A January Jaunt

 
 

A slow Sunday morning around the house today.  The weather has turned very cold compared to what we have become accustomed to this winter and with a snowless cold front blowing in last night came single digit temperatures.  Cloudless blue skies, but the low temps and high wind has us scratching out heads with how to get outside for some entertainment.  A lazy day around the house is not unattractive as a nice way to end a busy week.  Sophia had a violin recital on Monday night.  Her and 142 other fourth graders played three songs to a packed high school auditorium that even include a VIP section just for grandma.  That was a very long day for Merrick and by the time we got home, Merrick was ready for bed. In the evenings we still find time to work in some blackjack, and Merrick is getting quite good at his math and numeracy often winning large pots as he is slowly figuring out probabilities.  Saturday morning was Merrick's soccer, which gets us up and running in the morning and then a mid afternoon trip to the Children's Museum with some friends.  The kids had a blast and we topped it all off with a some pizza and full on four kid fashion show that included both summer beach wear and active wear.  Merrick apparently broke Sophia's troll headed pen, much to her disappointment.  I told her she should use the hair to make a fly...so as I type she is making some pink haired fly at my tying desk.  We then had to take fly tying to the next and I had her make two matching flies and we clipped the hooks and added earring loops instead.   At some point today we do have to get some chocolate chip cookies made, that has been on my to do list for about a week!

Winter Wealthy

 

 
Another weekend has past and we took it pretty cool, still feeling the affects of a midweek return from the long vacation.  Sophia had a friend sleep over Friday night that was in town from Florida.   Which means that Merrick sleeps in my bed and means I don't sleep at all.  So while we spent Saturday morning at Merrick's soccer practice, Saturday afternoon was spent in oscillation between domestic chores and napping.  Even Merrick cranked off a two-hour nap to recharge his batteries.  Sunday even found us sleeping in until after eight, an unheard of hour for this household.  But then after a lumberjack sized breakfast it was time to catch some outside time.  We attempted to build a small fire in the backyard during our snowball fight and the snowballs were much more successful than the campfire.  We did head down town for an hour or so to skate on the artificial ice rink that the city put up along the river walk.  Pretty interesting to skate along on ice that will never melt.  We spun circles, played tag and generally enjoyed our good fortune at being able to play in the sun.  I had read earlier in the day about a truck/trailer combo that went through the ice up north, so after skating we trucked up there to see if it was still submerged.  The kids had a good time wandering around on the frozen lake, but the salvage project was already gone and only a ring of abandoned Christmas trees were ringing the thin ice were the truck had been.  That didn't stop us from making some grammar jokes at the warning signs of Dam  Thin Ice.  Dance returns tomorrow along with personal pizzas for the kids' supper as a reward for meeting their monthly reading goals.  Raising their vocabularies, phonetic awareness and cholesterol all at once.