In Like a Lion If By Lion You Mean Snowstorm

Can you guys even hear me under the 14 inches of snow our house has been buried under these past few days? We are going on day 3 of no school, and it's actually been our best one yet. The first two I lazed about. I'm not against lazing, but I over-lazed. Today, I got up and made my kids do school work and actually showered and did my make-up even though I'm not going anywhere. And it improved everything. Maybe life is better when I'm not the Snow Day Urchin. You can quote me on that deep thought if you like.

But let's back up.

Last week, some extremely important things happened. First, I managed to put the amazing curl in June's hair ever. It only lasted half the day, but those six hours were blissful.

And I don't know what this is except it's cute.

Dan's closest friend at work is Hindu, and so after much discussion about religion, the two of them decided to switch eating habits for the day. Dan couldn't have any meat (yes, I know that many Hindus eat some meat, but his friend avoids it out of respect of hurting any life form), and his friend didn't drink coffee, tea or alcohol for the day.

I don't know if I've ever seen Dan eat a non-meaty lunch or dinner in my life.

He did pretty well. But by the time he got home Thursday, we had all had really stressful days so we decided to eat the most indulgent dinner ever--ice cream.

That's right. Our vegetarian dinner was at Last Licks. 

Of course it was delicious. I ordered Devil Dog, June ordered Nutella Chip, Gwen had Red Velvet Oreo, and Dan ordered . . . sigh . . . butter pecan.

My Devil Dog wasn't as good as I remembered it, so I asked June to trade me some bites. She's the one you want to start a negotiation with. She loves pleasing people.

Dan enjoyed his butter pecan, but snuck a bite of Gwen's when she wasn't looking. And then realized how amazing non-butter pecan ice cream can be. He asked her to trade some bites, and being Gwen, she wasn't having it.

Lesson--Don't order butter pecan and don't expect to trade with Gwen.

Remember how last post I mentioned wanting to do some spring cleaning? Well, Dan didn't read that. But because we are SOULMATES he decided he wanted to reorganize the kitchen Saturday. This is not characteristic of Dan, so I couldn't stop asking him about it. First off, our kitchen has not been well organized since we moved in. It has some wonky spaces, and we have just made do. But Dan was fed up and decided to come up with a better solution.

But Dan hates cleaning. I couldn't quite put it together, and so I kept asking him about it until we got to the bare bones of it. And so last Saturday, I learned something new about my husband. The reason he hates cleaning is that it's so temporary. Everything gets messed up again. But he likes a reorganization project because the effects are long lasting. It sounds ridiculous, but I felt like it actually cleared up 90% of our marital misunderstandings. 

So while he did about half of our kitchen, I reorganized our bathroom closet, linen closet and went through the kids' clothes. I have to be stealthy because my kids don't want anything thrown away ever. I can't tell you how many times I have thrown something away and then June goes to dump the food off her plate after dinner and upon finding said thrown out object in the trash, screams in horror and brings it to me.

"I don't want this pink crumpled up piece of paper to be thrown away!" she exclaims. "I need it!"

At which point I feign total ignorance even though everyone knows I'm the big meanie who insists on throwing away perfectly good pieces of crumpled up paper. What can I say? I was born evil.

Also on Saturday, June had her swim lessons. Her teacher, Miss Cathy, is honestly a miracle worker who has stretched June to swim better than ever. And she takes a lot of crud from her students, my child being no exception.

Once, while she had June floating on her back, she told June to count to ten and then she could be done. Upon arriving at ten, June screamed the number and pushed her head back as far as she could for emphasis, nailing Miss Cathy in the jaw. Miss Cathy laughed it off.

Another time, June swam to Miss Cathy, who was a considerably farther distance away than usual. By the time June reached her, she had her arms stretched as far in front of her as possible, ready to cling on to the first thing she could grab. And she did. At which point Miss Cathy said, "Grab my shoulders, not my boobs."

Or the time that Miss Cathy had to tell June that there was a limit of 16 hugs per class. And no, I'm not making up that number. June loves hugging people to death.

And yet she still loves June. And so I love her forever.

Miss Cathy wanted to take a funny photo with June this last class. But June could not understand that she needed to open her legs.

Until another teacher stepped in and helped June out.

I'm pretty sure Miss Cathy wanted June sitting on her shoulders, not her head, but it was close enough.

Saturday night, we went to see our neighbor girls in their high school musical, and I actually GOT READY and so I had to document.

I'm glad I'm finally at a stage of life where I'm at peace with my broken nose. That's the best thing about being in my 30s. Lots of peace with things I didn't like before. Is it peace or exhaustion? You be the judge.

The play was "Once Upon a Mattress" and it was surprisingly good. I was really blown away. Their lead girl was called back for a Broadway musical at one point in her young career. And all of the other soloists had great voices too. It was awesome entertainment.

My neighbor Sarah was one of the ladies-in-waiting, and she did a great job.

And her sister, Emily, as well as an Emily from our church group were in the pit.

Sunday, June gave a talk at church. Here is Dan helping her practice:

She did a great job, but my favorite part was when she hushed some kids in the back. Looked at them, pointed and said "SHHHH!" Right into the microphone.

Which brings us to this week which can only really be summed up by--snow. Snooooooooow. Or should I call it sNOOOOOOw. Because I'm sick of the snow. It's March. Winter needs wrap it up.

Dan left for Chicago on Monday and was supposed to fly back Wednesday, but was able to come home last Tuesday when the weather reports showed he wouldn't be coming back for a looooooooong time if he didn't hurry. I was so grateful he was able to come home.

So we received 14 inches of the stuff. One lady from church has 22. Lots of my friends lost power, but we've been very fortunate in that area.

So there's been lots of playing. Here the girls are using "birds" (clothespins) and feeding them "worms" (pipe cleaners).

Yesterday, Gwen took a nasty, nasty fall down our terrible basement stairs and has sustained the biggest goose egg injury known to man.

It's a lot smaller but a lot purple-r today.

Last night, Dan took the girls out and made a snow cave. He once spent the night in a snow cave. It was his favorite scouting/camping experience. Kind of like my favorite camping experience, which is when I didn't camp at all ever.

And like I said, today we have been doing schoolwork and June has been writing one of her famous "chapter books". She illustrates the pictures and dictates the story, and I serve as scribe.

Her book, complete with bookmark.

I wish I had captured a picture of the title of the book, which is Heart World by Grumpy Dumpy-Dump.

Right now, I'm keeping Harris from typing on the keyboard by holding him back with my leg, so I guess I'm done now.

The End.