Friday: alone

Today was my first day home alone since before Christmas break.  It was nice.  (Although I will admit that one of the days only Ben was home and he mostly hid in the basement.)

Ben also found our first Lego paper bag in the set that he's working on.

Thursday: a sweet conversation

 I was bringing Joshua to piano tonight and we were talking about Minecraft adjacent things: is platinum or diamond more expensive? (I have no idea).  Are diamonds or emeralds more expensive? I also have no idea because I don't know anything about emeralds, but I know a little bit about diamonds.

J: I have another question you won't know.

A: Ok.

J: How do you ask your wife to marry you?

A: (oh, that turned differently than expected, but we were talking about wedding rings with diamonds) What part?

J: The ring.  How do you know what to get?

A: Well, you'll probably talk with your girlfriend at some point and find out what she likes.  She might like diamonds, so might not.  Either way is ok.

A: You also need to figure out if she likes gold or silver for the actual ring part.  You can often look at her other jewelry to figure this out.

J: Who gets the guys ring?

A: Well, usually you get the wedding rings together.  Grandpa Paul and Grandma Julie got a set and they had similar designs on them, but Mom and Dad just got plain bands.

J: hmm.  ok.

A: any other questions?

J:  No.  This was just one of those things you have to know!  I need to learn it somewhere.

A: Absolutely. I'm happy to answer any questions.

J: Although it was a little early.  They'll probably teach it to me in high school.

A: Mmm, they don't teach this kind of thing in school.

J: oh, I'll probably have to ask again then.

A: Sounds good.

Wednesday: snow day

 As expected the kids were excited about the snow day.  Also as more or less expected, the day went well.  We made a list of homework/chores that they needed to work on throughout the day, and they did!  I'd suggest a break, and they'd take the break and then they'd work on a chore.  I was rather amazed - not that they were willing to help but that I didn't have to remind them throughout the day.  We're having friends over on Saturday, and this should make Saturday prep go a lot better.

Tuesday: school

 There was school today!  I was about 90% sure that it would be canceled, but since I work and Ben had meetings it actually worked out well.  I did end up making the kids walk through some really deep snow after dropping them off at school because the sidewalks hadn't been plowed yet.  They were both a bit grumpy about it, but they survived.

It should have been a snow day though.  I did a lot of driving and while roads weren't terrible, they also weren't good, it was cold out, and it was snowy.  

After rock climbing the kids voluntarily helped me shovel half the driveway.  Then Joshua, who hates the snow, played in the snow for the next half hour.

Around 10pm I received a phone call: school is canceled tomorrow.  I have mixed feelings - snow days are fun!  The kids will be so excited! But at the same time, how am I supposed to finish my chores?  I'm staying afloat, but I'm definitely adding more things to the to-do list than I'm taking off.  Also, I "blame" Ben for the snow day.  Whenever he's going to bring the kids in to school something happens so he gets to skip it.

Monday: no school

It was a nice day.  Joshua went to a friend's house in the morning.  Isaac worked diligently on his homework and we played a game.  (He won by a ton of points - 47 to 5.)

The forecast looked like this all day: it's currently snowing but that's going to stop soon.  Apparently they can't predict the lake effect snow well at all.  We didn't get a ton during the day, but a good inch plus about two from last night.  School hasn't been canceled for tomorrow (yet), but we're still hoping.  There isn't as much snow predicted but it should be a bit colder than today.  It was in the single digits most of the day, but when I was snow blowing I got hot so I wasn't the best judge of cold today.

I got an auto-page turner for my kindle with some Christmas money.  This way I can keep my hands warm while still reading.  It also takes pictures without the timer.

Sunday: snow storm

It finally felt the storm finally came in today.  Church was on-line only this morning.  Snow blowing was back normal - it was snow and nothing else.  There was between 0 and 12inches on the driveway, thanks to the wind.

We played a nice game of Space Base in the afternoon.  Everyone (including Joshua) was enjoying themselves, the snow was coming down, and the birds were at the feeders.  Speaking of birds, we had a lot of mallards and Canada geese the last two days.  I thought the geese at least would go farther south; I don't remember seeing any in the past.

We also have a mimic problem in our house.  It has caught Joshua's imagination.

Apparently area schools have a snow day tomorrow, but since it's MLK day we already didn't have school.  I wouldn't be surprised if Tuesday was a snow day due to cold, but we'll see what happens.

Saturday: shoveling water 3, dishwasher

 We got a fair amount of snow over night and a very small amount during the day today.  I think we've gotten more since nightfall, but it's hard to tell how much.

Last night I went outside only to hear the drip-drip-drip of melting snow.  It was beautiful because it was so wet, but seriously?  It was the middle of the night!

I snow-blowed today and it only went ok.  The end of the driveway, where the plow had come through, was half slush, again.  The snow blower doesn't like slush.  I got some of it, but had to spend quite a while shoveling by hand.  I finally called it good enough since I figured I'd need to deal with it again soon.

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Yesterday I put dishwasher detergent in the dishwasher and was surprised that it was white.  Last time I put it in the color was blue...and then I remembered being a little surprised that time too because I thought it was supposed to be white.  I thought about it for a little bit.  Did I actually put dish soap in?  No.  That would have been obvious.  Could it have been a dream?  Yeah, that's plausible.  Let's call it a dream.  Then I opened up the other side of the cabinet to throw away some trash and found another container of detergent...and it was blue.  Well, at least the mystery was solved.