27 February 2015

Seven Quick Takes

I
My favorite quote from this week: 

Little Bear, scoffing at my foolishness: "No Mama, there is not brain inside my head!"

II

It's been warm here lately—the deck thermometer, which isn't really getting hit by the sun so it should be pretty accurate, says it's 32 F out right now. Little Bear has had so much fun outside, playing in the snow, building snow castles (like sand castles), and sledding. We walked to the mailbox and back today, and since it was midafternoon and we never see any cars on our road, I got in the sled with Little Bear and we flew down our road two-thirds of the way to the mailboxes. I got out and started pulling the sled again before we reached the main road where our mailboxes are, just in case someone turned onto our street; it was so much fun! I know sledding is one of the (many) things pregnant woman aren't supposed to do, but pfft. There are enough things that make pregnancy not-fun; if I'm on a reasonable hill and know that I can control the sled and we're not in real danger of a spill, I'm going sledding with my kids.

III
Between the warm weather and having a corrugated metal roof, we've been experiencing a new-to-us snow phenomenon: as the metal heats up and everything gets melty, the entire foot-thick sheet of icy snow starts sliding off the roof. I knocked down a good three-foot overhang of snow and icicles over our front door before taking Little Bear out to play today!


IV
Lately Little Bear has taken to asking for "yogurt we made," "jam we made," "granola bar we made," etc. It's fun that he remembers helping to make the things that we're eating, and he gets really excited about making foods... and then very impatient to be able to eat them! Today we had "hard-boiled eggs we made" for lunch, and the first taste of a new batch of "applesauce we made" after supper.

V
Anyone have suggestions for a good Stations of the Cross book for little kids? Something with good pictures/artwork, and either elementary school-appropriate reflections or else just the names of the Stations? I'd like something that Little Bear can look at while we pray the Stations at home, but would prefer to avoid anything written specifically for a 2-year-old audience; too-simplistic text is worse than none at all, in my opinion. I have a tiny little leaflet that we used today, and it does have nice, classical artwork for each Station, but they're so small that he couldn't really see them well.

VI
It's 5:30pm, and still light enough outside that I don't have any lights on in the house. All of this daylight is wonderful! It creates an odd contrast, though; the past few months have conditioned us to associate cold and winter with darkness, and it's been hard to remember, when it's so bright and sunny outside, that we really do still need to burn at least one good fire a day.

Now it's 8:30, and definitely not light outside anymore. Soon enough it will be light later than this, though; we are already up to 10 hours of daylight (defined as from the bottom of the sun resting atop the horizon to the bottom of the sun touching back down on the horizon), and gaining quickly.

VII
I'm so grateful that it's the weekend! Do you have any big plans? There's supposed to be another winter storm blowing in by midday tomorrow; they're calling for an insignificant (for here) 2-5 inches of snow, but with 20 mph winds. We don't really get wind at all during the winters here, so we'll see how that goes. Matt and I are planning to go out tomorrow night, for the first time in I don't remember how many months; our house is two minutes from the restaurant is five minutes from my parents' house where Little Bear will be, so unless the storm is worse than we expect I don't think we'll have to cancel.

Stop by This Ain't the Lyceum for more quick takes!

2 comments:

  1. Meanwhile here in the South, everyone had a conniption fit over two inches of snow. They're kinda cute :). I love your statement on pregnancy and doing what you can if it's reasonable. I feel the same way, especially about many of the food restrictions. I understand being careful, but if I know a food and its provenance, I'm going to evaluate whether I think it's reasonable or not and then go ahead. So many of the food restrictions my doctors obsess over don't even exist in France or England or many other countries.

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    1. It seems like they change their minds constantly, too, about what pregnant women can and can't do, can and can't eat... Pregnancy was a normal part of women's lives for thousands of years; it's silly to suddenly start treating it like an aberration that forces women to completely change the way they live during the time they're "suffering from this condition."

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