…and home is where we’ll be! After a week of school cancellations for not much more than a couple inches of snow, we got an exciting dump of over 10 inches yesterday! And to make life more exciting, over night it turned to freezing rain. I’ve personally never experienced freezing rain before, but it’s pretty nasty stuff. On top of our 10 inches of snow, we now have a 2-3 inch layer of solid ice. Crazy! So now, EVERYTHING is closed, and may continue to be closed until Christmas. My mom is with us now, and her car is more or less frozen to the driveway. Everyone we talk to says pretty much the same thing: “I’ve lived here for 20 years, and we’ve never had anything like this!” I’m personally enjoying every bit of it. The snow doesn’t bother me to drive in, so I haven’t been home bound all week like many people, so I haven’t gone quite as stir-crazy. Now though, we’re all here for the long-haul, so we can make our Christmas preparations at our leisure, knowing that for the holidays you can’t beat home sweet home!

I found this video on my favorite parenting blog, Half-Full Blogversations: Science for Raising Happy Kids. It got me all weepy-like, thinking about the amazing women that have come in and out of my life, and the others who remain constant. I wanted to share for all of you out there. I feel blessed that you are in my life.

For the last few days we’ve been more or less housebound. And not necessarily just because of the “Winter Blast”. Let’s face it, I’m from Klamath Falls. I can handle my snow. However, everything else in the world has shut down, so we really just have no where to go, and nothing to do.

So today, I was going a little stir-crazy and decided I needed a little exercise. And truly, there’s little better in the exercise department in the middle of a snow storm than shoveling snow! Sounded to me like a great idea – until I remembered we live in Portland… where we never get snow. At least not any snow that hangs around long enough to worry about shoveling. So, for that reason, we do not own a snow shovel.

Not to worry, a quick trip to Fred Meyer should be able to fix that (assuming they have any left in stock). Alas, my trip was not as fruitful as I would have liked. It was cut short when I was called back to the Playland early to pick up Mylie for a bathroom break (even though I’d specifically had her use the restroom before I dropped her off). By that time, there wouldn’t be enough time to bring her back and continue shopping before the attendant left on a lunch break, so I just signed her out. We were headed down the hallway to the restroom when I turned around to see Mylie, with her pants and underwear around her ankles, bending down with her little bum hanging out for all the world to see. When I yelled at calmly asked her to pull her pants up, she began screaming at me that she had to check and see if there was poopy on her panties. I tried to grab her pants and pull them up, but this enraged her even more. I was finally able to drag her naked bum into the restroom (with Nolan in tow), and tried to explain to her that we don’t pull our pants down in the middle of the store. She gave me a blank stare and just kept telling me “but I had to see if there was poopy in my panties,” like that explained everything, and why didn’t I get it? She also refused to sit on the toilet.

So, I know when to cut my losses. I thought it was safer for all of us to just head home immediately. I didn’t even return the clothes I had in my cart to the rack or any employee… I just left it all sitting outside the restroom. I got home, put the kids to bed, and got the groceries put away.

But I was still left with the quandary of how to shovel my driveway without a shovel. There was a good 3+ inches piled up from the last few days of snow and ice, and some of it had been packed down and frozen. I kicked into Odyssey of the Mind Brainstorming Mode, and searched my garage for a solution. Yes, folks, I shoveled my driveway with a push broom and a garden shovel. Okay, so it’s no MacGyver solution, but it actually worked out much better than I thought. And boy did my abs and arms get a great workout. And after just an hour and a half and a little rock salt, my driveway is pretty clean.

Of course, no sooner was I done that a group of teenage boys across the street came out to do their driveway with a bunch of big-boy snow shovels. And then they had the nerve to ask me if they could use my snow to build a snow fort. I let them of course, but I gave them crap for waiting to ask me until after it was all shoveled into neat little piles for them. They could have come and done it for me!

I didn’t think to take any before and after pictures of my little adventure in snow-shoveling, however, because I hadn’t anticipated blogging about the whole adventure until I was alone in my driveway with my blog-a-logue (the monologue that plays in your head when you think, “Hey, I could blog about this!”). But trust me, it looked good.

Church is canceled today on account of the winter blast we’re getting. Nick and I feel slightly sheepish about admitting that we are thrilled. We truly believe that one day a week (Sunday, in our case) is supposed to be set aside as a day of rest, a day to worship and remember our savior. We try to avoid shopping, working and anything else that would cause someone else to have to work. We try to have family-centered activities and (usually) avoid watching TV or movies. Occasionally, I even try to avoid the computer (though that rarely works out). Of course, throughout our marriage our strict adherence to these principles has ebbed and flowed.

But one problem usually remains. We belong to a church with a lay ministry. That means no one gets paid to do anything, so the church depends solely on the members fulfilling their assignments (callings) in order to function. So, as most members of our church, our Sundays are usually fairly full. Meetings, choir rehearsal, more meetings, preparing lessons, three hours of church, more meetings, firesides, etc. Add to that the fact that we have two young children who generally go napless on these days, causing us to spend most of church wandering the hallways and thereby missing out on the spiritual fulfillment that it’s supposed to provide. So, generally, by the time nightfall roles around, we’re pooped. We send the kids to bed early and crash on the couch. And it just doesn’t always seem like we’ve really had a day of rest.

But not today! Today we’re at home in our pajamas. Today we have no more meetings, no rehearsals and no firesides. We have nowhere to go, and nothing to do. My husband is home, and we’re planning on making goodies with the kids later. And then we’ll put them down for a nap and take one ourselves. Yes, we love our church, and we miss not going. But we are totally loving the day of rest!

Here is an interesting article, about how a new law that is slated to go into effect soon will most likely decimate the small toy manufacturing industry – you know, those nice, hand-made toys that are SOOOO much nicer than the noisy plastic ones? It looks like one of those laws that had a nice idea, but the unintended consequences are going to be devastating. But then, unintended consequences are what government does best, I suppose… but that’s a topic for my other blog Anyway, check out this article, and get involved, if you’re so moved.