Cold days

The boys had to be bundled up this much for school or it was just way too cold. It felt like “A Christmas Story” every day for a while. I was surprised how rare two-hour delays were, but when I looked at the hourly weather report it made sense: there was usually only a two-degree difference in two hours. 

Snow cave

As part of the snow fun in early January Spencer started building a snow cave with Benny, Andy, and Lilia. We had a really big mound of snow! I really need to get the pictures off the camera so I can put up the snow man and wall. As much as I dislike the cold, we had some fun. 

Hot chocolate

I don't have the sledding pictures uploaded yet, but we did go out to “enjoy” the snow. Spencer was good and got me motivated to go. And we had a great time!

But, I am not sure if the kids liked the sledding or the post-sledding hot chocolate better!

Snow day project

Spencer and I had planned that the kids would make each other shirts for Christmas using freezer paper stencils and fabric paint (the way I made my Wonder Woman shirt for Halloween). Before Christmas, though, we never did find the time to separate them and do a semi-major project in secret. 

It ended up being perfect, though, that we had all the supplies! They made for excellent snow day projects. 

It all started because Benny had wanted to make an Origami Yoda t-shirt that he learned about in his Art-2 D-2 book. Andy ended up wanting a regular yoda shirt. Spencer and I knew the girls would want my little pony shirts. Twilight Sparkle for Lilia and Pinkie Pie for Anne. 

I found pictures for each shirt online and free handed the outlines I wanted onto the freezer paper (found by the Saran Wrap in your grocery store, by the way – oh! and you want plastic-coated) and cut carefully. 

Spencer couldn't find a purple shirt for Anne to go with pink paint, so I ended up improvising a bit. I really like how it turned out. I think the all look great. And the kids sure love them!

Now I just need to get going on Spencer's “Doctor Who” shirt!

New Year

The most I remember about our new year, other than some fun food (I made tortilla wraps again), it was FREEZING!! That seems to be a trend around the country this year. Just today I read about the "polar vortex" that has been a major presence. 

I remember my mom talking about an arctic wind that hit Chicago over some winter in the early 80s. The part that has most stuck in my mind is the ice they had on the INSIDE of their windows. Well, our first mid-western winter we got a great welcome!

I could hardly believe it. 

On Saturday, 4 January, we got word that church was cancelled the next day because of a major snow coming. Wow! We got about a foot of snow dumped on us. To top that off, temperatures were dropping significantly Sunday night. The high was below zero (-13, maybe?) And with the wind chill it was unbelievable (I do remember at one point we got to "feeling like" -32)! I wish I could remember exact numbers. It was the coldest I have ever been in my life. You could not walk outside with any significant amount of skin showing – and by significant I mean your whole face. Needless to say, school was cancelled. 

Spencer started some outpatient rotations in January, which is always enjoyable. I like clinic hours. Clinic was closed 6 and 7 January due to weather conditions. At one point it was actually illegal to drive in Indianapolis unless you were an emergency worker. 

It was nice to have everyone home for a couple days more. What we weren't expecting was to have school cancelled the whole week!! It was actually really fun. We did all get stir crazy after a bit, but I kind-of like having to stay home sometimes. Especially if it is at all cold out (I am much more of a warm-weather kinda gal). We were able to do some fun things, though. And the best part was that I had planned my weekly shopping trip for the Friday/Saturday before the storm so we were fine the whole week and did not have to adjust our eating habits at all! I felt like we were really prepared for that one. 

Thankfully we had power the whole time and did not have to worry about keeping warm. Our furnace was running non-stop for days in a row (possibly a week at one point), which we definitely paid for, but we are so grateful we have been able to stay warm at a time it really matters.