One more year older

I don't feel older. I don't even feel as old as I am. Good thing . . . not that I'm old or anything.

Yesterday I made myself brownies and chocolate chip cookies. The brownies turned out very dry (even though I baked them for less time then the recipe called for.) Rather disappointing. Maybe ice cream will help. The cookies didn't turn out as expected either. For some reason the recipe didn't call for salt. Well, the cookies don't taste right without it. I was able to mix some in the remaining dough. Much better.

I left the apple crisp for Gary to make today. When I pulled out the bags of apples, it was determined that there would be no apple crisp for us. But the deer get a fruit treat. Gary offered to go buy apples, but I told him he could make it sometime this week. I suggested he make a fire instead.

We got suited up and played in the snow and did some sledding. The kids made good use of the sand toys. Ellie informed me they were for snow too.

Pay day

The kids were paid today for their labors this week. They also paid their fines. Maybe some day their pay will exceed their fines. But not today.

They also did some extra jobs around the house this week to buy a birthday present for me. It was good for them to use money they earned to buy something, instead of us just handing it to them. Josh got me a hard sided foldable tote, and Ellie got me a bag of heart-shaped peppermint patties.

They certainly do like having jobs and earning money.

Financial Peace

Some people might think that those words do not go together. But they can, if you work at it.

I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It is changing our financial lives. And we are teaching it to our kids using Financial Peace Jr.

We bought the online version. We also have workpages and such to complete. And we received a few books, the CD version of the sessions, and membership to attend a in-person FPU workshop, if we want to. We are learning about emergency funds, budgets, the debt snowball, savings, retirement and having a plan for all of this. It is freeing to have a plan.

For the kids, Financial Peace Jr. has the tools for us to teach the kids the value of hard work and commission, giving, saving, and having spending money. There are also fines for when work is not completed or there is unwanted behavior. There are magnetic charts to keep track of all these things. Our kids like the idea of earning money, being able to save for things they want to buy, and having spending money. They do not care for fines.

Off again

Here we go again with a snow day.

Today though we Skyped with my sister in CA. We all enjoyed the chance to see each other. She is planning to Skype again when she gets home to say goodnight to the kids. I suggested she read the kids bedtime stories, but she has no children's books. Maybe the kids can read to her.

Right now Ellie and I are going to attempt making a cloth bag for a birthday gift for a party she is attending this weekend. Josh will have quiet time with his cars and some books.

The third day

Ellie has been home three days now. Monday, she was still getting over an intestinal thing, but yesterday and today have been snow days. And I wouldn't be surprised if Friday is as well.

Monday, we didn't go outside, since Ellie was still considered sick, and we did home school, per Ellie's request. Josh wasn't as impressed with the idea of home school.

Yesterday was more sleet/ice than snow, and we watched PBS and did free play.

But today I was determined to get us outside.

We went sledding on the side yard for a while.



We went for a walk with the sled to a bigger hill to sled on. It turned out to not be a good hill for sledding, but the kids did get a sled ride since I pulled them there and back. They also gathered ice and some sticks, since we didn't have enough here at the cabin.



And we managed to make a snowman. He's a little short because the snow (remember the snow is part ice from yesterday) just isn't cooperating in making a large snowman. And I was able to scrounge up eyes, a mouth, and buttons from my grandpop's tool bench.

After Mini-Frosty was finished, we came in for hot chocolate, lunch, and a movie.

And thankfully for my sanity, of the past three days, today has seen the least amount of conflicts.

Kid cameras

Grammy and Pop pop K gave the kids digital cameras for Christmas. And they've been taking pictures of everything. Last night we finally got around to viewing their photojournalism of our everyday lives.

The cameras have no flash, so inside photos are grainy and dark, even if it's daytime. And most of their photos were taken inside.



But unfortunately something happened to Ellie's photos.

Ellie and Mom mom B.











Josh and Ellie's toothbrushes









The table decoration









Josh's photos.






The lamp







Ellie girl










The front of the computer

Shopping out of season

Personally I find it very irritating that if I want to buy slippers, I need to shop in July. And if I want a swim suit, I need to shop in January.

Why can't they sell winter items in winter, and summer items in summer, and it not be the clearance section?

A fire again

My dad and Gary worked on the fireplace today.
Here's dad investigating. They determined that they should caulk the holes. Gary took care of that and my dad started a fire when it was dry enough.







It's been burning for over three hours without any smoke in the house. They also uncovered the vents, since that wasn't the problem. There is now more heat coming out now. They also cleaned out all the ash and repositioned the fire grate.

It is nice to have a fire again.

Another snow day

Thank you God for the snow. He definitely knew we needed a day off today.

I was not looking forward to waking up the kids and getting them ready to take Ellie to school. So, when Western Wayne School District's automated service called at 6:23 am to tell us that school was canceled, I was thankful. Even though they did call at 6:23 am.

The kids woke up two hours later, bright eyed and ready for the day. Not a glimmer of themselves from last night. Again, thank you Lord!

Ellie was most excited about the snow. Josh was more excited when he saw the deer. [I still don't get their fascination with seeing them.] We still haven't managed to get out in it yet, since I had to wash Ellie's snow pants. There was an incident with getting to the potty in time last night. I wasn't going to give her dirty pants, so I went to do a load this morning. The washer outlet is connected to the light switch. I usually remember to not turn it off when I leave the basement, but when I went to put the clothes in the dryer, the light switch was off and washer had never run. So no clean pants yet. And they need to get outside. Though playing fairly well together, they are also being a little crazy.

First time skiing

And what a first time it was.

The line for rental equipment was nearly two hours long. The kids did very well waiting. A lot of that time was spent standing outside. We got very cold and hadn't even gotten to the snow yet. In this photo is the waiting line.


Finally we got our boots, skis and poles. I was surprised the kids didn't have unhappy comments about how constricting the boots were. They just wanted to try out their stuff. I was wishing for an extra set of hands to carry everything.




The two unsuspecting children.













Finally we were ready to strap on the skis. But since people didn't really part way for our novice crew, we were unsure of where to do this.

On and off with the skis, we decided to walk to the area near the bottom of the beginner slope.

"These things keep moving on me!"

After many squawks of frustration from the kids, we weren't sure what to do. It wasn't going well. I decided to take Ellie up the ski lift and try just coming down the hill. My biggest concern was her getting off the chair without falling. She did splendidly. We both just skied straight down the little hill. Then when we got situated at the top, she wanted to try it herself and went straight for the fenced off area under the lift. Then she got twisted and her skis came off. Trying to put them back on while on a slope was a treat. I decided the best thing was for us to both hold our poles, I'd straddle her and hold her. Then we'd ski down the hill in snowplow formation. It worked wonderfully, and she got to experience the fun of whooshing down a hill.

Next came Josh. And since there was no way I'd take him on the ski lift, we walked up the hill. I did the same thing with him, and snowplowed down the hill.


After those two hours of trying to stay upright and a trip with mom (Gary still doesn't like skiing) down the beginner hill, the kids went in the lodge with Gary for hot chocolate.

I took a chair lift to the top of the mountain to get in one actual ski run. And since I haven't been on skis in over a decade, I decided to take the easy trail down.

When I got in the lodge Gary was still in line and Josh had a burnt finger. While in line the first time, Josh spilled his hot chocolate and burned his finger. We were given free hot chocolate and sat down to let it cool off so the kids could drink it. As you can see, the evening ended with unhappy skiers.

And from the time we left the lodge to go return our equipment, to gathering up our stuff from the locker and going the restroom one more time, and walking to the shuttle to get to our car, Josh cried and carried on. Ellie threw in her whine here and there, too. I lost count of how many people stared at us.

To their defense, it was three and a half hours after their bedtime and they didn't eat much dinner. We knew what there issues were, so they weren't in trouble. But we still had to keep our patience about us, which I think we did rather well.

We will seriously plan our next Member Day ski trip differently.

WVIA Members

In December we became members of WVIA, the local public media in the area. And as members we can enjoy Member Days at Elk Mountain, Ski Sawmill and Knoebles. The kids also get Passports to Fun, which gives them free admission to area participating attractions with a paying adult.

Our first Member Day is today. The kids and I are excited. Gary isn't so much into skiing.

Musical differences

Here is where we started. The song was in the movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" that we watched last night. When Gary hears a song in a movie he recognizes, he likes to go find it on line and listen to it, especially if he can't quite place who sings it. And that is what he did with this song.



And then it just mushroomed into a night of listening to music. From Beverly Hills Theme song, he went to B-52's to REM to The Mamas & The Papas (where I joined in and added my songs preferences) to Blondie to Eagles to Credence Clearwater Revival to Steve Miller Band to STYX to Nena (Red Balloons in German and English) to Pink Floyd, just to name a few.

Sometimes Gary's and my taste in music is as different as night and day. And sometimes we manage to like the same stuff. But there are two genres he has no interest in ever letting pass through his ears. Folk and country. And this is for certain. I, on the other hand, love folk music and like some country.

And writing this post finds us listening to a second helping of songs we like. As I am writing, he keeps directing me to songs he wants to hear, and I mix in songs I want to hear. And since you can have more than one tab open, now we each have a tab for YouTube.

A New Year, snow pants and storage

It's the first day of the year, and I slept in until after 9:00am. A good start to the year, I think. We also did errands. We stopped at the grocery store, then finally picked up the snow pants for Ellie. I was hoping to do it three other times. But now, although we don't have anymore snow, we have snow pants for the kids.

We also attempted to look through storage. We moved the bed and mattress, which was blocking our view of most of our stuff. We did manage to locate a few things, though not nearly enough. Our new plan is next weekend when my parents are up is to ask them to help us sort through it, maybe create a path. Or something.