(Some of) The fruits of my labors.

This snowbank is at least six feet high, maybe twice as long and three or four feet across. I’m proud to say that I created it mostly single handedly. But then, those that know me know that I like shoveling snow. It is long and arduous, but comes with a very satisfying end result.

Seems we have some more snow on the horizon to look forward to. Hopefully we’ll be able to find some space to put it!

Lovely house in the snow this morning.

We have had a great snow day. I got out twice shoveling and we had hot cocoa and warm soup and popcorn and silly shows on TV. We’ve had power for the whole storm, save the three seconds that it went out, and are generally happy campers tucked into our snowy little corner.

So many of or best moments these days seem to be centered around reading. Our car rides have gotten surprisingly quiet with each girl entranced in their own books, with just the sweet sounds of Esme reading aloud to herself from time to time. Bedtime reading has progressed from the Chronicles of Narnia to the Little House books and our non-fiction choices range from cookbooks to science texts to diy duct tape projects.

We were early to meet up with friends at the library today and as I was setting our things down I lost track of the girls. When I went looking for them I came across this little scene. I snapped the picture and turned on my heels, lest they see me and spoil the moment.

My favorite photo from our sledding fun today. Esme did make it a fair distance back up the hill, but her endeavors were cut short so that they could get a few more runs in before sunset.

“Mama, I love going to the Y with you. I’m not sure why, though.”
Short pause.
“Get it? Why/Y? Ha!”

Northfields neighborhood meeting tonight. It was great to meet and chat with many of our neighbors. We talked new playgrounds, block parties, folding cafeteria tables, and how to report potholes and uncollected trash to the city. Good times!

We have been enjoying the absolute best kind of mid-January home improvement.

After one brief conversation with my Dad about my dream of a motion sensor light switch in our entry staircase, I came home one afternoon to a very happy surprise.

For someone with:
a) kids who can’t quite reach the light switches, and
b) family members who forget to shut off the light, and
c) arms full of winter gear/swim gear/groceries/etc.,
it has come in very handy.

It may, in fact, be my favorite home project in a very long time!

Thanks to youtube we can spend a quiet evening folding laundry and watching Jimmy Carr on all sorts of British comedy panel tv shows.

It is so unfortunate that I can’t include his laugh on this post. Sometimes I find his laugh more enjoyable than his comedy!

It was a bittersweet day for Catherine. She had to say hej då, or goodbye, to Amiee and Barbara, the two Ikea employees that she’s hung out with periodically for the past five years. We knew the day was coming that she would over take the top of the red box that would exclude her from the Swedish nirvana that is Småland, and it turns out that today was that day.

While I am a bit sad to see the end of my solo strolls around the couches and desks and tiny home displays, I will embrace my new window shopping partner and show her the ropes!

If there is anything that the Wood girls love, it is a free admission day at museums! We spent a good part of today at the Museum of Fine Arts with a few thousand of our closest friends!

No matter how many times we visit, I’m always curious to see what will catch our interests. Today it was the Goya exhibit (“Look, Mama! That painting is in our ‘Babar’s Museum of Art’ book!), Egyptian Headdresses and, somewhat surprisingly, the museum’s collection of (usable) benches on display.

Esme was especially taken with the various benches found in many of the galleries. She had a radar for them and made sure to try each one out as we made our way through the museum.