fffffffffffrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeezing

-3.5 degrees this morning. That's minus, or negative, three point five degrees fahrenheit. Dang that's cold! Steve drove the girls down to the bus stop and the car only warmed up to 1 degree by the time he got back to the house. I am officially SICK OF THE COLD.

Now to get ready for work, it's so cold I don't even want to walk the 20 steps from my parking spot to the front door.

Even though my paperwhites are blooming and smell lusciously of spring (thanks Mom for sending those) I am beginning to doubt that warmer weather will ever arrive. It's just been too cold for too long.

yogi yoga

Too relaxed when I came home from yoga class last night to blog this. It was a great class; I really like the teacher, Lara. She's such a good teacher and we do a lot of different and interesting things. Last night be we spent the first few minutes talking about all the different kinds/styles of yoga; we practice Hatha Yoga with a leaning toward Raja Yoga. Occasionally we do some meditation or energy work; it's all really good, very relaxing and excellent conditioning both physically and mentally.

Last night I realized a couple of things. In the two years that I have been taking yoga my flexibility has increased a lot. I can now bend completely in half and wrap my arms around my calves. Of course I'm more flexible in some directions than in others but that is a big improvement for me.

I'm still working on strength issues but I noticed for the first time that Downward Facing Dog is a comfortable position! That caught me by surprise because I remember when I first learned it I didn't like it. Amazing.

I wish I had the time to take the class twice a week but am glad that I can take it weekly and that it is right here in town.

one down more to go

We have an FO! That's a finished object in knitspeak. My goal of finishing all of my unfinished objects is now shorter by one! It's a scarf. I'm all energized now to start finishing the next object.

And speaking of knitspeak - on the knitty website is a cute modification of the Geek Code (for those who remember that from their nerd years, yours truly included). The knitty version is called the knitter's geek code and is just as much fun as it's precursor.

In case you're wondering my kgc is:

-----BEGIN KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 1.1
KCR+ Exp+ SPM- Wood+@ Yarn++ Stash+(++) Scale>Scale+ Fin
Ent? >FI >Int Tex? Lace? !Felt Flat/Circ/DPN Swatch--
KIP++ Blog SNB+++ EZ FO(?) WIP(+++) Gauge DK+ B+ S+
ALT:CR/SP>WV>Q
------END KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK------

freezer finds

I decided to defrost the freezer today. I figured since the weather was so cold I could put all the food outside and it would be fine. It was. After I finished defrosting the freezer I put all the food back in a more orderly fashion, much better.

Dinner and dessert were assembled from freezer finds although it turned out not to be what I had thought. I found one package marked chili ***** ****/04 and figured it said chili made something 04. Turns out it was a delicious chili soup concoction that my husband had made. One of those unfortunate concoctions that came without a recipe!! So we have now eaten the last of the chili soup and will probably never have it again. We also had tortilla chips made from corn tortillas served with a side of guacamole, hot sauce, and other fixings. And for dessert I made a delicious rhubarb strawberry dessert with rhubarb from my garden and the last of the strawberries from the freezer.

There were also LOTS of bananas in the freezer so I decided to make snack breads. One batch whole wheat blueberry banana bread and the other banana cranberry pecan. These should keep the kids in after school snacks for the next week or two.

All in all it was a productive and delicious day!

ch ch ch ch changes

Wendy, whose blog got me started, has taken down her blog. Turns out that for the subject content - Top Ten Lists - her usual suspects preferred the email format that they had become used to. I find it amusing that I started my blog because of hers and my friend Karen started hers because of mine. Now Wendy's blog isn't there but I'm enjoying mine too much to give it up.

I've made a change though. Lots of people seem to be visiting my blog. I know this because they all email me and tell me how much they enjoy the blog and some have even added me to their bookmarks list. Thank you so much for your kind comments, I do enjoy hearing from you.

However, very few people comment on the blog. I've decided that this must be because you have to be registered to comment; therefore I have removed that restriction. Now anyone can comment. I hope that people will begin to share their comments with the other visitors to my blog.

Speaking of visitors we now have blog watchers from Israel, Austria and England. How fun...we are now a global blog! Any other countries? Let me know and I'll post it here.

blizzardwatch

Yesterday it was single digits. When we woke up this morning it was -4. It has since warmed up to a balmy 5 degrees fahrenheit and promises to get warmer. However...there is a winter storm warning and we are expected to get as much as 18 inches of snow starting this afternoon and going through into tomorrow late afternoon.

For dinner last night we had soup made by our youngest daughter. She's 10 and LOVES to cook. She "invented" a soup that was very delicious. Here's the recipe:

1 quart vegetable broth
6 C. water
2 chicken breasts diced and sauteed
1 large onion diced and sauteed
several carrots peeled and sliced
a couple of potatoes peeled and diced
a few ribs of celery sliced
cook together until potatoes are softened
salt to taste
serve garnished with minced parsley

Very simple but filling and satisfying.

snow

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, we have another school delay. I'm beginning to feel like this is turning into the wintry weather school blog. That 90 minute delay for two different schools that start at two different times really throws things off in our household. You'd think after three years we'd be used to it by now. I think it's more the disruption to the routine rather than the inability to process the information. Still, having three kids running around all discomboobulated while I'm trying to get ready for work (a little unstructured and hectic myself) is fodder for a movie script! Hopefully the rest of the day will get easier from here.

knitted finery

I'm wearing all of the items mentioned in the post below. The humorous hat is a hat that looks like a sweater! Isn't it cute?

 

 

 

A bonus picture

the hat my husband received for Christmas from my host mother. Warm *and* lovely.

brrrrrr

This is the time of year where I start to dislike winter. Especially when there is no snow on the ground and everything looks bleak and stark in the landscape.

This morning as I was hauling the trash to the top of the driveway, it's Wednesday, it was a whole one degree fahrenheit. Lovely. And this was recycling week (we now only recycle every other week -- not sure why the trash company decided this but since they're the ones who pick up we have no choice) so that meant a couple of extra trips up the driveway. By the time I was done my breathing was all crackly, as if I had asthma. Luckily I had my loooooovely hand knitted items, perfect fit gloves from my host mother, a scarf from my sister-in-law and a humorous hat from my aunt. Thanks ladies!!! I'll have to try to see if I can get a decent picture of these things online later.

The woodburning stove can't keep up with the cold weather. The forecast is for even more wintry weather. Bleah!!!

an unfortunate movie

We took the kids to see Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Some of us had read the first few books but the rest had not. It was a fun movie. Even my husband who is before we went said that it did not seem like his kind of movie enjoyed himself. The sets were wonderful, the characters were great (my favorite was Aunt Josephine) I thought the movie was very well done.

When we came out of the movie those of us who had not seen it yet announced the desire to start reading the series. Luckily it's been out for a while so the line at the library shouldn't be too long.

If you're interested in learning more you can always visit the Lemony Snicket web site.

three and counting

Well there was indeed another snow day today. I asked a co-worker who informed me that this makes three this year. Truthfully this was one that needed to be a snow day. We received several inches of snow followed by freezing rain. It was still raining (felt a little like ice) as I wrassled the garbage up to the top of the driveway this morning.

I am a very lucky person though, I have the opportunity to work at home on days like this so that is exactly what I did. The kids slept late. After lunch they all got together and had fun baking a cake for the neighbor who, unasked, plowed our driveway since the stuff was too wet and heavy to use the snowblower (thanks Pete!). They also made a cake and some cupcakes for us. Boy are they going to have a lot of cleaning up to do! It was worth the mess though because it was so wonderful to hear them all giggling and chatting in the kitchen as they baked and decorated together.

winter wonderland

Okay, not the best picture in the world but it definitely shows the snowy weather outside. Current weather forecast is for up to seven inches of snow followed by freezing rain. Somehow I don't think there's going to be any school tomorrow.

snow day

Another early disimissal. The roads aren't even that bad yet but somehow when it snows they seem to panic around here. Unfortunately given the weather forecast we're probably going to have a delayed start as well. At this point I've lost count of how many snow days we've used (and we haven't even had that much snow) but do know that there are probably not enough built into the school calendar so they'll have to tack a few days on to the end.

We used to live in Vermont where the winter weather was much worse and they rarely if ever had snow days. Instead of snow days they had mud days. That would be because Mud is one of the unofficial "seasons" of Vermont.

I have to confess though that despite the frustrations of snow day cancellations I love the way the winter season looks round here. Gently falling flakes dressing the trees in a soft white cover. The winter landscape looks much better when there is snow.

knitting

I received an email from my Mom today. She's thinking of taking knitting lessons. I'm going to teach my sister-in-law how when we get together for a vacation this summer. My friend Ellie taught me how to knit several years ago and I co-founded a knitting group in my town called Stitch Sisters. It's spreading. Slowly but surely. I'm not by any means the world's fastest knitter. But I enjoy it, it's kind of like therapy. So far I have done mostly flat things, scarves, shawls blankets, hats and mittens (sew them up the side). I have, however, done a sock. I need to do another one so that they will match. Then I'm going to do a pair of socks for myself.

Right now my main knitting focus (foci??) is as follows:

1. Finish every project I currently have going (I am not going to tell you how many that is because it's a bit embarassing).
2. Not buy any more yarn until I've made significant inroads into the stash I currently own (also embarassing).
3. Knit more.

The link above gives you good instructions to get you started. You can find a whole range of projects for free at the Lionbrand site. You can also click on the link to Knitty on my sidebar...they have lots of cool articles and some fun projects.

Have fun!

minestrone and more

Another snow day today. Last night we got five inches of snow and now we have freezing rain coming down on top of it. So no school for the kids...lucky them they are hanging out in their pj's all day.

The cold, snowy, grey weather made me decide I needed some minestrone soup. Check out the link above...lots of good recipes for minestrone there; pick one that appeals to you, cook up a delicious batch and enjoy.

Today I also received a message from my friend Karen. I've missed her since we moved away and was thrilled to hear from her. Since we both have lots of kids we don't have much time to keep in touch with each other. Now she's decided to start a blog (after reading my blog which I started because of Wendy's blog). It's an interesting cycle of propigation, should be fun to watch the blogs grow.

name that fad

I received the unexpected pleasure of a phone call from my niece Megan this morning. Turns out she had to do a school project and ask people what was a fad when they were kids. It must have been pretty popular because when I said pet rock she asked me to try again because she already had that one. The next most popular on the list was a yo-yo.

It started us thinking about clothing fads. Bell bottom pants...platform shoes...peasant blouses...and then I realized, probably like everyone else in my generation, if I had saved my old clothes I could have made a *fortune* since all that stuff is now considered retro or vintage or something like that.

Wonder what the next big fad is.

totally cool

I am lucky enough to sit in a back corner office with a window. I look out over the back parking lot at rocks and trees. Mostly I see squirrels, chipmunks and birds. This morning I was treated to the sight of a very handsome red fox loping through the parking lot right under my window. Awesome! One of the hidden benefits of being able to sit at this desk.