Fun in the snow

We have clear blue sky, and it's gorgeous today.

Buttercup, the neighbor's darling Sheltie, came over to play. She's been too timid around Lucky in the past, but they made friends with each other today.



Trevor's been dying to take me down to the creek. The dogs happily came along.


We stuck to the path until we no longer had any idea where it was. This is looking back up from the creek to the house. The roof is in the very center of the photo, you can see the snow on top.


Trevor put a lot of faith in his water resistant boots. I clung to his walking stick, which he so kindly lent me. Lucky took off. Although he fooled us by heading in the wrong direction, he's really a wimp, and we later found he'd returned home. Buttercup stuck with us.


We walked along the creek for a little while. The snow was deep and unbroken. I didn't want to go too far, as I didn't want to have to hike all that way back home.


This is a totally different snow than last month, this is the soft, crunchy snow of spring. The cars, for the most part, are brushed off, the driveway's been plowed (Robert desperately wants a tractor), the sun is shining, and we'll be free tomorrow.

What a difference a day makes

(Really it was two days, but I've made my point.)

Thursday: Blue sky, sunshine, happy birds.

Finches

Saturday: Snowed for 24 hours, temps in the teens, happy birds.

Finches, black capped chickadee, titmouse

Red-bellied woodpecker

Finch, hairy woodpecker

Trevor went outside a few times. It snowed for 10 hours after this photo was taken.


There's not nearly this amount of snowfall up in Roanoke. We kept an eye on a Roanoke city webcam, watching people walking on the street, cars driving effortlessly through the little bit of snow yesterday. At 20 miles directly north of us, Roanoke's elevation is 925. Ours is 1375, not even as high as Mill Mountain (which is right in Roanoke).

With our huge storm a month ago, I bought a couple of saucers, half expecting that we'd never again have enough snow to use them. We'll definitely be giving them a try today! While it's not supposed to warm up anytime soon, we are expecting lots of sunshine to help melt the snow. We'll be snowbound for a few days and enjoy it.

Book Reviews

If I ever think too much that I'm not doing anything, all I need to do is review my book reviews.

The Strength of His Hands by Lynn Austin

Another wonderful installment in the Chronicles of the Kings series I've been reading through. I am convicted and encouraged by Hezekiah's story, and I'd love to find a good study on him. I'm disappointed to see that the author has not written any other Biblical historical fiction, but I'm eager to get into the final book of the series.

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

It's no secret that I am a big Palin fan. This book, however, was a let down. Seemingly written for an audience capable of reading at fifth grade level, Sarah topically shares the details of her life from birth through the 2009 presidential election. I would have preferred something more substantial about her faith and her political views. (Now be nice, she does have them.)

I'll hold out hope for the next book; I'm sure there will be more.

On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage by Robert Alden Rubin

Even back when I was a kid, I was captured by books of walking across the U.S., of sailing around the world, of trekking through Alaska with sled dogs, of scaling frozen mountains. For as much as I am an indoor person, I enjoy living vicariously through the adventures of others.

Since we now live so close to the Appalachian Trail, I figured it was time to read another book about it. This was a good one; surely not the best, but one that kept me interested in the trek.
It's been awhile since I've read an Appalachian Trail book.

The author of On the Beaten Path struggles with a mid-life crisis, quits his job and leaves his wife for six months to hike the 2,160 mile long Trail. Along the way, he meets interesting characters, gains self-discovery and realizes that he has a pretty good life.

Not bad, not memorable; a gentle and relaxing read.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt

Five years ago, this book was highly lauded as "dazzling," "politically incorrect," "engaging," and "rich in insights." I laud it as one of the most overrated bestsellers ever.

Economist Levitt supposedly turns boring economic statistics to topics that interest us: finding similarities between sumo wrestlers and schoolteachers, and the KKK and realtors; how parenting choices do--or don't--determine our children's success; the real reason crime dropped dramatically in the 199os, and more.

(Did I really say "topics that interest us"?)

Levitt puts his spin on statistics, how to read them, how to apply them, and how they divulge "surprising truths." As with many statistics used to show cause and effect, *I* could easily pick apart his "reasonings"--which means anyone could.

And yes, I'm still interested in reading his latest SuperFreakonomics. I don't want to know what sociological trend that indicates.

Gray and rainy day

It's cold and wet. On the plus side, four weeks after our big storm, all of the rain has melted the snow still left on the ground.



After church, Holly and Trevor were anxious to use a few gift cards they'd received at Christmas.


A perfect sign of things to come.


Robert and I opted for the mini-cakes, Sundae and Princess. I ate the frostings, and he ate the cake. That's how he wanted it. We are clearly a match made in heaven.


We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home.


Spring. 56 days and counting.

Sunrise . . .

. . . straight out of the camera . . .

Sunset

Robert and I slapped some shoes on our boy today and took him up to Roanoke for the afternoon. Robert got this photo on our way home.


I love this place.

Chilling out

It's been cold, cold, cold for weeks, but I'm grateful for the continued clear skies and loads of sunshine. I don't think we've dipped into single digits, but it was 10 degrees the other morning. It seems that most of the snow in Roanoke, and even Rocky Mount, has melted, but we have plenty on the ground here, with bare spots poking through.


We've been playing games on the Wii. I should be embarrassed to say that my arms have been sore from boxing, baseball, and tennis. I'm planning to buy Wii Fit Plus . . . soon!

We finally got my Prius out before the deeper cold snap just under two weeks ago. I forgot how much I truly enjoy driving it. Besides, I'm sick of putting gas in the van. We went for a drive after church that Sunday, up to Kohl's in Lynchburg.

The drive home

I'm not sure what Robert wanted to head to Kohl's for, but he was the only one who didn't buy anything. What is the right word--tennis shoes? athletic shoes? I haven't owned a pair in several years, but I do now. :) It's about time.

On the bridge at the lake

Holly got (the old TV show) E.R. seasons 3 and 4 for Christmas, and we've been busy watching those. I'll have to see if I can find the other seasons online so we can watch for free. Meanwhile, we have Idol to look forward to, at least with the guest judges.

Holly's Worldview class was supposed to begin next week. *I* have been looking forward to this--I signed her up last spring! Unfortunately, the class was canceled, but I'm hopeful that the class will be offered in the fall. Holly, on the other hand, was somewhat pleased. She's enjoying this down time.

She's taken on learning German this year. She began by listening to German songs by her favorite band, along with their English versions, and then writing the songs in German and translating. She set all of her favorite internet places to German: homepage, e-mail (the texts of course remain in English), Facebook. She's been on a big gaming site where she plays in German and converses with people from Germany. I brought home a few German books from the library at the end of November, which she was able to open up half way through and understand. She's continuing to progress and will eventually add a credit in this language.

Meanwhile, she is expressing an interest in Russian and has learned the Russian alphabet . . .


With the new year . . .

I started my 365 Day Bible again this year.

The weather has kept us somewhat housebound. It was easy for me to bribe the kids with Dairy Queen to drive up with me to the Roanoke library last week.

Trevor went to a birthday party to the transportation museum in Roanoke. After touring the trains and cars and everything else, the boys went out to lunch at a sit down restaurant with a train theme.

While waiting for the group of boys to come back to Rocky Mount, I was able to meet a friend for lunch and catch up.


The Hub Restaurant has been here since about the dawn of time. I'd never been there, and I LOVED it. It wasn't my friend's first choice--she'd chosen a fancy, vegan-type restaurant that I figured would have $4 coffees and be freezing inside. That place was closed on Monday, so we ended up at The Hub. It was warm, packed for lunch, had cheap hot coffee, and I had a tuna fish sandwich. I felt like a 50 year old back in the '50s--in a good way, and I can't wait to drag Robert back to give it a try.

A neighbor's dog got out today, and Robert and Trevor had loads of fun playing with her for a few hours this afternoon. She was TOO cute, although a little scared of Lucky, so he had to stay inside.


Christmas vacation marked our 8th anniversary of homeschooling, when we pulled Holly out of Littleton Academy. We are currently in our 17th week of school this year (36 total). I continue to be amazed at how things are moving so smoothly, as we all juggle schedules with me working. In the early years, we would have majority of our school load in the fall. By the time we hit the end of January, we'd slow down for the second half of the year. I'm a bit nervous about this time of year, but last year we maintained a steady pace, and we can keep that up this year.

I've been working less, taking advantage of the many holidays between, well, between Labor Day and Martin Luther King Day. With the holidays, I only cut out half a day per week, but cutting back from three days to two and a half makes a big difference. Those are ending next week, so I guess I will just look forward to spring! I guess I have a bit of a wait . . .

Weekly menu

Amy's Dirty Rice (w/Italian sausage), this cornbread, fruit or vegetable
Marlboro Man Sandwiches, Caesar salad
frito pie
Three Cheese Garlic Chicken Pasta
Orange Chicken, egg rolls, rice
cabbage ramen salad
Lemon Greek Soup, garlic cheese bread

to have on hand: Breakfast Burritos
Giant Breakfast Cookies

Cake of the week: Blech, who needs cake, I'm still sugared out from Christmas

On the back burner:Easy Peanut Butter Fudge, thanks again to Heather
Bobby Flay's fish tacos, and sweet and spicy kettle corn
French onion soup
fajitas (with the last flat iron steak)
Pumpkin Bars
crab cauliflower soup
Emily's Tortilla Soup

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

Wii played. I played enough Wii after Christmas--bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing, that my arms and chest were sore for a few days. It's kind of pathetic working that hard while in front of the tv. And it's weirdly fun to beat the pulp out of any family member while boxing. I think I'm getting a little too competitive . . .



We dragged Robert out just in time to set off fireworks at midnight. It was still freezing cold, so we were happy to stand on the porch to cheer him on.



We went through the sparklers as fast as we could.


And everyone ran inside to warm up, leaving me to snap photos of the blue moon.



Luke 5:37-38 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

HaPpy nEW yEaR !!!!!

The way home

It's been beautiful out, frigidly cold, highs below freezing, with clear, blue skies. Rob and I drove up to Roanoke last week. We were driving the van here; my Prius was still stuck in the snow at home. I took advantage of my passenger status and took pictures.

The main highway from Roanoke:

The road from town:

This is always the prettiest spot, winter, spring, summer, or fall.


On our street:







Home.


Sunset.


I'm tired of driving, but I never tire of the drive.

Christmas pics!

I did not take a lot of photos on Christmas Day. In the past, it was common for us to make the kids wait bleary-eyed and excited on the stairs until we got everything set up. We'd videotape them coming into the living room, then we'd set the video camera on a table and tape until the battery ran out.

I'm not sure how we managed it, but Robert and I were actually awake, dressed and drinking coffee before Trevor came downstairs. Holly's morning-challenged, but it was easy enough to convince her to get out of bed.



We've always saved the stockings for last. Trevor usually jumps right into the role of passing out presents from under the tree.

He moves like a blur, let me tell you.

Holly's cat was completely freaked out by Robert's Santa hat.


We pretty much take turns opening presents. I write everything down, and my usual Christmas morning mantra is, "Wait! Wait! WAIT!!! Who's that from?" It doesn't leave me much time to grab my camera.

The big surprise present this year was a Wii from Robert's family.

Besides, Trevor's usually the only one agreeable enough to have his picture taken.

He's changed into his new pajama bottoms too.

Blurry is good. I can tell she's smiling!

The mass cleanup follows. We usually keep the bag of garbage for several days. It wouldn't seem quite like Christmas to Robert if he didn't have to look through it a time or two for missing pieces, papers, or parts.

Notice how I jump right into that clean up thing.

The rest of our day was spent grazing, playing with our new gifts, and just hanging out. I'm guessing the kids never got out of their pajamas. I did, just in case anyone got a picture of me (which they didn't!). As is typical, we snacked enough all day long that we weren't very hungry for dinner. I skipped on a few of the menu items, and then we skipped on dessert too. All in all, a very memorable, very traditional Christmas Day.


~~Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men~~
Luke 2:14

Snow days before Christmas

Still playing catch up with pictures here!



The snow has been on the ground for almost two weeks now. My Prius is still snowed in. I wasn't really thinking much about snow when I'd last parked it--down next to the house so the van can easily back out. It took more than a week for me to be able to open the door to just get my sunglasses out!


It's been sunny but pretty cold.


Four days after the snow, Robert finally got my van out of the driveway. He chained me to the truck and pulled me out. Despite my best efforts (or worst, depending on how you look at it), it took about 45 minutes. He plans to get me professional driving lessons for the new year. (Okay, not really, but no one would be surprised.)


The roads had been totally clear for a couple of days, it's just the top half of my driveway that's dicey. Icey. Whatever. We took a drive up to Roanoke and dropped Holly and Trevor off at the movies. We went to Walmart where the parking lot was nuts, but there were no lines inside. This was two days before Christmas!! We went to Bubblecake, Starbucks, grocery shopping, and to kill time, the Harley store. The only bad rush hour traffic was near the little mall on the way home.


We stayed home on Christmas Eve Day and went to church that night. Christmas Eve and Easter are the only two days everyone really dresses up for church.


We had a candlelight service and stayed afterwards for the finger food fellowship.



We had a wonderful time, a wonderful evening, singing silly Christmas songs on the drive home, wrapping the last of the presents before tomorrow.

Immanuel = God with us.