1. Like half the others doing quick takes, I'll note it's cold! -20 F here this morning. Which is something like -35 C, for those of you who live north of the border. Bleh. Granted we had weather this cold every winter for the years we were living up in the Rockies, but the air is dry there. It feels a whole heck of a lot colder with 70% humidity in the air than it did with 15%. And produces things like frost on the inside of our back door. (Photo courtesy of my husband).
2. I will never, ever, ever again take three small children, by myself, out to go swimming when it's this cold. Okay, so the pool is inside and heated. There's still the getting there and back, and freezing wet kids trying to bundle back into snow gear in the locker room and the wet hair freezing between the door of the Y and the truck. What was I thinking you ask? Well, that after being cooped up inside from the cold, they'd need something to do. I was right about that. A swimming expedition was just not the right something.
3. Our current book club book. The last time that I was this aware that there was a subtext for a book and that I was really missing it was when we read James Joyce for my one of my college lit courses.
4. Jen F. has noted the health benefits of steel cut oats in passing. Has she bothered to mention how much more tasty and interesting they are than normal rolled oatmeal? I hadn't realized that the Scottish oatmeal I'd fallen in love with during my semester overseas had been that good for me--maybe that had something to do with the 15 lbs. I lost that semester. Well that, and the 20 miles a week that I was walking because I was too broke to take the bus.
5. I might as well be homeschooling this week. Tuesday, 2 hour delay for the snow. Wednesday, early release for the incoming storm. Thursday and Friday cancelled for cold. The public schools sure aren't bothering to educate them this week.
6. I was decently pleased with how the CSI writers handled Grissom's departure last night. And if they can manage to keep Marg Helgenberger and most of the others the show may actually benefit from this long term. I'll miss the character, as I miss Jorja Fox's Sara Sidle, but at this point it feels to me that the writers played fair with the story arc. As long as the flagship CSI doesn't turn into the sort of travestry that CSI: Miami became I'll be happy to keep watching.
7. Was it one of you seven links folks who suggested paying kids a quarter a load for folding and putting away their own laundry? I've been thrilled with how eager to help my 5 and 8 year olds are at this pay scale, and how good a job they're actually doing. Throw in a quarter a day for my eight year old to take care of the cat's litter box needs and they are well on their way to earning the money they need to buy their little sister that expensive birthday present they want to get her. And mom's happier too. I'll second a lot of what Jen F. had to say about her help from the girls this summer--I didn't realize what a control freak I was, or how much actual help I was not accepting.
Hosted, as always, by Jen@Conversion Diary
2. I will never, ever, ever again take three small children, by myself, out to go swimming when it's this cold. Okay, so the pool is inside and heated. There's still the getting there and back, and freezing wet kids trying to bundle back into snow gear in the locker room and the wet hair freezing between the door of the Y and the truck. What was I thinking you ask? Well, that after being cooped up inside from the cold, they'd need something to do. I was right about that. A swimming expedition was just not the right something.
3. Our current book club book. The last time that I was this aware that there was a subtext for a book and that I was really missing it was when we read James Joyce for my one of my college lit courses.
4. Jen F. has noted the health benefits of steel cut oats in passing. Has she bothered to mention how much more tasty and interesting they are than normal rolled oatmeal? I hadn't realized that the Scottish oatmeal I'd fallen in love with during my semester overseas had been that good for me--maybe that had something to do with the 15 lbs. I lost that semester. Well that, and the 20 miles a week that I was walking because I was too broke to take the bus.
5. I might as well be homeschooling this week. Tuesday, 2 hour delay for the snow. Wednesday, early release for the incoming storm. Thursday and Friday cancelled for cold. The public schools sure aren't bothering to educate them this week.
6. I was decently pleased with how the CSI writers handled Grissom's departure last night. And if they can manage to keep Marg Helgenberger and most of the others the show may actually benefit from this long term. I'll miss the character, as I miss Jorja Fox's Sara Sidle, but at this point it feels to me that the writers played fair with the story arc. As long as the flagship CSI doesn't turn into the sort of travestry that CSI: Miami became I'll be happy to keep watching.
7. Was it one of you seven links folks who suggested paying kids a quarter a load for folding and putting away their own laundry? I've been thrilled with how eager to help my 5 and 8 year olds are at this pay scale, and how good a job they're actually doing. Throw in a quarter a day for my eight year old to take care of the cat's litter box needs and they are well on their way to earning the money they need to buy their little sister that expensive birthday present they want to get her. And mom's happier too. I'll second a lot of what Jen F. had to say about her help from the girls this summer--I didn't realize what a control freak I was, or how much actual help I was not accepting.
Hosted, as always, by Jen@Conversion Diary
5 comments:
Thank you so much for the book suggestions!
Hmm... yet another person who loves steel cut oats! I have often lamented that I would be thinner if I lived in an area that was more conducive to walking in town. I'm only a mile from most things, but I must cross a major state highway. I drive a lot!
I too am a control freak.
My daughter begs to help with the folding. All I can bring myself to do is let her sort the socks.
She begs to wash the dishes by hand. (Why???! We have a dishwasher!) I let her wash a few plastic things.
Then I remember she is eight, and by that age I was washing ALL the dishes (not by choice!) cooking whole meals and getting my younger sister ready for school.
I repeat: Control freak I am. I'm not sure I can bring myself to let go of it though. Hats off to you for actually doing it!
Heather 1--As to walking in town, well, it was healthy and nice as far as it went, but I came to the conclusion that it wasn't a sustainable lifestyle under most circumstances. It was workable for me at the time because I was an undergrad student with no responsibilites except for a deliberately light course load. I was long on time and short on money. If I'd had a choice I wouldn't have been making a 5-6 mile round trip trek in the rain, on an empty stomach to go to church Sunday mornings. If I could have driven, I would have. I was as fit as I had ever been at the end of that semester, but it was from an unsustainable set of circumstances, and I didn't sustain it.
Heather 2-- more and more I'm learning that if I want my kids to be helpful, if I want them to learn a task, I can't wait until they're actually capable of doing it. By then it's too late. By God's grace, I'm learning, step by step, to let my children act like this is their house too . . .
The whole 'wet kids in the freezing cold leaving the indoor heated pool' would definitely be enough to have me keep them swimming in the bathtub at home!
Blessings!
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