's first significant snowfall.  He loves his baby sequoia tree.

Different projects the church wants to update soon, all without debt.

Sleepy baby.

We had a new friend over, Eliot, the son of our hairdresser.  Justin is always bringing a stray pup home! Lol!  It's kind of nice because we can bring whomever home from church and then take them back to church for youth group after playing for a few hours with us.  Perfect playdates.

Like father, like son taking Sunday afternoon naps.

We found just enough gear for everyone to have a good time in the snow.  They were making a snowman but didn't make the round balls first.  They just piled all the snow and basically carved the snowman out of it.  I wasn't properly dressed with thermals on, otherwise I would have showed them how to make the balls.  I wanted Jared to build a fort for them like he did last year but we didn't have time and he was tired.

My little snowman outside my window that the kids made.  And a week later, the hat and mittens are still outside.  Eek!

Final tally - almost 7 inches!

Eliot is very good with little kids and kept telling Justin that Abishai didn't want to hurt the snowman but help it.  He's a sweet kid.

They made a fort out of the sleds and other big items in the yard.  I think that's cheating, but whatever.

The snowman looks a little rounder now.

I'm sitting in my fort, Mommy!

Socks always loves having new people in the house and always watches out for them.

The snow that was still on the trampoline.

Prepared for the barrage of wet things.  I take things straight to the dryer because we don't have a great place to hang them up.

But, I was able to make use of this shelf and clothespins.

They finished the afternoon with Minecraft of course before middle school small groups.  Keturah had KP worship to do and Jared had nursery duty.  I brought the boys to church later, although I could not get them off in time to eat a proper meal.  They each had an apple.  Oh well, they'll figure it out one day that sleep and food are more important than video games.  Benaiah did.  Oh and he was behind the scenes switching or drumming, I can't remember. 

The End