Wonderful Spring Weather

The weather these past days has been unseasonably warm and wonderful. It's been very warm outside, and we've been making the most of it. I've been working outside in the back yard, trying to get everything cleaned up and in order for spring. We have a nice little back porch, so I'm trying to get it all cleaned up and ready for the BBQ and picnic season. I also bought pots and seeds for planting some herbs, but it's too early to plant those out yet. (And I have had to keep reminding myself of that lately!) Lily's been enjoying the opportunity to be outside as well. The little neighbor girl (who is about a year older than Lily) has been over to play twice this week, and Lily's certainly enjoyed having a playmate these past few days. However, she also does well playing by herself and helping Mommy work in the yard.

Lily got a swingset for Christmas, and she's been having a wonderful time playing on it lately.

I Don't Generally Like Rap Music, But...

...occasionally I find something that I like.

Important Life Lessons

There are some things that children should learn early in life. Baking brownies and licking the bowl are among them!!

Cute, or Creepy?

This segment appeared on one of Lily's Seasme Street podcasts. What do you think: cute, or creepy?

Winnter Weather Updates

So, today's 30% chance of snow became a 60% chance of snow which ended up being a constant snowfall from 7am to 7pm.... My, aren't weathermen wonderful....

I essentially ended up with a "week off" this week. Classes and work were cancelled from Tuesday through Friday, and just about everything else has been shut down as well. We had snow on Tuesday -- somewhere between 9 and 12 inches, depending on which news station you prefer to listen to. It's been quite cold, and I don't think we're supposed to have temperatures above freezing for quite some time either. (I'm simply expecting that the gas bill for this month will be considerably higher than usual. Fortunately, we haven't had any problems with power outages or anything like that, so I certainly won't complain!) I'm guessing we had another 4-6 inches today, but I haven't heard any 'official' reports on that as of yet.

Just about everything around here seems to have shut down this past week. I ended up with an optometrist appointment yesterday (which was rescheduled from Tuesday), and we saw a couple of horse-drawn sleighs merging with traffic a few blocks ahead of us. We made a quick trip to the grocery store yesterday and then ventured all the way to Wal-Mart today. We've discovered that eggs, bread, bananas, and some medications are in short supply as delivery trucks can't make it in to the stores. However, we did see the Blue Bell truck in the grocery store parking lot. No bread, eggs, or cold medicines, but we have ice cream!! Gasoline also seems to be in short supply at the moment...but we managed to find a station that hadn't run out yet. (Granted, it was the gas station in town that nearly always has the highest price on gas, but under these circumstances.....)

Lily has been excited about the snow, and I took her out to play in it this morning. Although it was cold today, it was also very still so there was no significant wind chill factor influencing how cold it felt outside. Lily had a blast! She trudged through snow drifts and ended up face-planting in the snow several times. She made some snowballs and wanted to play catch with them, which didn't work so well....

In short, we've fared pretty well so far. The only weather-related damage we've suffered as of yet is a cracked windshield on our car. We haven't ventured out much, but we've been able to get out enough to keep from getting to stir-crazy. Ironically, the one of us who seems the most stir-crazy is the cat, and he's an inside-only house cat who never gets to go outside anyway....

Thoughts on Birthdays

I have no real thoughts on birthdays. I try not to think about them. Lily, on the other hand, has been very interested in birthdays lately. She's learning how to sing "Happy Birthday," and she was very excited when we went to the birthday party of a church friend last weekend. Today the following conversation took place in our house:

Lily: I'm three.
Mommy: No honey, you're two.
Daddy: You'll be three on your next birthday. Do you want Daddy to buy you a big cake for your birthday?
Mommy: Daddy bought a cake last year. It's Mommy's turn to bake a cake this year.
Daddy: But the cake is a Daddy thing.
Lily: No, it's a Mommy thing.
Daddy: Well, then what is the Daddy thing?
Lily: Toy shopping.

I guess she's got things pretty well figured out....