Friday, February 27, 2015

Into the Weekend (10!)





This afternoon I got off the train to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get better cake pans.  As soon as I was home, it was straight to baking a chocolate layer cake...then right into making home-made macaroni and cheese with steamed broccoli for dinner.


All done for the love of this girl, who turned 10 yesterday (when I had a department meeting and could not cook dinner).  Her birthday party is tomorrow, thus the cake (chocolate frosting to go on tomorrow morning).  

And who, by the way, was delighted that I managed to get this doormat custom made for her special day:


She's been thrilled and surprised at every turn. There is nothing she loves more than celebration and family time.

Anya, my girl, thank you for 10 years of love, delight, joy, angst, drama, pride, annoyance, imagination...and so very much laughter. I love you more than I could ever express in words. 

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Happiness is...Six-Sided!







Kind of fascinating (to me) that he could get smiley faces on all six sides of the cube at once.  However, it may also be a sign that he really, really needs to get back to school soon (and yet has a week of vacation to follow having almost the entire first half of February off for snow days).  

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Epic

From about two weeks ago, during/after the first storm:





From this week, during and after the third storm:








It's been an amazing set of storms. The snow just never seems to stop coming, but we're running out of places to put it all!  Massachusetts has broken its record for total snowfall in a 30-day period. This week alone, Quincy got over 27 inches of snow.  The totals for the year are well over 60 inches, I think (probably much more).  It's kind of crazy.  I mean, I can barely see our deck railing anymore!  If the Storm of 78 was the memory of my generation, this is likely to be the set of storms that my children will always remember.  Sam is actually only about a year older than I was in '78.  Unlike me, he didn't decide to go out exploring the snow once everyone was told it was okay to be out-of-doors again. I remember going down the street to the beach and being just amazed by all the snow.

Epic.

It's frustrating to try to move around (and public transportation is a huge mess), and maddening that both the kids and I have missed so much school.  (How am I ever going to get students focused and gaining momentum in courses that have met, at best, once per week so far?)  

But it's also beautiful--not just to watch, but in how it forces us to slow down a little. Make time for each other, for yoga, for tea, for cooking, for candle light.  





...that part of it kind of makes me wish we could just stop time and enjoy this slow home life a little longer.  Alas, we must instead return to reality, probably starting tomorrow.

At least, unless there's another storm.  In that case, we may not be able to leave the house til spring!

Hoping that any of you who have been in the storms are faring well!