I'd tell you about yesterday, but I can't remember anything about it. All I know for sure is that we didn't have ANY TEARS during the spelling test! Another big Wa-Hoo!!! I had made Katie promise to try her very best not to cry, no matter what. As it turns out, she aced the test and Joe missed two! Whoa!!! Go, Katie! ;-)
James read on the Internet last night that the high today was supposed to be 41 degrees. Wa-Hoo! (How many "Wa-Hoo's" can you use in one post?! Let's find out, shall we???) We woke up today to a very chilly house. Can you guess??? --You're right: Wa-Hoo!!! I made muffins for breakfast and shortly afterward it began to SNOW. Yes, snow! Here where I live! In October!!! ~sigh~ There must be snow in heaven. Snow and horses. ;-) We all put on some nice, cozy clothes and James built a fire. We had devotions, but Joe spent most of the time staring out the window instead of paying attention. I finally cut it a little short (most preachers don't know when they've lost their audience; I'm not a preacher, but I know when I've lost 'em!), we went through our memory verses, sang our songs, and prayed. Then the kids got all bundled up and out they went! There was hardly anything on the ground--I'd be surprised if there was ever a whole inch of snow on the ground at once--but it didn't matter. They were soooooo excited!!!
The big, fluffy flakes were sufficient to declare Puzzle Day, so James took advantage of the opportunity to play Christmas music without me pitching a fit. :-) I'm a very adamant don't-play-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving-or-you-spoil-all-the-fun-of-it kind of person. Puzzle Day is the one and only exception. It occurs on the first snow of the year and it is a regular holiday at our house--a celebration of the wonderful things that are soon to come, so we try to partake of all of them in just that one day, kind of like ordering the sampler platter at your favorite restaurant. A true Puzzle Day means that all of your other plans are thrown out the window, you dress in nice, cozy clothes, build a nice, toasty fire, eat warm, hearty meals, sip hot spiced cider, listen to jolly Christmas music and put together a good puzzle. What could be better?! I've been loving ALL of it today! :-) :-) :-)
Anyway, I cleaned the house up a bit (I had left the kitchen trashed the night before for some reason--I hate waking up to that!) while the kids and dog ran wild outside. I sent James to the store for a few things, but I had forgotten a couple (!) so when he got home I hopped in the Envoy and made a quick run to Charlie's for celery and an onion. $1.74 total. When's the last time you spent only $1.74 at the grocery store?!
I came home and made potato soup for lunch and James made some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches to go with it. Yum! Immediately after getting that cleaned up I started on corn chowder for dinner. :-) We'll have lots of soup the next couple of days--it's supposed to stay chilly throughout the week. (Wa-Hoo!) I also made some hot spiced cider because that's what you're supposed to do on Puzzle Day. All three kids worked together on a 100 piece Chritmas puzzle of Katie's while I worked in the kitchen. It wasn't too long before they were back outside enjoying the snow though.
Sam built this...very original snowman! Ha!
Katie and Joe were more interested in snowball fights, particularly with their Dad--who was trying to get some work done in the garage. (He doesn't know how to properly Puzzle Day it!) James was impressed with Katie's perfectly round snowball. It would almost be a shame to throw it at somebody and mess it up! I think she asked him to put it in the freezer so she could save it for another day. That, of course, made me think of that Bill Cosby tape we used to have when I was a kid. "Junior Barnes... Oh, Junior Barnes... You gunkie!!!" HA!
Joe doesn't vie for the purtiest snowball, just the biggest.
Every little while I would hear James giggling and I'd look up from my work in the kitchen to see him running as fast as he could through the garage to come back into the house. Then he'd turn around and say, "Can't get me--I'm in the house now!" HA! I said, "JAMES! That's how the KIDS are supposed to play! You'd think it would be them nailing you with a snowball, then running into the 'safe house' and taunting you--not vise versa!" Ha! Katie and Joe kept calling him a scaredy cat and begging him to come back outside, but they were always sorry when he finally did.
Ha! I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!
By the time I finished getting the corn chowder all mixed up and heated through I was wiped out! I sent the kids to their room for quiet time and I was able to fiddle around on the Internet for a few minutes, then grab a 20 minute nap. Perfect! The kids got up and headed back out to play and I started mixing up some sugar cookies. I called them in to help me cut them out and frost them. We had bought some new cookie cutters a few weeks ago, so we were able to make leaves, acorns and apples--and we even had some fallish sprinkles, too!
Oh, yeah! James decided to let the kids watch the Garfield holiday shows today. He started them with the Thanksgiving one this morning, then the next one in the afternoon just before nap time. The corn chowder was sooooooooo good. I used french bread to make garlic cheese toast to go with it. YUM!!! Afterwards we all had another cookie...
And the kids settled into our bedroom to watch the third and final Garfield show--the Christmas one. Katie was way ahead of the rest of the crowd and ready to go!
The boys were still in the kitchen with the cookies. (Look at my new canisters, Mom! I love 'em!!!)
It's a little ironic really that I didn't even see a puzzle until 7:00 on Puzzle Day! I was too busy cooking, baking and doing dishes all day to get to it before then! Puzzle Day is a whole lot more work when you're the Mom, that's for sure! Ha! It used to be all about enjoying all of the great edibles and doing a puzzle, nothing more. Now it's about making sure everybody else gets to enjoy all of those things--and if you have any spare time at the end of the day you can join them! It's been lots of fun though, even with all the cooking and cleaning. And my house has smelled so good today!!!
I started my puzzle while the kids were watching Garfield tonight, but it's a 1,000 piece-er and I'm not going to finish tonight. I thought about staying in there and doing the whole thing, but Katie is quite good at puzzles and really, really enjoys doing them so I figured I'd wait and let her help me do it tomorrow. Some good, fun mother/daughter time. :-) We were able to get just a little bit done before they went to bed.
James took this picture of Sam with his "peg leg." It's ALWAYS some kind of a costume with that kid!
And this is what the puzzle looked like when I quit for the night.
~sigh~ It feels so good to have taken the day off from the normal schedule and just HAVE FUN all day! It's pretty cool that even homeschooled kids get a day off now and then for a "snow day"--not because they couldn't make it to the school, just because Mom says so! ;-) It's been GREAT. The only thing that would've made it any better would have been to have Mom here to help out with the puzzle. And the cooking and cleaning! HA! Kidding--I'm just kidding! Anyway, it's been a truly grand day. ~sigh~ I'm so happy!!! The snow is all gone now, but we HAD some!
Wa-Hooooooo!!!
+of+IMG_5261.JPG)
+of+IMG_1563.JPG)
5 comments