More things they say

Mary Cate is really into the color blue. Here's one of her latest masterpieces. Only it's not art, it's math. Or maybe both. She told me,  "I'm doing my math. I'm writing SO many maths."

Mary's maths

The other morning before school, Eddie was hypothesizing how Jesus came back to life. "Maybe he was almost dead but lots of birds came and helped him get down from the cross." I explained (poorly, to be sure) how Jesus was completely 100% dead in a grave but he defeated death because he's God and rose again! "Oh, so like, God always has extra lives?" #toomuchnintendo

We got our new microwave and oven this week. I overheard Nellie gazing at them lovingly, saying, "this is my dream come true." Living large!

We were watching Dolphin Tale and there's a scene where the little girl says to the boy, "you don't talk much, do you?" DJ, who is pretty quiet himself but is used to talkative girls, interjected, "NO. He talks just the right amount that people are supposed to talk. SHE just talks a LOT."

Winter days, Part 4

Snow day #9, and we're feeling fine:

Just kidding, we were all a little depressed, actually. Everyone but Kevin and DJ, that is, because we had to send them off to Florida in the middle of our snowy day.

We started the same way we started the other days off--curled up on the love seat, drinking our drinks and watching the snow.

"Matching" footie jammies

Mary Cate has grown fond of this new routine. On Friday night, she asked for juice but wanted to drink it, "in the echo room on the couch snuggling you while you drink your coffee." I told her she needed to wait until morning. It is a nice routine. 😍

By 8:00, plumbers arrived to hook up a gas line to the kitchen. (We decided to get a new oven because of a variety of issues with the old one--also a faulty burner electrocuted Kevin. Then the microwave broke. Now, we're broke.) I went out and shoveled until I could barely move, and that was just the first shoveling of the day.

The rest of the morning was spent rushing around helping DJ and Kevin with last-minute preparations and seeing them off! Praise the Lord, they made it to Grand Rapids and off the ground. I wasn't all that optimistic, to be honest.

I worked a bit while we watched The Greatest Showman, then we assuaged our wintery sorrows with a trip to Biggby. 

The girls had another snow day on Wednesday. They went the sitter's with the little kids, which meant I got to hang out with them a little longer at school in the morning!

Bonus pictures--we celebrated Valentine's Day early with a trip to Portland for bowling and pizza. It was a lot of fun and the kids are getting to be pretty good bowlers!

We 💝 Mary Cate

Mary: Can I have some more juice, please? 

Nellie: Wow Mary, high five for using good manners!

Mary, screaming: NO HIGH FIVE!

Me: Now that's irony!

Mary: No, I MARY.

Mary, getting in the car: Oh, hehe! [She calls her blanket "hehe."] You're so very blue! I love you, hehe!

Annie, after Mary was covered in applesauce and trying to lick her: Normally babies are so cute, but sometimes they're super gross.

Eddie: Mom, you know what? Mary's numbers are getting hot. I'm four, and Mary's two! She's hot on my trail! But soon I'll be five. Then I'll get ahead. [He's probably playing too much Mario Kart.] 

Winter days, Part 3

Ice storm, day 1:

We did see this one coming with the forecast calling for an ice storm. It went much more smoothly than last week--I think we're finally in a groove when it comes to surprise days together at home. We stayed off the roads. I can't sleep past 5:15 when we get 25 texts and calls from two schools announcing school's cancelled, so I did laundry, sent work emails, and baked biscotti while the kids woke up slowly. We started writing valentines; Annie made a giraffe-themed valentine box and chocolate chip cookies. We did puzzles and finally watched the Antman DVD from the library that we rented before last week's storm. The kids had a Nerf war while I walked and walked and walked on the treadmill. There's nothing like the threat of being shot in the back to keep you moving!

I'll admit, I shamelessly gave in to Facebook's targeted marketing and bought DJ this puzzle.
It made for a good ice day activity, though!

Ice storm, day 2:
Okay, we did NOT see this one coming. We may never go back to school again, so homeschooling it is. These kids gotta learn something other than Nintendo and baking, although I'm pretty happy about the latter. I started my day making math worksheets for the big kids and baggies filled with paint (Pinterest) for Eddie to practice writing. We had math, Bible, and reading after a trip to the library. DJ discovered Dogman and he'll read for hours, which made for a quiet evening.

I learned quote a bit about our kids over the last couple of weeks.
For example, this one drinks coffee.

All these days off had me wondering--if I could go back and warn myself in early January, what would I even say? There were great parts. The slower pace had me drinking coffee and cuddling with Mary Cate while watching the snow and ice and wind out of the front window for lots of hours. Staying warm was an adventure, and the kids actually spent remarkably little time watching TV and playing video games. We got a few little projects done and ate a lot of delicious foods we learned how to make. But there was something about the nagging feeling that it was going to be that much harder to go back to real life that had all of us on edge. (And who didn't, at some point, subconsciously wonder if this was going to be our new life now?)

Now that it's all over--the snow days, hopefully, not winter--I'm just thankful for so much. For a job where, for the most part, I get to stay home when the kids are off school. That Kevin fixed the van so it has heat now. That we knew the storm was coming so we could stock up on groceries and not leave the house for four days straight. For a functioning furnace and wood fireplace. That when Mary Cate had a fever this week we had the second ice day. For kids who like to stay busy and play together even though we're noticing their increased independence. For the forced slow-down and time together.

Winter days 2019, Part 2

Winter storm: Day 1

We slept in. We sat at the window and watched the snow come down. We played outside. Shoveled. Played a new game, "Blink." The kids fought like cats and dogs ALL DAY. We yelled a lot to stop yelling. We put away the last Christmas decor and brought out the Valentine's Day stuff. We painted heart-shaped stained glass crafts. Introduced Mary Cate to Dora. Made blueberry pancakes and tried our hand at homemade chicken noodle soup. (How did I not know how to make chicken noodle soup?) I did one load of laundry out of the intended six. The kids played "boarding school" because we told them they had to do school at home...it looks like we'll be here for awhile. Kevin taught the girls CPR using his Red Cross materials. School's already called off for tomorrow.

DJ's reading Dogman, so the girls drew these for him 💗

Playing Blink 

I feel safer already

Winter storm: Day 2

I was committed to getting the kids out of the house today because yesterday was a little rough. So I got them up by 9:30 and out of the house by 10:30. The plan was to stop at school for awhile so I could print some things and make some copies (and let the kids run around the gym, let's be honest) then get lunch at McDonald's and do something fun before heading home to burrow in for the deep freeze. I made the kids pack water and blankets just in case. Two minutes from home, the van alarm started dinging like mad with a warning that the engine was running on low power and I should stop immediately. So I slowly made my way home with melancholy kids in tow. Although in retrospect, I sure am glad we didn't break down further from home.

Once again, I forced those grumpy kids to play outside in the snow because I knew it was the last we'd see of the outdoors for awhile. Thankfully, Uncle Mike came out to pick up the big kids and took them to District 5! I finally got a pile of schoolwork done. When they came home, the girls made biscotti, which we've been wanting to try for months. Annie built a model of the Pentagon for her class snow day challenge while Nellie baked her first on-her-own dessert--brownie pudding cake. Seriously, school needs to start back up or they'll have to roll me out of here. The kids finally perked up with a little after-dinner dance party (Otto's spending the night), then a movie for the boys and board games for the girls. Bring it on, Day 3.

Winter storm: Day 3

I feel like we finally figured out how to survive being stuck indoors together. Since Otto spent the night, the boys spent the early morning entertaining themselves. That helped. We spent a good part of the morning on snow science, which was fun and super messy. We baked blueberry muffins, made taco soup, digitally "borrowed" the new Grinch movie, and drew Ninjago characters. After dinner, the boys went to spend the night at Otto's house! Mary gloriously went to bed at 7:30 and the big girls stayed up to watch TWO movies with us: Christopher Robin and Saving Mr. Banks. Both great. The main excitement was the emergency alert asking everyone to turn their heat down. It got chilly! The inside of our front door and window started frosting over, so we had to improvise with blanket curtains.

Snow experiments!

The kids' crafts from Monday--plus a frosted glass door (literally)

"I'm Daddy!"

He reminded me of the show "Mountain Men" after cutting wood for an hour

Annie's table

Frost forming on the inside of the door

Annie's muffins

Winter storm: Day 4

Okay. Today flew by. After accidentally napping during a movie last night then staying up until 1 a.m., I sort of forgot Mary went to bed so early until she woke up at 6:30. But she has a cold so while she watched lots of Dora, I got lots of work done that's been waiting all week. We had picnics prepared by Mary Cate with our coffee and biscotti. Once the other girls woke up, we played Clue, Monopoly Junior, and Candy Land, then taught the girls Mancala. The girls made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting from scratch (we all agreed it was the best cake ever, even though we don't even like cake all that much, generally) when we realized we were out of baked goods. DJ played with a friend while we worked on random projects and played in the basement. Grand Ledge called off school again tomorrow...and I'm hoping the van will get us to LCS in the morning!

The cake--I could get used to the girls baking on their own!

Cute Mary with cheese stuck to her chin, saying "cheese"

Epilogue (or, Winter storm: Day 5)

The big kids stayed home today, and as far as I can tell mostly watched TV and cleaned up so I wouldn't give them a hard time about it. It wasn't easy to get out the door this morning. As happy as I was to get back to school, I was nervous and just a little salty about how cold it was. Kevin had me drive his car, so at least there was heat. We were stuck for ages on the highway. But all in all, it was hard to grumble when Mary Cate was so excited about taking Kevin's car ("I'm excited for this adventure!") and had me singing "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart" on repeat all the way to school.

Now that this crazy week is over, I can say one thing--this family depends on some routine! We normally have no problem on vacation and breaks from school, but something about the unanticipated nature of it and the nagging feeling that you weren't taking care of your responsibilities had everyone on edge. It was awfully nice to be together and try all kinds of fun things, though. It really was a unique time--now, back to real life!