The Week That Was Frozen in Time

The title is taken from a separate section of the paper yesterday--all about the week no one could barely drive anywhere.  Tomorrow is going to be a tough day for all five of us getting back to reality...again.  The kids have gone to school FOUR DAYS out of the last 31 DAYS.  After December 17^th the schools had Winter Break for two weeks.  And after the New Year they went back for a scheduled 4-day school week.  And then on January 9^th it snowed and stayed cold and never melted (actually whatever melted would freeze again turning the streets to 5 inches of ice) and school ended up getting canceled every day. I really feel for the people that are not paid for not being able to work this week.

Here was day 4 of our week of snow (this is the most photographed deck ever):

Here was day 5 (mail delivery resumed on day 5):

 

And here was day 7 after the snow fell.  Hard to believe but snow is still in many yards and here is Youngest sledding down a neighbor’s hill yesterday:

And so with today being MLK, Jr. Day school is closed….and it is the 17^th again.  Hubs joked last week that he’d be homeschooling the kids that week.  We did declare one day as no TV, Ipod or gaming day and had everyone read.  Oldest moaned and groaned about having to read and Hubs had him take a test online on his book and said if he got 100% he could stop reading.  He got a 70% so he had to keep reading.

Onto other tasks, I got organized.  I don’t do any New Year’s resolutions, but I did delve into some cleaning projects.  On the Sunday that it snowed, that day I went to Goodwill, which was a great time to go.  It was packed—I guess others know to score stuff right after everyone has dropped off items for their 2010 tax return purposes.  I had my eye out for some cannisters and plastic bins to help with some projects in the kitchen.

With all the cooking I do it is hard to believe I wasn’t more organized with my “baking cupboard”.  So it isn’t all color coordinated, but I am now thrilled that I have little bins to hold my spices together.  I just pull one out and have my baking soda, cocoa and baking powder all together.   The shelves were wiped out and Hubs put down contact paper because I can’t handle it—it is a funky corner cupboard and he is better at the spatial stuff.

I also uncluttered the kitchen counter by removing a decorative canister used for teabags (I hardly drink tea these days) and replacing it with mini-marshmallows—which are in high demand around here with hot chocolate.  I picked up these canisters from Goodwill that were from Pier One to hold coffee and sugar:

I don’t use sugar in my coffee, but Hubs has started eating cut grapefruit and wanted to know where the sugar was.  Anyway—I can’t tell you how happy these little changes have made me (I’m easy to please).

Being home for so long had Hubs think about DIY tasks.  Our powder room once had a leak in a pipe above the ceiling and he had cut a hole out of the ceiling and fixed it and repaired the ceiling but never finished painting it so that got done.  Then he looked at the fixtures in the powder room and decided that the faucets needed updating, along with a new towel rack and TP holder.

He had the boys help him shovel out "tracks" in our street which goes uphill--seriously, no one could get up the hill without that done on a certain day before it iced over.  He asked some older neighbors what they needed before he went to the store.  Seems the older folks gotta have their newspaper.

I’ve blogged before about what a Big Deal it has been to have some time off—I can’t promise I won’t mention it again—I definitely have more to report. 

Tonight the kids will be bummed and tomorrow will be tough for them to get up so early.  Think I’ll make breakfast for dinner.  Sunday I usually make a big breakfast/brunch, but didn’t yesterday because Hubs and I went to an early movie!  See!  Still much to report.