Snow in the New Year

It's been a snowy, wintery, winter this year!

Emily and William attend a more rural school than Alice, Grace, and Juliet, so they've had a few extra snow days (hence the dinner making), but on days we get snow that needs to be moved, we all go out and take care of it!

1st January:

15 January:

21st January: 

Snow day for all 5! (so was 22nd of January!)  These days were dangerously cold too, hovering around 0F as a high.

Willam's boots were not going on over all of his bundling, so he borrowed Billy's boots.  Their comically large size brought me back to the days of William wearing oversized shoes that would fit over his leg braces!

23rd January: 

1st February:

2nd February:

We have been getting some dustings, but nothing substantial enough to register on my snow gauge, with all of the unmeted snow still piled up on the deck. 

The forecast is calling for more gross weather starting tomorrow, which I do love a good snow day, but Thursday day would go much faster for me, while impatiently waiting for Billy to get home so that we can watch Strike, if everyone goes to school and I do some chores and shopping!

Either way, winter is still in full swing, so you can expect at least one more of these snowy posts.

later days

Snow!

The end of November started the snow, and Thursdays have been particularly snowy this year!

11-21 The first sticking snow was actually not much, and the snow gauge (truck) was not in place for a picture, so I snapped a picture of the snow dusted plants instead.

12-1 The first "proper" snow.  It was a Sunday, so no school to know how bad the roads were. lol.

12-5 No School for anyone!!!

William got up around his normal time, and worked on his math until Alice's band concert, but he finished!  Better than giving up his weekend, which is what the plan was before the snow day?

Post-concert snow art:

12-12  Snow Day for Emily and William, who had a field trip planned and really wanted to go.  No snow day for Alice, Grace, and Juliet who were hoping for a snow day.  So, I got whined at by everybody.

12-20 no one got a snow day, the snow was really thick, and I found the sidewalks and driveway quite slippery as I was shovelling! = (

One day, my car blower fan was not working in the front vents, which is a poor time of year for it to not work.  So, we took my car in, and I was just going to use Alice's future car, the van, to run my errands.  However, when I hopped in that afternoon to drive it to collect the twins, it wouldn't start! = ( We had just driven it a few days prior, but apparently that was the battery's final hoorah.  Luckily, I can walk to collect the twins, and didn't have plans to collect Emily that day, but I was late, and it was a cold walk!  I was able to call AAA the next day to get it started and get a new battery put in, but that is a whole other story.*

Not all was bad though, I saw a sight I'd never seen! I thought I saw a beaver, well, at first I thought it was a duck with its head underwater, but then upon closer inspection thought it was a beaver.  While there are beavers in Michigan, I've not seen any personally.  I have seen woodchucks though, and it turns out they can swim too!  So, probably a woodchuck swimming the river.

Alice and Grace went out to build a dragon sculpture in the snow.  The lines are hard to see, so this is just the head, but it looked pretty good with wide wings and a long tail!

One more interesting sight was this cool icicle outside of the bakery at MSU where my mom treated me to a bagel & cream cheese!  I thought it was a very cool shape & design, for an icicle.

My weather watching is temporarily on hold, since the kids aren't in school for the next two weeks, but I'm sure there will be more snow to add in the new year!

later days

*Which I will include right here, because I have no plans to put it anywhere else, as I took no pictures documenting the morning.

I was able to use Billy's car to drive Alice, Emily, and William in the morning, but he's gone by the time the twins go to school.  So, we bundled up and walked to school that day.  I called AAA as I was leaving their school, to get on the list.  I could have called much earlier, but I really don't have time to deal with someone else's schedule while I'm trying to get children out the door.

He came, but his battery jumper was dead, after helping people all morning.  Thankfully, we were able to use the Kia, which is 'in storage,' but kept in operating order, to juice it up.  Once he got it running, I took it to Walmart, where we always get our batteries, but they had no openings that day!!!! = 0

I tried to call Billy, but he was working and was unable to answer, so I called my mom to help me figure out a next step.  She recommended O'Riley's because they will help you put it in, if it's not too busy or too difficult.  Of course it was difficult, why wouldn't my car be difficult!!!!!  Luckily, they knew a guy, a local mechanic, in Grand Ledge (where I was) who was able to put in the battery that I bought, right then and there!  So, if you are in Grand Ledge, I totally recommend Scrib's Auto!!!

Snow

We've had lovely temperatures, for a good part of the month.  But on the first day of spring break, which landed on Friday for the twins, we saw significant snowfall!  

3-22-24:

Our snow gauge was pushed into a corner, but the front gives a good indication of how much snow we got!  It was enough that we did have to spend some time clearing the sidewalks and driveway.

Later in the day Heleena came over to build with the girls.

Their structure caved in, so they ended up just burying Juliet in the snow. lol.

 It was a thick, but wet, snow so it had cleared off the roads and sidewalks by the next day.

Here's hoping that's the last we see of it for the year!

later says

SNOW DAY!!!!

On Thursday, the weather forecast started to call for a pretty nasty storm that was due to come through Friday afternoon.  Both of the kids' districts cancelled school for Friday the night before, but we had almost finished our normal bedtime routine by the time Grace and Juliet's school cancelled, so we didn't announce it, and instead just got a good nights' sleep.  = )

I woke before Billy's alarm, since mine usually goes off a few minutes before his, despite having turned off my alarms.

So, what did we do with the day?  Well, After pushing through the laundry, and unloading the dishwasher, and cleaning/polishing the bathroom sink countertop, and refilling the soap, and showering, and bringing up a new gallon of milk, and refilling the oxiclean container, and changing the handtowels, and cutting the basil plants to dry out the leaves, I decided to make kartoffelbrot!

First step was to peel the potatoes.  We had only used 7 of the potatoes in the 10lb bag that I bought, so it took me a while to peel the rest. 

Since my compost bag was full, I took it out, as well as the trash and recycling, and brought in the empty bin from the road.  Luckily, a lot of the snow we had fall the day before, had melted.

The recipe recommended using the water from the boiled potatoes, but was taking forever to cool, and I didn't want to kill of my yeast, so I let the snow help me drop the temperature quickly.

My first loaf didn't rise very well, and was a little overcooked. = ( So, after loading up my dehydrator to make another round of potato flour, I took the potatoes that didn't fit, and made another loaf of kartoffelbrot.

This time, I was very careful with the yeast, and made sure to do everything according to the directions*.  And, it turns out, kartoffelbrot just doesn't rise much!  Both loaves came out similar in outside doneness, but was quite soft and tasty inside!  So, now we have two loaves.  Emily is a fan. = )

The dishwasher has been running non-stop today.  4 loads of dishes through the machine, and at least as many handwashed loads (though, those were admittedly smaller.)

Grace spent part of her snow day sewing a happy mushroom family!

I emptied all the hampers today, finishing probably 5 or 6 loads of laundry.  One of those loads had Billy's repaired undershirt, which had a few new holes.  Some of which were torn along the patch of the other repair, where the fabric was too weak to support the repair.  So, I now have layered patches in places, as well as a few new patches, and a repair along the edge.  Billy wasn't bothered by the first round of repairs, but this will be even thicker, and I had to patch across seams.  So, it seems that this shirt may be headed to the pile to repair the next round of shirts.  We'll see how it wears for him!

He had a second under shirt with a few small holes that was a quick patch.  

And the snow?  Well, it didn't start until 2ish.  The roads didn't look all that bad at either school's pick-up time, but I certainly wasn't bothered by the snow day. = )

Grace wanted to cook dinner tonight, and picked hamburger helper.  She did most of the stirring, but I would consider myself and equal partner with prep work & measuring & clean up. = )

Billy's commute took an extra 10 minutes, since the roads started getting slick and slushy by 5.

I took pictures of our snow gauge in irregular intervals.  What can I say, I was busy!

2:50pm, 4:41pm, 5:26pm, 7:28pm

 

We are expecting more snow tonight, so we will have to shovel tomorrow.  I don't think we're really poised to lose power, but we filled the tub, just in case. Oh, and we have plenty of bread. ; )

Now my blog is up to date, and I finished the third and final book in my series.  So, I'm going to be feeling accomplished, but dreading the snow removal tomorrow.

later days

*The directions specifically say to put the seam side up, so that the loaf is not rounded, but I like a round loaf, so on the first round I cooked it round up.  The second round, I flipped it according to the recipe, and it came out just as done, but not rounded.