Crusty

That's the best word to use to describe the current situation around here.

In the last week or so, the humans have all come down with some variation of the common cold and Jessie has done an amazing rebound and returned to life.  It's been amazing to see, first she perked up a bit, then quite a bit, now she's trotting and hopping and seemingly just fine.  After her collapse, I never imagined she'd bounce back.

It snowed yesterday for nearly 15 straight minutes.  Matt picked up milk, bread and eggs because we were legit out of all 3, but it was still pretty funny.  He mixed it up with some veggie eggrolls though.
Wednesday or Thursday, I woke up feeling like there was an entire pencil inside my ear canal.  My chest was achy and my nose was doing that WTF thing where just one nostril works at a time.  The other leaks at the rate of one tissue per 5 minutes.  Throat was a little sore, but the drainage knocked my range of speech to creepy level 3.  I sounded like a rusted man.  When Chan had this last week, when she talked it sounded like 2 people talking it once.  It was SO scary. It does not seem scary, but your child in stereo, with one voice a little lower than the other, is VERY creepy.  Suck in air and talk.  It was very much like that.

While it only snowed a dusting here, the schools were closed. We get made fun of ALL the time for shutting down when it snows at all, but the basis of that decision is made with the thought of little kids waiting for the bus in the early hours.  Many, many people here don't have a good coat.  So, make fun if you want, but next time it's sleeting, go stand by your mailbox before the sun comes up in a sweater and jeans for 20 minutes.  Not everybody's mama can drive them to school.

A couple snaps from the snow.

Kuma was having a blast until I pointed the camera at him.
I go back and forth with wondering if he dies via photograph if he would be vindicated for his lifetime of wariness or if his last thoughts would be of horror because-clicky thing, aaaaaaaa

I have slept a good 4 to 6 hours total in the last 2 nights thanks to, and I will say it, MATT.  And my cold, but mostly my adored hubby who walks in his sleep and makes the bed wiggle.  Move to the couch, you suggest?  I can't fall asleep easily in other places, even the next room.  So all that netted was nearly 4 hour of laying there without the bed wiggling.  I am the most exhausted light sleeper in the world.  I'll just stay awake if there's the slightest chance I could be woken up.  Plus, the living room is COLD with it's single (who planned that?) heat vent directly over the front door.

When I finally did fall asleep last night, I woke up today with my nose crusted TO THE PILLOW.  It cracked loose when I tried to roll over.  Matt took one look and ran for the medicine cabinet, though 2 Sudafed and a Tylenol cold and congestion dose later, I feel NO BETTER.

To that end, I have decided to withdraw some from life and to celebrate, I unfriended the worst of the Trumpers still on my FB feed.  There's supporting your party, there's hoping for the best, then at some point, it becomes a combination of willful ignorance and 'someone said'.  And hate.

I typed way, way, way more and then deleted it because it was unkind.  See?  I am getting better. ish.  I still can't stand a hate spewing idiot particularly and I do mean this-when they are a hypocrite.  People can see when you say one thing and do another.  I'm just done with observing and ready to call people out.  Or, in this case, cut them loose.  Some people are too far gone to fix.

Okay, I think I am wound down.

This weekend is a bust, though Matt is off at the studio and Jake and Chan are going to town.  Ben is still puny.

Next week, there are plans for backpacking Friday because while it's 19 right now, it will be 70 a week from now.  Aaaaaand, no wonder we all have colds.  Various other things scattered in the week, just have to see how this cold is going.

17 words from being level 4 in Swedish.  I really wish I could find someone who can speak it, so I can ask some questions particularly about pronunciation.  Only 2 more levels and I will be proficient.  I have started reading a few things.  Children's books, short articles online, a few blogs.  I need a LOT more words to fill in the gaps, but I can piece together pretty well by guessing the unknown words based on context.  I doubt I will ever be able to write or speak my own thoughts without more training in stitching the words.   Some sentences are word for word.  Han ar trott, sa han vill stanna hemma.  He is tired, so he will stay home.  But then "I will be home at 4" is 'Jag ar hemma clockan fyra" 'I am home clock four.'.

I have a feeling it's similar to English rules, like using I or me, or a or an and once I figure it out, it will all be more simple.  

Snow! and Tea!

 On Friday we had a really good tour of Piper and Leaf over at Lowe Mill.  The owners were homeschooled!  And there are several siblings working together, so that was nice, too.

We toured the warehouse, mixing room and the tea shop.

Before we left, everyone had to get their jar filled!  I got caramel apple pie tea.
We came home with a summer blend with peaches that Ben won in a quiz and a chocolate fig blend and more caramel apple pie.

Ben went home with Katy because of the snow forecast, he's always wanted to sled down the back of the mountain.  He got to, several times!  Yay!

We all had lunch together and then headed home in case the snow got too crazy.

I have always wanted a picture of that tree!  The one off in the distance, there's another shot later on down there.   There's nowhere to pull off and no shoulder and Matt won't drop me off and let me wade over and get a shot and then come back to get me.  It's not a safe stretch of road at all.  But this is kind of okay, since it's pretty much exactly how I see the tree going down the road!

We waited for the tree to be moved, but those men parked about 6 inches from it on both sides and traffic stacked up behind them.  If either one had thought to stop further back, they could have hoofed it off the road.  We decided to turn around and g up the back way.  It was much prettier!

We went back to Katy's on Saturday for a birthday hang Emma's 14!
Most everyone was off sledding again, even Matt and Chan got in on it this time.
Birdie and I ate most of a flat of raspberries while we waited.

Before long, everyone had returned and after lunch the kids played this horrible game with flavored jellybeans.  You get a spinner and spin it, it stops on a color and you pick one bean from the bowl that is that color.  Green could be lime, or grass clippings.  Brown could be cinnamon or barf.  Black was licorice or skunk spray.  And so on.  The kids were delighted and disgusted in equal measure, so it was a success, I'd say.

The dads ran for the racing game in the basement.  The moms ran for the chairs in the sun room!

Our view was better! 

 The candles!  I nearly missed it because we were-talking!  Surprise.  

 This week is a little different, Jake did not bother to tell me there was no police thing tonight, so I arrived early to get him, Taco Bell in hand and a freshly filled tank.  Cost me $32 to make that 90 minute round trip so he could come home just ahead of Matt.  GAH
I did need to drive for a little while to be sure the brakes are acting right. So far, so good.  Of course I am in that early on mode of having some minor panic at every odd noise.

Matt's dad popped in out of the blue, left fireworks and a stream of advice, then vamoosed for Kentucky.  We will probably see him again in 18 months after he drives 8 hours one way to stay 15 minutes.  He thought Jake was turning 18 this fall.  That's Chan.  In 3 weeks. Oddest family relationships ever. I saw my grandparents every single weekend of my entire childhood, whole weeks in the summers, spring break, Christmas break.  The kids have seen theirs...maybe 2 dozen times in the past 10 years. That's for all 4 of them, not just Papaw.  When Matt's dad comes up the walk, one of them always asks, "What do we call him again?"  He probably does the same thing.

I know, better than most, that relation is not obligation.  I am not complaining, just sad.  They are such great kids and everyone involved is missing out on one of the best relationships there is in life.

Snowmageddon 2015

Matt went to work Tuesday and was so pathetic that Wednesday his boss called and told him to run some reports from home and charge it as a work day.  Basically, "Don't come in you cesspool".  So there's that, I guess.

He did his work stuff and Jake and I ran a couple quick errands ahead of the forecasted snow-the governor declared a state of emergency before anything ever happened and schools let out all over the northern half of the state.

While in the line at Little Caesar's (I really needed chewy breadsticks) the snow started.  By the time we got home, we were the only idiots on the road, yay!

It snowed about 5.5 inches Wednesday afternoon and another couple inches overnight.  Our yard tests this morning showed anywhere from 7 to 8.5 inches, it's already melting off in places.  It does not last long around here!

In Huntsville, they already have the roads cleared but here, they are just saying to stay home.  The sheriff sweetened the deal by offering tickets to anyone who does venture out.  Last night several semis got stuck out on the road and then so did the trucks that went to pull them out.  For some reason, that cracked me up, though I imagine no one directly involved was amused at all.

I can see trucks going by on the main road now and then, but not even the mail truck has turned down the driveway.  That is not surprising, there are whole days we get skipped even when the weather is good.  Last Saturday is a prime example.  *gripe gripe*

I made snow cream with maple syrup and Ben and Chan are rolling up half the yard into giant leafy snowmen.  Jake is staying in bed all day, his capacity for fun is zero point zero.

The above was taken really late last night, I liked that it was so blurry.

Early this morning

Up through the limbs of the big pine in back.

It's melting so fast!  The sun is SO warm, I put on sunscreen and sat out on the porch a while.
The kids are in, shoveling down snowcream and talking loudly while the cheddar broccoli soup finishes cooking.  We'll enjoy our one more day of being all at home, maybe have a nap this afternoon.  There's enough wood for another couple of days and the house is toasty.  Everyone is feeling better, if not 100% then functional anyway.

We have a busy weekend ahead and if the weather dries out, a camping trip starting a week from today.  Now that the winter has had this last hoorah, I imagine spring will bustle in and take over PDQ.  I still have not heard my peepers!

Show Week

One week from right now, the show will be over.  The last week is like a rollercoaster with a LOT of 'hurry up and wait' built in.  The kids get closer with their fellow actors, the directors go a little loopy (or a LOT loopy, we have had it go both ways) and the last little bits fall into place.

This has been the first play I have not waffled about a half dozen times.  In the past, I have been so sure it was going to be horrible to have everything work out just fine and the production be better than I ever hoped.  And I have thought it was going to be awesome and ended up counting the hours until I could collect my kids and burn their scripts to expedite the cleansing process.

From the minute I saw Emily dancing, I knew THIS was going to be a good play.  They had a music director in at the start and she grouped the kids by voice and WOW, what a difference.  Kind of like in Sister Act, hahaha!

The person doing head shots this time around rocks.  Yeah, it's me.  But, I rock.  If there is ONE thing I can do, it is aim a camera, so I was glad when the director asked me to take care of it.  I am also doing production shots during the performance.  And make-up.  Oh, and bathroom duty in the girls dressing room. I actually volunteered for that one, they were gross today after the high schoolers used them for their play.  I don't want that level of ick again, so my plan is to wipe them after each show and dump the trash.

I dread Wednesday.  Out of the whole thing, THAT will be the worst.  We have to leave the house by 6 and that's with both boys done with their make-up-minor but necessary and a PITA at that time of day.  Get there at 6:30 and start on Chan's make-up then at 7, start on Britney.  There's a play at 8, 10 and 12.  And it's a fasting day.  We will be home around 3 and not have to be back at the theater until 'opening night' which is crazy talk for 'the 5th performance with an audience'.

 I found these in the camera today, they are shots Chan took after the snow last week!

Down in the orchard

The house from the cedar tree.  No, we have not finished painting the side!  

After we finished with a VERY fast paced 2 hours of wood cutting this morning, I took a few shots while we walked back up to the house.

Veronica flower

Tomorrow is another marathon of wood chopping in the morning and a 4 hour rehearsal in the afternoon.
The chainsaw would not start last weekend and we are trying to get our stash built back up before the next cold snap.  And trying to be able to take off until next Sunday, since Matt works Friday and Saturday is another 8+ hour theater day.  Long week ahead!