Thankfully, oh so thankfully, there was a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground when I woke up early this morning. Then I realized I'd left my camera at my friend's house after a get together last weekend and I felt a bit of annoyance since I have my camera phone to shoot with. I made the best of what I have, and even lowered myself to use my boyfriend's Nikon, but I think my phone took better images since I'm unfamiliar with his camera and wasn't sure how to operate it in manual mode. It makes me feel dirty to use a dSLR in point and shoot mode.
So we woke up to
and there were two very excited children begging to go out. I told them later and grabbed two very reluctant chihuahuas to take them out for potty time. My female did her usual dance at the door and jet out as quickly as possible only to stop stock still, leaving little doggy paw skid marks in the snow on the porch, because she had no clue what was on the ground. My male took a bit of encouragement to even get out the door since he can smell snow and despises it passionately, a well placed slipper got him moving in the right direction. The poor things had a record-time morning potty break and the male was sent back out several times to "Go Potty!" since I know he'd much prefer to do his pooping the warmth and comfort of a hidden corner, but they did it and then scurried back into the living room and burrowed under blankets and children seeking warmth.
I fixed a hearty breakfast and then sent the children on a scavenger hunt for long underwear, clothing, and winter gear. After about an hour of "I can't find" and "I can't get it on" we were ready to head out into the cold and snow.
They dove straight into the snow and I hedged my way into the backyard to check on the chickens. The girls were huddled in their coop with the heating lamp for warmth, but seemed fine so I knocked the ice out of their water dispenser, threw them a double ration of feed, and joined the kids for a snow fight.
This snow isn't snowball snow. I've never seen snowball snow in the six times I've been in the snow, but powdery stuff that doesn't compact isn't snowball snow, even I know that. So we made do with scooping up handfuls of snow and chucking it at each other. I, of course, was the victor until I gave up when two neighborhood kids joined in over the fence and it was four against one. Even I know when the odds are stacked against me and when it's time to wave the white flag. So I tooled around the yard, shooting with the boyfriend's camera, and fiddled with stuff in the yard. Girl and I played together and ran around, played on the swings, and then we moved to the front to go for a walk and scout out potential sledding hills. I grabbed a lid to one of my storage bins, just in case.
Well, the storage bin failed, but we found a spot and headed home for lunch. After some screen time, lunch, more screen time, sewing (for me), and playing, I finally succumbed to the pleas and took the kids out for a second time. I inflated a tube we use at the lake in the summer and we headed to our hill. We spent about forty five minutes tubing before I begged to go inside. I was wet from kneeling on the snow to fling kids down the tiny hill and getting very cold. For some reason it just felt so much colder the second time we were out. The kids had a blast and I had fun too, I even slid down the hill several times and only shoved the kids down to get an extra turn a few times.
I feel I set a fine example by making a running jump onto the tube, jarring my neck and shoulders, and showed them exactly why we don't do such wild things. It was still fun, though my neck and shoulders disagree. Back in our yard I cleared some snow from my car, filled a bowl with the clean snow underneath, and set it on the porch for a snow cream carrot to dangle when they got unruly.
Then we just laid about and vegged. I did some laundry, we watched another movie, we played some games, and we plugged in. Girl and I got into a heated game of Jenga while Boy watched and cheered me on. I fixed beef stew for dinner and once I successfully bribed them into eating a satisfying amount, I pulled out the snow and snow cream fixings.
Snow
1/2 C sugar
1 C milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
I mixed the milk/sugar mixture earlier in the day to let the sugar dissolve and just stored it in the fridge. I spooned the snow into the bowl to fill it about halfway and poured the mixture over it until it was just slightly wet. At first I whisked it together, but grabbed a spoon since it wasn't doing a very good job. It took about two minutes to stir it up properly, but once it was ready it was delicious. Very creamy and very vanilla. The kids loved it. I didn't use much of the ingredients so I put the snow outside again and the mixture back in the fridge for tomorrow.
The snow really compacted down when mixed up and I now understand why the recipe I found online called for a full gallon of snow for 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of sugar (I halved the sugar).
After snow cream, the kids sort of devolved and I'd reached my limit by that point. Boy brought in a huge load of wood and then I sent them to brush their teeth in the hopes of signaling a wind down and beginning a quiet evening by the fire. It was not to be as they screeched and howled at each other since one decided that the toilet lid was a fine seat to use while brushing and the other felt it was their seat first. I ignored them for a while, but finally reached my breaking point and screamed that the day was over and it was time for bed. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth as fingers were pointed and blame was shifted.
They're off school tomorrow too. I had to shift my work schedule to be home with them so I'm off as well. I hope we make it out alive.
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