10
Jan
BLOG
02
Jan
Never Promise a Craft Day When Starting A Diet
Maybe I should have seen this one coming. I should have known better than to promise paints to my preschoolers on the second day of a diet. But I did and I was awoken by two eager little kiddos this morning, asking: "Can we paint now? Can we paint now?" They wouldn't stop until I grudgingly got up and showered. They horsed down their breakfasts so that they could get their paint aprons on. Who knew that was so exciting?! I thought we would start simply and see how it all went, so we began with a couple of favorites,...
24
Dec
Starting Our First Christmas Traditions as a New Family
School is out and we are busy playing, creating memories and developing our first Christmas traditions. I grew up in a family rich in traditions, and although they are important to me, I want to create our own as a new family. Candlefest Christmas was a big deal in my childhood home. My Mom had a gift for making holidays special. On Christmas Eve, we would all work together to create a big feast to celebrate Christmas Eve. Once we had eaten, and my Dad had gathered us all around to read us the Christmas story from the...
10
Dec
Cabin Fever in a Texas Ice Storm
We are several days into our Very Rare Winter Wonderland, here in Texas. The weather is freezing and several inches of ice still cover the ground. Here in Texas, it snows or ices so rarely that when it does, there are no resources to manage it. There are a few trucks with sand available for the roads, but at times like this, those are clearly inadequate, so everything literally shuts down. This includes stores, schools, places of business. The roads are eerily empty. Since I work in a hospital, I still have to make...
07
Dec
A Very Rare Winter Wonderland
It appears the meteorologists were correct this time! Yesterday after our walk to the park, temperatures plunged by about 40 degrees within a few hours. There was rain and sleet all evening and all night. We woke up to a very rare winter wonderland! Everything was coated in ice, creating a calm stillness, which I remember from my childhood in the North. Before the kids awoke, I took my camera outside for a few pictures. This all made for a very excited little boy, who has been longing for snow ever since hearing that...
06:00 /
Nature
06
Dec
A Visit Back to See the Swan
It's December and it's 76 degrees outside. Tomorrow, the weather forecasters are threatening us with freezing temperatures. That's what it's like in Texas in the winter - shorts and t-shirts one day, scarves and mittens the next! We don't often take the weather forecasts very seriously, but today, we thought we would get in one more visit to the park before it became, as one meteorologist called it, "entombed in ice." Dramatic much? We had noticed that our friendly, neighborhood swan was still at the pond, and the kids had been begging to go back...