Today's Numbers

0-How many times I went outside today.

4-How many times Rob went outside today (to take care of our chickens, and for other reasons).

8-How many steps Jonathan took outside before he turned around and came back in the house because the snow was too deep.

2-How many steps are now showing leading up to our front porch (out of 5).

5-How many people I saw walking on the street in front of our house today.

10-How many snow mobiles drove past our house today. (Now that's the way to go!)

25-The number of laps Jonathan ran around the inside of our house.

55-The number of books Katie "read" to herself.

15-The number of books Katie wanted me to read to her.

20-The number of times I sat down to rest and then remembered something that I needed to do right away.

8-The number of times I sat down to rest and then two children climbed up on me to be tickled.

1-The number of times I sat down to rest and actually rested.

100-The number of times I blew my nose today (this stupid cold!)

45-The number of times Katie asked me what was wrong, and if I was sick.

24-The number of times Jonathan sneezed and I had to remind him to get a tissue.

1-Train set around our Christmas tree.

20-Days it will probably stay out.

2-Map makers planning where to put the other train track around the house. (I will keep you posted on this.)

9-Days that I have been enjoying this winter weather. It's been a lot of fun!

25 Hours Without Kids

We were able to take Jonathan and Katie over to my parent's house yesterday afternoon so that they could stay overnight. That is always a treat for them, as well as for Rob and I. So how have we been enjoying our 25 hours without kids?

I had a raging headache all day yesterday, which did not go away until late this morning. (I still have a slight headache.)

We ventured out to the craft store and to the bank after dropping off our kids.

Had a quiet dinner together (of breakfast cereal since I didn't feel good).

Went for a very fun drive through the area looking at Christmas lights. The homes look so fun in the snow!

Foot massages!!!

Sleeping in until 9:00 (for me). Mostly because of my headache.

Watching the snow blow around and feeling so glad that I can be inside where it is warm.

Rob and I working on our own individual projects around the house. It's amazing how much more you can get done when all persons under 7 years of age are not present!

We were hoping that maybe the kids could get snowed in at my parents so we could get another day home alone, but they only live 3 miles away, so that's not going to happen. (Plus they have a huge 4-wheel drive truck that I'm sure could handle the snow if we can't pick them up. sigh.) I guess I'll be grateful for what we got!

Snow Days!

We've been having a fun time at home on our snow days. We played out in the snow on Monday. (I made an incredibly good snowball throw at Rob, that left him with snow stuck in his glasses!) We've been working on a fun wintery puzzle.

Today the kids and I made things from flour and salt dough. We'll paint our creations tomorrow. They are going to be gifts for the grandparent's.

It's been fun having Rob home every day too. We celebrated our 13th anniversary yesterday.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Rob and I finally discovered why there are 12 Days of Christmas. That's how long it takes to decorate!

Day one (Tuesday evening): Pick up toys in living room, vacuum and then move the furniture around and around to make a space for the tree.

Day two (Wednesday evening): Jonathan and Katie help me hang up glitter covered snowflakes around the house, and colored tinsely garland on the stairs. After dinner we put "together" the tree.

Day three (this evening): We can't figure out how we managed to plug in the Christmas tree lights last year because our outlet has only two holes, and we have a three-pronged plug. After Rob spends 10 minutes rearranging cords and such, I begin winding my way around the tree. First, a string of colored lights. (Jonathan wants the tree to have colored lights, but that is the only sting we have.) Next, a string of white lights. Next...string numbers 3, 4, and 5 all don't work! That's all we have for tree lights. Since it is bedtime by this point, and the kids are begging to decorate the tree, we let them decorate the parts that already have lights on them. So the bottom half of our tree is decorated, but the top half is still bare.

We still have 9 more days to decorate!