Brown-eyed Girl

Photo courtesy of my very talented sister

In other news, we're all battling annoying coughs made worse by a jam-packed weekend with no rest.

Sophie's latest is to tell us what she's going to be when she's a "big girl"

The list so far:

"When I a big girl, I gonna be a bird and be in my nest and take care of my babies (gesturing with wings and hugging her babies)."

"When I a big girl, I gonna be a airplane, Mommy!"

And, after showing Aaron a gnome ornament and after he began singing: "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay!": (yes, sometimes the train of thought is less than linear)

"When I a big girl, I gonna be a lummerjack 'cause I okay."

Another story I forgot to mention happened recently. We've been working on Christmas cookies for presents for our neighbors and family and there were cookies in dishes all over the table in the kitchen. We gave Sophie a taste or two of the chocolate ones and it was all over. She kept insisting: "One more, Mommy and that's it, okay?" (imagine lots of hand gestures)

I tried explaining that Christmas was about giving and thanking people for being our friends and that we were going to send the cookies to our family and give them to our neighbors to say Merry Christmas.

She thought about this for a bit. The gears clearly turning in her head.

"And then they give them back, right?"

Merry Christmas!

Another whirlwind weekend. We intended on staying at my parents' house until Monday after lunch so that we could be home Christmas Eve and Christmas day to start our own tradition. But Sophie was having such a great time (Despite being sick. Again.) that we decided to stay Monday night as well.

She had a blast with her cousins and aunts and uncles. We made graham cracker houses and birdseed ornaments and decorated cookies and went sledding.

Sophie was an adrenaline junkie on the sled. My brother smoothed the path to one of my dad's barns and it made a great sledding hill. Not too steep, but you could get going pretty fast. Sophie started off going down on the toddler sled - one into which we could strap her, but she soon wanted to go down on the round saucer. We told her to hold on and not let go and I waited for her a little ways down the hill so that I could catch her before she got too far. She held on and was having so much fun that I let her go by me. She was yelling the whole way: "Here me come! Watch out for Sophie! Beep! Beep! Honk! Honk!"

As soon as she made it to the bottom, her first words: "Again, Mommy!"

She went down a couple more times. Her last run, her uncles were on the path building a better rampart wall and she headed toward them. The first uncle in the way was going to just let her go between his legs, but she veered suddenly and he had to jump out of the way. She screamed and then the next uncle managed to make a tunnel for her. He said that her eyes were shut tight and the sled was spinning and spinning and bouncing off the sides of the path. "Wheeeeeeee! Here me come!!!"

She was too much. What a great kid.

Her imagination is hitting new heights. One of her favorite buddies was a photo of my parents' cat. She kept talking to him in this little high-pitch voice about how she was going outside and he was telling her to have a great time but he was going to stay inside.

My sister also said that she was helping Sophie get out of her snow boots, etc., and her sock came off so Sophie's toes started talking to her about how their sock was missing. Crazy little lovely girl.

Oh, and when decorating the houses and cookies with frosting, she kept "accidentally" getting frosting on her fingers and would ask me if she could lick it off. At a couple of points, she said: "Mommy, you sit over dere so you can't see me, okay?" hee hee hee. You're cute, but nice try.

There's more but I'm pooped and I've got to get some sleep. One of us has to work in the morning.

Snow Angels!

We have over 2 feet of snow out there right now. Ugh. Another 8 inches or more came down on Saturday night/Sunday. Aaron had a review session on Sunday that was not getting canceled, so he had to dig out of the driveway to leave. And then I was all prepared to take the car in the garage and just leave for work this morning, but I ran into a wall of solid-packed snow at the end of the driveway that I could not get through. The regular ergonomic snow shovel was not cutting it, so I start hacking away at the wall with a garden spade. Aaron finally came out and relieved me. Blech.

Anyhoo, on Saturday, before the second storm, we drove up to my parents' house to cut down a Christmas tree for them.

There was already about 8 inches of snow on the ground. Perfect opportunity for snow angels, right?

Plop! Into the snow, Sophie!

TGIF

We ended up getting about 10 - 12" last night. It's hard to tell - it is a very light, fluffy snow and the wind picked up last night.

The snow plows last night were intense. Two enormous plows kept circling our neighborhood. It seemed like they went by every 10 minutes at one point. They sounded like tanks and the house shook when the went by. It was hard not to laugh at one point because, with each pass, they added another foot of snow to the front of our driveway. I had to work this morning, so we were going to have to shovel the wall first thing in the morning. And by we, I mean Aaron. No sense shoveling it last night with over-eager snow plows on the prowl.

Word on the street is that they are trying to make sure as much snow is off the ground as possible before the next storm hits Saturday night.

The sunrise this morning was a thing of wonder. The pink sky made the snowy trees look like cotton candy. I kept kicking myself for not bringing a camera with me to work. It was absolutely amazing.

Snow Update

It started snowing around 11:30 today. From gray, ominous sky to blizzard in the blink of an eye. I was planning on leaving around 2 but now I'm feeling panicked. Sweaty, nervous. Is it safer to leave now, with a bit of snow on the ground or wait a bit longer to make sure things are plowed/sanded/salted?

The majority of schools closed early so they must be plowing to make sure the kids get home safely, right?

I always panic when there's bad weather. And it looks especially bad out there right now.

Aaron's still at school and he has a longer trek than I. He's all nonchalant about getting home.

I live about 3 miles from work and I'm panicked. Who's the New Englander again?

Ruh Roh, Snow!

...HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 11 PM EST THIS EVENING...

A SHORT DURATION BUT POTENTIALLY HIGH IMPACT SNOWFALL WILL AFFECT NORTHERN MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE THURSDAY AFTERNOON INTO THURSDAY EVENING. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED WITH THE HEAVIEST AMOUNTS IN NORTHERN MASSACHUSETTS.

And then a Nor'Easter is headed our way on Saturday night. With the potential of a foot of snow or more. Holy cow.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Today Aaron turned 35.

("yeah, it's that year that's divisible by 5. and 7. One of only three such years that I'm likely to live through.")

If I understood that, it would probably be depressing.

Happy Birthday to my sweetie! Even when we're stressing about money and schedules and life, I always look at you and know that I wouldn't want to be arguing with anyone else.

And, I love your beard. Don't shave it.

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In other news, you might want to ignore the weather reports if you're already depressed about being over the hill:

Weather Spoiler Alert!

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF ACCUMULATING
SNOW OF 6 OR MORE INCHES IN A 12 HOUR PERIOD OR 8 OR MORE INCHES IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. ANYONE TRAVELING IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO MODIFY TRAVEL PLANS SHOULD WINTER WEATHER DEVELOP.

Holiday Ornaments

I'm making holiday ornaments from fabric leftover from our linen IKEA drapes.

Now available on Etsy.

Yes, I'm late to the game. I will get them out to you very quickly if you order now.

I've also made some t-shirt grocery bags that I'll list tomorrow. Recycled, baby!

Covet

Wow, I really need one of these SideSwipe Spatula mixer blades. I made molasses cookies for Aaron tonight and spent a lot of time stopping the mixer to scrape down the bowl. This looks like it would solve that problem.

Sophie Says...

[I'm in the kitchen, working on the soup/chili for dinner]

Sophie: walking into the kitchen: Mommy, what you doin'?

Me: I'm cooking soup. For dinner.

Sophie: COOKIE SOUP!?!

Me: Ah, no. I'm cook-ING soup. Not cook-ie soup.

Sophie: I some cookie soup? I love it so much!

Me: Not cook-IE soup. I'm cooking-INNNNGGG soup.

Sophie: Okay, Mommy. I hungry!

She was not amused when I set the bowl of black bean soup in front of her.

More Lead in Toys

Even more lead has been found on toys. Still on the shelves in toy stores. Not yet recalled.

Seriously, this is too much. No presents this year, sorry Sophie.

DETROIT - Tests on more than 1,200 children’s products, most of them still on store shelves, found that 35 percent contain lead — many with levels far above the federal recall standard used for lead paint.

A Hannah Montana card game case, a Go Diego Go! backpack and Circo brand shoes were among the items with excessive lead levels in the tests performed by a coalition of environmental health groups across the country.

Just in time for Christmas. All companies involved declined to comment until they had read the full report. Which means the toys and backpacks and playing cards will stay on the shelves until something is done.

The Consumer Action Guide to Chemicals in Toys

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Well, just a dusting of snow so far out there. We accomplished a lot today. We went grocery shopping and kept a week's worth of groceries under $65 (including a big bag of yummy fair trade coffee) (I almost wrote "free-range" coffee...). The grocery store at 9 on a Sunday was not busy at all. Word on the aisles was that everyone did their "Sky is Falling!" shopping yesterday afternoon.

We got home, worked with Sophie on some thank you cards for two elderly neighbors who gifted us with Halloween cookies and Welcome to the Neighborhood cookies. We went on a short walk to drop them off at the two houses. Sophie was uber-grumpy, so we didn't stay long. The woman across the street seems so lonely. She invited us in, wanted to chat for a while. Very sweet. We did stay and talk for a bit. She has a lovely house. She seems sad.

Then, Sophie and went inside to warm up and Aaron stayed outside to deal with some of the leaves in the yard. It seemed like everyone was out doing leaves today in the twenty degree weather. It was frigid! Everyone complained about the neighbor next to us who has an enormous yard of oak trees and never does his leaves. Probably because all his leaves blow down the street toward us. The lovely boxwood bordering our property is all entangled right now. We've decided to leave most of the leaves over the winter to insulate the hedge. It has a lot of recovery to do seeing as the previous owner did everything he could to kill it. Or so it seems.

Then, Aaron finished with the leaves, took a break and started clearing out the garage so we could fit one of the cars in before the storm. This involved lots of huge boxes taken up the attic and lots of rearranging. The original plan was to park the CR-V in the garage as it is the first one to leave in the morning (me) but it barely fit. So, the Civic is in there.

If we get as much snow/ice as expected, Aaron may have a snow day and I can just drive the Civic to work.

Why can't Mother Nature just dump on us on a Friday night? Then we'd have all weekend to play in the snow and not have to worry about traffic accidents on the way to work. I live a short distance from work, but people drive pretty obnoxiously and I'm dreading driving during an ice storm. There is no way my work will close for the day.

I'm almost finished with my stuffed cat. In hindsight, I should have sewn the eyes and nose on before I turned the fabric and stuffed it. Now I think I might paint the eyes on. The tail area is also a little wonky. Still, for no pattern and a first attempt, it looks pretty good.

In other DIY projects, I cut down some greenery from the enormous arborvitae in the backyard. I'm hoping to fashion a wreath or garland out of it for decorations. I'll post photos if I like how it turned out.

Toodles. Stay warm. All of you in hot climates? Shut it.

Ruh Roh

We finally got three trees into the ground today. Holy hell, it was cold outside. I had to use a pitchfork to get through the top layer of frozen tundra. Aaron's determined to rake up a bunch of leaves tomorrow because this is on the horizon:

Sunday Night: Periods of snow and sleet, mainly between 9pm and midnight, then periods of freezing rain and sleet between midnight and 3am, then periods of snow and sleet after 3am. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 24. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow and sleet accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Other local radio stations are predicting 6 or more inches Sunday night. Tomorrow is also going to be spent going to the grocery store early to beat the hordes and cleaning out the garage so we can get at least one car in there before the snow.

Update from the National Weather Service: (it's in all-caps, so it must be serious)

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY EVENING
THROUGH MONDAY MORNING.

LIGHT SNOW WILL MOVE INTO NORTHWESTERN MASSACHUSETTS AND
SOUTHWESTERN NEW HAMPSHIRE SUNDAY AFTERNOON. SNOW WILL BECOME
HEAVY AT TIMES THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT WITH SLEET MIXING IN WITH THE
SNOW PERIODICALLY. SIGNIFICANT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS CAN BE
EXPECTED.

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE POTENTIAL OF ACCUMULATING
SNOW OF 6 OR MORE INCHES IN A 12 HOUR PERIOD OR 8 OR MORE INCHES
IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. ANYONE TRAVELING IN THE NEXT 24 TO 36 HOURS
SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO MODIFY TRAVEL
PLANS SHOULD WINTER WEATHER DEVELOP.