Skip to main content

Snow and ice

We got ice and snow yesterday. Here are a few notes:
  • I made Eleanor and Amanda eat breakfast before they went out. I didn't let them call any neighborhood friends at 7:30. I know, mean mommy.
  • When I asked Luke if he wanted to go outside, he said, "No, I don't think so." When I asked him why, he said, "It's too cold." I think he had some traumatic experiences with snow inside his boots and mittens when we went skiing. He's a little southern boy...
  • Eleanor complained that we didn't have a sled. I told her that we could buy one later, but she wanted to go out right then. Unfortunately, there is no way we are even getting out the driveway even today with our tires and front wheel drive car. So she asked Daddy if he could try to make something in the workshop. It didn't take too much wheedling before Michael (the original MacGyver) whipped up a sled from an old piece of plywood and some 2 by 4s. It doesn't go all that fast, but it sort of works for the kind of snow we have. Eleanor can pull Amanda through the back yard, and it glides a little bit on the road...
  • Another project: Eleanor has read the Little House in the Big Woods, and she was fascinated by the maple syrup candy they made by pouring maple syrup on snow during the sugaring off dance. So was I: I remember taking some syrup (probably Mrs. Butterworth's) and pouring it over some snow. It didn't work---change that, it sort of worked, but the syrup sank into the snow and made cold syrup water, not candy. Michael and I got some of our maple syrup stash (thank you Grandma and Grandpa J) and cooked it to the soft ball stage, drizzled it over some clean snow that Eleanor packed in a saucepan, and made yummy yummy chewy maple syrup bites. May I recommend the recipe to you all?
  • We are not going to church to teach Sunday school today =)
  • I didn't get outside yesterday. This morning, I hope to shovel. I realize that this is a mostly unnecessary exercise, since the snow in our driveway will melt soon enough, but it feels good to get ice off the driveway. For some reason...
Hope you all are well!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I remember drizzling maple syrup in the snow with you =)

FNDP
January 31, 2010 at 5:27 PM
mathmom said…
Now I am trying to figure out if our parents knew what we were trying to do, and if they did, whether they knew we needed to boil the syrup some more or not. I can see the argument either way...
February 1, 2010 at 7:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...
8 comments
Read more

Kindergarten Fashions

I was informed the other day that Eleanor wants to get a new thermos. She lost the o-ring from her purple Tinkerbell thermos, and I have so far resisted buying another one for her, on the theory that you shouldn't just replace things that are broken since it doesn't encourage being careful with one's things. I have been sending her with the sippee cups that she has been using since she was a year old, which she has resisted giving up to the point of becoming partly dehydrated when I don't let her use them at home. Here's how the conversation went. Eleanor: Anna and Jane said today at lunch, " Kindergartners don't drink from sippee cups!" Me: That's very interesting. Eleanor: They are supposed to drink from thermoses. Me: Eleanor, would you like a new thermos? Eleanor: Yes! Get the purple one, please. If there is a crayon one, that's the one I want.... Who knew that peer pressure started in kindergarten? The sippee cups are perfectly f...
4 comments
Read more

Girl toys

A friend just had a post about her son's desire to have a pink bejewled play phone (she and the people who comment have great things to say: here it is so you can read it). Thinking about her post made me very glad that for girls 5 and under (which is all I have experienced lately) there is no toy that is off limits as far as I can tell. Amanda's favorite toys are trains (although she doesn't play with them the way some of her boy friends do. I think Chanson's kids would play well with her version of trains). Her favorite movie is Cars. Her favorite TV show is Bob the Builder. No one in her life (relatives, friends, teachers) tells her that she can't enjoy all of these things. On the other hand, she likes to play with all these things while she is dressed as a princess... In Eleanor's class, everyone's favorite thing to do is woodworking, both girls and boys. The only mathematicians she knows are women, so she expects to do well in math as well...
5 comments
Read more