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

A day at the fair

Yesterday afternoon the whole family went to the NC state fair. We had a good enough time that I think we are going back next year, although perhaps we will leave Luke at home with a sitter. We went right after Eleanor's school. Michael picked up Eleanor, I drove Luke and Amanda. Through an amazing bit of timing, we met in the parking lot and walked to the fair together, about a 10 minute walk (not bad at all, really). I had meant to get to the fair much earlier and see the parts that Eleanor and Michael claimed not to be interested in (the animals and crafts, mostly) but I was running a little late. Our area has been in a serious drought for the past few months, so I am not complaining that it rained (hard) on us as we were getting to the gate. But it does seem a bit hard that we planned to go to the fair on the one day in the past 3 months that we had a rainstorm. Fortunately, the rain was scattered, and the clouds soon moved off to water another area. We took the opportun...
5 comments
Read more

Books I like: magic/science fiction

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was younger, so I was surprised when I was thinking about this list at how few books were on it. The other thing that is interesting is how many books I just remember a few details from, but not anything useful like a title or author. Half Magic and the whole series, by Edward Eager: My favorite is Knight's Castle, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever read Ivanhoe... Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald: I'm not sure when it happened, but I now identify with the parents rather than the kids. The Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris: I came back to the Jr. High library to check this out even after I moved on to the high school. Girl with the Silver Eyes by Wilo Davis Roberts: I always wondered what would happen if I had ESP and other "special" abilities. The OZ books, by L. Frank Baum: I read almost all of these (all the ones I could find in the library, rather). My favorite is Tik - To...
5 comments
Read more

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...
Post a Comment
Read more