Home Alone, Day Seven

We've had a steady fire going for several days now. We're getting a little low on firewood but that's what it's there for, right?! It would be silly to try to "save" it (as I'm prone to do) so we won't run out, when we're having the coldest temperatures we've ever had here! For some reason I wake up between three and four o'clock every morning, right on cue to go stir up the coals and throw some more logs on before we lose the fire completely. Weird. I'm not a wake-up-in-the-night kind of girl, but it sure has come in handy. It's amazing how responsible one becomes when they encounter a little responsibility. ;-)

After devotions this morning I got all bundled up and went outside to try to shovel a path from the van down to the road--just tire tracks, not an entire 8' swath. I worked with our horrible FLAT metal snow shovel, all the while eying and coveting my neighbor's nice plastic, deeply curved shovel with the kinked handle that was standing in the snow next to her gate. (For those unaccustomed to shoveling snow, it just STICKS to a flat metal shovel as opposed to sliding off of the plastic.) That lasted for all of about five minutes. I came back inside and called her and asked if I could pleeeeeeeeease borrow her shovel! She said yes, of course, and asked if there was anything she could do to help. Wellllll... she has a little Subaru Forester 4x4 and doesn't have a driveway on a hill like ours, so she's not stuck at home like we are. I inquired and she said she was going out anyway today and she would be happy to bring us a gallon of milk. Wa-Hoo! No more rationing! Ha! The boys helped me bake two more loaves of bread today (since the last two loaves disappeared with astonishing speed), so now we're not low on anything anymore. Except pizzas. I just couldn't ask the neighbor lady to bring us frozen pizzas. She kept asking if we needed anything other than just milk and I thought of pizzas (we do need them--it's party time, you know?!), but I just couldn't ask her to do that for me. Although I know differently (ha!), it didn't seem like they were a necessary household staple worthy of asking a neighbor to bring to you when in a pinch. ~sigh~ I'm such a wimp.

Anyway, with the use of Betsy's shovel I had a path pretty well cleared in less than half the time it would've taken me with my own hunk-o-junk shovel. I like shoveling snow. I so seldom do it that I can easily find it enjoyable when it's necessary. :-) I could tell by the way the cars were creeping along the road that I wouldn't be going anywhere today anyway, but I figured if I shoveled today perhaps the path would have a chance to melt enough that I'd be able to leave the house for church on Sunday. And to pick James up from the airport on Monday.

The whole family bundled up and spent some time outside while I was shoveling. Katie and Sam went for a walk around the neighborhood and Joe stayed home to play with Charlie, who we discovered LOVES chewing on icicles...

I had waited until it warmed up to above zero temps before going out to shovel, but my ears were still cold. It's dumb that we've lived here for 3 years and never have invested in a hat, snow boots, or decent gloves--I have no true-blue snow gear. My ears and hands were the only thing that got cold and before too long I had shed my coat and was plenty comfortable in my sweatshirt. The cold air just feels so crisp and clean and invigorating. I LOVE IT. :-)

We didn't get to school until after lunch today, but had a fairly productive day anyway. Afterwards, Katie asked if she could watch one of my Roger Bennett videos. I told her that his piano instruction would be way beyond her (it's way beyond me, no doubt about it!), but that she'd still enjoy watching him play and might be able to pick up on a couple of ideas. She was overwhelmed and couldn't keep up (nor can I), but it is just so, so fun to watch and listen to what he could do. Amazing. And it provided some more time for me to work on my Coke puzzle. :-) I've been pleasantly surprised to find that it's actually sort of fun! It's very, very challenging, but not too difficult to be able to enjoy.

I took these pictures today. Here we see one of the many differences between girls and boys. Here is the girl, happily playing with her LeapPad...


And here are the boys, completely dismantling their LeapPad one screw at a time.



They took most of the innards out (I never would've allowed such a thing, but they've had it for several years and very seldom touch it anymore) and I asked if they thought they could get the whole thing back together and if they thought it would actually work when they were done. They were enthused by the challenge and got right to it. To my surprise and their own utter amazement (ha!), they were able to do it and it seems to be working just fine. There were at least eight screws still lying on the table when they were finished, but apparently they were unnecessary ones. ;-)

We had Frito pie for dinner tonight, eating in the den and watching Jeopardy. I thought of Jon spilling chili all over Dad's recliner when we were kids and calling Grandmother for help. "Quick! How do you get chili out of a chair--my life depends on it!" :-) Nobody had any accidents tonight, I'm happy to report.

Service in Albuquerque was cancelled tonight (we wouldn't have been able to make it there in the van anyway), so we tuned in to the service in Aurora. We were really enjoying it, but after Jon had been teaching for about 15 minutes (maybe?) my computer overheated and shut down. Aaaarrrrrggghhhh! I hate it when it does that! It doesn't happen often, but it's so frustrating when it does. It takes FOREVER to re-boot and by the time I actually got it up and running again the service was over. ~sigh~ At least we were able to take part in the song service and hear the first part of the lesson.

Looks like all of the kids are finally sacked out. So now's the time I do the proofreading I didn't do last night. :-) I fully intended to do it, but James called and talked for a while (which was nice!) and by the time we got off I was just way too tired to mess with it. So tonight is the night. Here I go. It's nice having a job that I'm looking forward to. :-)