Today's funny...

Yep. Just about sums up my opinion of this ridiculous, made-up holiday...



Or maybe I'm just grumpy after sitting there and "aiding" my son with his gazillion valentine's cards for Every. Single. Child. in his school...and his teachers. And our art box is woefully lacking in all things Cute and Heartsy.

Oh, he had big plans...there was going to be Cutting and Drawing and Painting and Glitter and Sparkles...we scrounged up a scrap of red construction paper and cut out big green and white hearts with crinkle scissors, smaller pink and red hearts with holes punched in them...stacked and glued them and called it Done. I managed to stop myself before I slapped on the foam Halloween skeletons...

Green things, peaceful things...

A few Sundays ago we talked about the third day of creation...God created trees and plants. These were 2 and 4 year olds--they weren't interested in the creation vs. evolution, new earth/old earth debates...we just enjoyed talking about what plants we love and what life would be like without them. For our craft that day we planted seeds...miniature sunflowers...and decorated the cup pots with plant stickers.

Somehow, all of my houseplants seem to be thriving this year...the African Violet, which I've had for years, goes through phases and right now is in a blooming one... the Green Leaf plant (no idea what it is but it has also been around for years) loves the window...and now our two little sunflowers are growing. All serve to remind us that, despite the snow blowing sideways out the window, spring will come, the sun will shine...

See...sunshine already...


Edited to add... Heart Leaf Philodendron...gosh, Google is a cool thing--all I did was type in "green leaf plant" and there ya go!

Snow daze...

I don't mean to continue to whine about the weather...really not whining, merely pointing out that this isn't Normal. Though it may now be the New Normal.

The winters I lived in Minneapolis, this was nothing...and everyone knew how to function in it. The infrastructure was in place to clear the roads and snow all winter was simply a part of life. Not so here. Though I have to say that local government seems to be dealing with this month's storms way better and more efficient than the December storm. Yes, we are teachable! However, we still haven't managed to acquire a snow shovel. Maybe put that on the shopping list for this weekend? If anyone has them in stock.

For all you bakers...

Like I told Chef Tess...not sure my long suffering husband can handle another something bubbling away in the 'fridge, but her Everlasting Potato Starter intrigued me. I love science. I love new ways to do things. And this combines that with my love of baking. So...go check it out. And while you're there, leave a comment since she's also giving away a set of kitchen scales. And if you've never visited her blog, be sure to spend some time exploring.

In other news...still snowed in. Still nursing a sick little girlie. Still facing looming ad deadlines...

A walk in the woods...

When re-enforcements can't come to you...

...then you find your way to re-enforcements.

Weekend forecast...Not Sunny. Lots of that cold white stuff...again. Husband working all weekend...again. What's a Mama Llama to do?

Load everybody up in the 4x4, pile in the Legos, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, books, movies and kiddo snacks and head out to find grandparents.

Of course, they live west of us. West being closer to the mountains. Over the line on the radar screen that was dividing the 10-20 inches of snow and the mere 5-8 inches...though, honestly, does it matter? So, yes, I loaded up my children and headed straight into the snow storm. Insane? Maybe. But genius insane.


Because Kokoo made pancakes for everyone this morning. And Babu exercised his culinary skills with baked tilapia for supper. And in between there was play time with both...coloring, mass Lego construction, reading, puzzles...

and best of all...sledding, sledding and more sledding.

Now...little ones are snoozing the deep snooze of little ones who have played hard all day. And I'm looking up the weather for tomorrow which basically is saying second verse, same as the first.

Even though we've all missed Sean and most likely won't see him for a couple more days, I'm not faced with the stressful knowledge of being snowed in and horribly outnumbered. And then, when we're all back together we can be together without one of us (me) venting on the other (him) and pissing the other one (him) off. We've tried being married that way and it didn't work out so well. I think that's what this whole "happily ever after" crap is about...the flexibility and the ability to say, "Yes, this could be sucky. But I won't let it. So there. Go be sucky somewhere else."

And that probably explains why I was advised to forgo the psychology major...apparently I already knew all of the highly technical terms and they realized they had nothing more to teach me.

A challenge in brevity...

Today on NPR they asked a fascinating questions...can you tell your life story in exactly six words?

So, can you? It's not a very simple task...as my sister noted, "No matter what I came up with--there were important facets neglected."

My six word memoir?

And then there was light...again.

What would be yours?