The best kind of reminder

I'm working on organizing our den and came across this little post-it love note Annah wrote me when she was probably about 4.  It used to be stuck to my scrapbooking desk so I could see it every day.  I'm tucking it away in another desk drawer today, because I like being surprised by it every so often.  

I think the thoughts I have about this are easier and better to just be pondered in my very full heart than to try to blog them out.

Girls Day Out

The kids were off school today for a teacher's institute day.  Caeden slept over at Reece's last night and spent the day with him, so the girls and I went to town for a little girls' day out!

First stop--coffee at Starbucks!  Sylvia: grande mocha, Annah: grande skinny vanilla latte, momma: venti skinny peppermint mocha.  

Then we went to Hobby Lobby for the next few hours!  We wandered up and down the aisles admiring everything in the store.  

In the end, Annah used a Christmas gift card to buy a few rolls of bright duct tape.  Sylvia found a pack of 48 gel pens for half off, which she bought with her own money.  She loves to doodle!

 I bought some more decorative storage baskets for the living room because they were half off, and some yarn to make throw pillows for our living room (Apparently the colors of our rooms are very random [says Jeremy], so I am going to tie them all together in the pillows.  I also bought some Project Life supplies to finish up my 2013 book and get started 

on 2010--gotta get those pictures out of boxes!

We needed some groceries, so we went to Wal-Mart.  But, I was kind of stuck in the wandering and gawking mode from Hobby Lobby and had a hard time focusing on groceries.  We saw these cool chairs on clearance, and are thinking about getting some.  They are so big though, I need to make sure we'd have a place to keep them!

It was after 1pm when we finished at Walmart. So even though we planned to go home and make lunch, we decided to make a quick and easy stop at McD's instead.  

I just love these girls, and loved every minute of our day together.  I feel so fortunate to be their momma, so blessed.

Oh, and the boys are off to a wrestling meet at UofI (vs. UofM) tonight with Scott and Ethan.  So they get a guys' night out too!  

Honors Assembly

I was really happy to be able to attend the elementary school Honors Assembly today.  This was the first time 3rd graders were honored in an assembly, which was extra special for us since our 3rd grader was one who was honored!  3rd grade is also the first year students at our school get letter grades.

The principal reads each student's name, the counselor hands students their certificate--as well as a coupon for a free kids' meal at Subway--and then each teacher of their grade shakes the student's hand and congratulates them.  Then their pictures are taken for the newspaper.

Caeden was on the All-A Honor Roll.  

After school, I told Caeden I was very proud of him for working so hard and getting all A's, and he told me that he didn't--it was easy!

Sylvia received all A's too.  

Sylvia is very serious about her grades, and so far has received all A's on every report card in elementary school.  Even though her classes are mostly easy for her so far, she is working hard to develop good study skills and says she wants to get her Phd and find a cure for cancer one day.

Annah also received all A's for the semester, but our jr high doesn't have an assembly to recognize those students.  In fact, paper report cards aren't even sent home at the junior high level now; we have to go online to see their grades.  But we are proud of our junior higher too!  And we are very thankful that our kids really love learning!

Something from Sylvia

After church today, we went to lunch at Fiesta Ranchera with a big group of friends from church.  Abby is the daughter of our new Children's Pastor, and she just adores Sylvia.

At home this evening, I helped Sylvia study for a science test.  This is the nitrogen cycle diagram she drew in class.  I will admit, I haven't given much thought to the nitrogen cycle.  But, I sure did enjoy the drawings that helped Sylvia understand it.  My favorites were the last 2, which explain how nitrogen is returned to soil--animal waste (drawing: pooping bunny) and decaying organisms release nitrogen (drawing: dead cat--complete with X-eyes).  I had to laugh.

Busy Lazy Saturday

Today, Jeremy helped move our new Children's Pastor's family from Peru to Normal.  He was up at 4am to check the pump that is constantly removing water (and now melting snow) from our basement.  I believe they were done unloading things into the house around 4:30 this afternoon, so he went to the gym.  Then he went to setup at church.  It makes me tired just thinking about all that physical work!  

Meanwhile, the kids and I vegged at home all day with dolls, video games, and crafts.  Sylvia baked chocolate chip cookies this afternoon.  I'm working on cleaning photo and video files off the computer and doing laundry.  It makes me feel guilty when it's been pretty uneventful here and Jeremy is working his tail off all day!

Girls' Night In

Well, the snow days are over for now.  Jeremy returned to work Tuesday and the kids to school Wednesday.  Tonight the boys are at wrestling practice, so the girls are having a "Girls' Night In."  We are crafting...

Sylvia is making loom band bracelets, Annah is cross stitching a bib, and I am crocheting...

...all while watching Sound of Music.

Polar Vortex

Quite a bit of snow fell yesterday.  However, the winds have been so wild that we aren't sure exactly how much snow we got!  Jeremy says he'd guess about 6 inches or more, but a lot of the snow from our yard was blown into huge drifts and our neighbors' yards--both next door and across the street.

One of the worst parts of this storm is that the air temperatures are colder than they've been in decades.  So, it's not safe to be outside playing in the snow or shoveling for long at all.  

I didn't go outside, but I did snap some pictures through our windows.  This is looking out our big picture window in the front of the house--facing east.

SF closed for the day, so Jeremy bundled up in many layers and was ready to try out the new snowblower we'd been given, when I noticed our neighbor was trying to get his car out of the driveway.  Jeremy took his shovel over to help.

As I was taking photos out various windows of the house, I noticed the blowing and drifting of snow had created large paths where the grass was exposed, and drifts up to 3 feet high or more.  This is out the back of our house--facing west.

facing northeast out the side window in our front room

Jeremy got the snowblower going and used it a bit to help Tommy get his car out.

He worked on our driveway a bit too, but it was too cold to stay outside very long.  He went out several times today, but tried not to stay out too long at once, in order to avoid frostbite.

This was what my weather app showed this morning.  I have never seen a windchill of -50 degrees that I can remember!  That is seriously cold!!

It was much too dangerous to drive anywhere.  I've never seen IDOT issue warnings like this before:

We did not attempt to drive anywhere, but saw many people in our area posting this photo on Facebook.  This is Route 9 about 2 miles from our house.  It was officially shut down because with constant winds and drifting the plows couldn't get it cleared!

Local businesses were all closed, 

and the county highway department couldn't even run snow plows safely.

And, though we are in one of the most dangerous [travel] areas of the county, we obviously were not the only area of Illinois in a state of emergency.

So much for the end of winter break!  The kids weren't disappointed at all to have another day at home in their jammies!

The frosty windows are pretty.

This afternoon, Jeremy helped our other across-the-street neighbors shovel out their driveway.  It was very deep, and had to be broken up before it could be moved.

This is a NASA photo from space of the polar vortex that is happening today!  Yep, that is remarkably and memorably cold!!

Snowstorm

A big, big snowstorm began today, all across the midwest and a lot of the country, actually.  Many churches, including ours, canceled last night because the prediction was that the snow would be falling very hard during Sunday morning.  It did.  We have stayed in all day, making lots of hot food and watching everything out the windows turn white.  

My sweet little guy brought me my slippers to warm my cold toes.

With temperatures dropping rapidly and wind gusts increasing, we're afraid of losing power.  We have no generator and wouldn't be able to travel to a hotel due to blizzard/whiteout conditions, and Jeremy and I were discussing what we would do if we did lose power.  He said we'd have to stay in the living room, close all the doors to it, and snuggle up together with all our blankets.  The kids decided they'd just bring their sleeping bags down right away.  They put in a Star Wars movie.

Annah and Caeden worked on puzzles in the living room window bench.  The trim being finished makes such a huge difference in the temperature of the room!  Before, we could feel cold wind drafting into the middle of the room!  The fact that the kids could sit in the window bench area while it's incredibly cold outside tonight is a new miracle in our house!

They decided to snuggle up and have a sleepover in the living room, since we already know school is canceled for tomorrow.

They lasted about 15 minutes before they all decided to come back upstairs and sleep in their beds.  

Chris Farley in the house

Jeremy woke up and decided to go out and shovel snow and do things outside in the cold.  I never noticed this resemblance before...

Relaxing the days away

Yesterday (New Year's Day) we spent the day relaxing at home.  There were some bowl games watched, some naps taken, some games played, some crafts made.  Not much else.  It was cozy and wonderful.

Today was more of the same, minus Jeremy, who had to go back to work.  The kids are pretty much living in their pi's now.  Next week is going to be a little difficult getting back to routine, I think!