eight!

Dear Rachel,

Today you are eight!  You're growing up so fast and I'm afraid if I blink, I'm going to miss what's left of your little-girlhood.  Some days you're eight going on five....playing dress up, still enjoying princesses and Disney Jr (you told me the other day though, that you've outgrown Disney princesses, but you really love Sofia the First, so I'm not so sure about that yet!).....other days you're eight going on sixteen, full of emotions and uncertainty about your future.  I can hardly keep up with your ever changing moods, interests, and ideas, but I'm enjoying journeying along with you.

In the last year you've learned to love to read, and I couldn't be more thrilled, as it's one of my favorite past times.  You've also started loving to write, writing stories, newspaper articles, and whatever you can think of to write down.  You also just love to learn.  You check out non fiction books a lot at the library, usually something having to do with social studies.  Maps, Presidents, History, you love it all.  You love watching Wild Kratts all of a sudden, and learning about different animals, too.  You surprise Daddy and me all the time with the facts you've learned.

You love mysteries and just played your first game of Clue at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago.  You've been asking for that game almost every day since.  I know that once you unwrap it today, there will be lots of rounds of, "Professor Plum in the Hall with the wrench...." in our future!  :)

You absolutely love school, something your dad and I are very excited to see.  It's so much easier seeing you get on the bus every day, knowing you're so happy about seeing your friends, your teachers, and learning new things.  We are so proud of you.  You made us extra proud when you came home yesterday beaming with pride at being chosen for "Cougar of the Month" for your class.

You love your little sister, and even though you boss her around and argue with her, you both hate it when we make you play separately because you aren't getting along.  You'd both much rather have each other to play with!  You play well together (when you're not arguing, that is) and she looks up to you so much.

Here are some of your thoughts as you turn eight:

Favorite food: graham crackers

Favorite color: rainbow (you can't decide)

Favorite show: Sofia the First

Favorite book: Ron Roy's books (again, you can't decide which one)

Favorite part of school: art and writing

Favorite thing to do at recess: monkey bars

Favorite thing to do at home: read to Rebecca (this is a new interest, but you've been doing it almost every day lately!)

Favorite place to go: Great Wolf Lodge

What you want to be when you grow up: writer

Happy, happy birthday, dear Rachel.  Eight years ago today was one of the top three best days of my life and I'll never forget the moment you made me a mother. I am so, so happy to be your mom and love watching you grow into your own person.  I love you so much!

Love,

Mom/Mommy  (.....some days I'm still Mommy to you, but more and more often I'm "Mom.")

bangs and bunny teeth

Rachel will be eight in two weeks.  All of a sudden she's caring a lot more about what she looks like.  She's never really cared a whole lot about what she wears (except preferring soft pants over jeans her whole life, and loving dresses), or what her hair looks like (except disliking wearing hair accessories...comfort over fashion), and so forth.  But in the last two weeks or so I've heard her complaining any number of times about how her bangs look bad with her cowlick (which is why we're growing them out), that her dress I chose for church made her look fat (this coming from a little girl who is skinny as a rail and in the 7th percentile for weight??), and that her two front teeth look like bunny teeth.  :(

I guess it's all part of growing up and becoming more self aware, but it makes me sad that she's already having such negative thoughts about herself when she looks in the mirror.  How do I help her to navigate this huge area of self image??  It feels so overwhelming.  I want her to feel good about herself, but not too good about herself.  I want her to be happy with what she sees, but not be overly concerned about it.  I want her to be more concerned about what kind of person she is on the inside, not what she looks like, but how in the world do I do that when everything else in our culture pushes her to care exceedingly about what she looks like? Ahhhhhhh!

The other night I looked up different ways to style hair while growing out bangs.  This is the style she likes the best so far.

There's one style I like better, but I'll have to take a picture of it another day.  But oh, how I love this sweet, beautiful girl who is growing and changing and so much.  I think she looks so much older this way.

I feel like this is a whole new world we're entering with her.  One I'm not ready for!

How do I stop time???

snow whites on a snowy spring break

The girls were playing dress up, both ended up in Snow White dresses, then decided to watch Snow White.

And yes, it's spring break and we just had a half hour of white out conditions.  Will winter NEVER end??

books and buttons and bangs, oh my!

Rachel loves books.  I'm SO happy!  I've always loved to read, and for a long time it didn't look like Rachel was going to share this love.  She always liked being read to, but she was reluctant to read on her own.  This year, something changed, and now she loves to read.  Her reading ability really took off, so I'm sure that has something  to do with it, too.  She knows she's good at it, so she enjoys it.

Just like everything else in her seven plus years, though, she becomes fixated on one type of book.  She's always gone through phases with her various obsessions (Thomas the Train, Care Bears, Disney Princesses, Lalaloopsy, and on and on), and it's no different with books.  First it was Magic Treehouse.  Now it's mysteries, specifically Ron Roy mysteries.  Last week I went to the library and got several different types of mystery series books to try and get her to branch out.  She's found another series she likes, called "Greetings from Somewhere," but so far there are only two books available in this series, she's read them both, and they're very easy for her.  Once she read both of those, she went back to Ron Roy's books.  The next Greetings from Somewhere book isn't coming out until May.  So I'm hoping she'll finish Ron Roy's books soon and move on to something else (she doesn't have all that many Ron Roy books left to read).  She was excited about the new series I brought home, but we'll see if any of them catch her interest.  I'm just happy that she's loving to read.

Rebecca chooses the same books over and over.  She mostly chooses books about characters she  recognizes from TV or movies, so I have to choose other ones and force them on her to get her interested in something else.  Then she'll want them read to her over and over for days on end.  For awhile it was Apple Farmer Annie.  She's had that book out from the library multiple times.  Sometimes it will be one of the classics--The Three Little Pigs, or The Three Bears, or Hansel and Gretel, or  something like that.  Rachel used to love Curious George.  Rebecca doesn't seem interested in him at all.  Right now she has the Essential Guide to the movie, Frozen, and the Essential Guide from the movie The Incredibles, and she wants a page or two read from one of those all the time.  

Buttons....Rebecca has this thing against buttons.  I don't know how or why or when it started, exactly, but a few months ago she started complaining about her PJs with buttons.  Every time we'd put a pair on her that buttoned, she'd get all bent out of shape.  Finally, rather than arguing about it every time, I just quietly n packed all of the button PJs away (she was outgrowing them, anyway) and when I got out  the next size, I didn't take out the buttoned PJs.  But then, she branched out from complaining about PJs, to talking about Daddy's work shirts.  Daddy wears a blue button down collar shirt to work every day, and every day she'd complain, "Why do you always have to wear buttons?"  When I wear a buttoned shirt, she makes it  known that she doesn't like it (most of my PJs have buttons, too, so unless I have my robe on over them in the morning, she doesn't want to sit on my lap.  If I'm wearing my robe, then it's okay).  She has a pair of pants with button details at the ankle, and every time I put them on her, she complains.  I don't know why she dislikes them so much--she doesn't have a reason when you ask her.  Just a random quirk of my funny girl.  Kind of like how Rachel's always hated jeans and asks for "soft pants" every time I tell her to wear jeans (she will wear jeans, now though, as opposed to a couple of years ago, when she would put up a huge fuss about them.)

Rachel's decided (again) that she wants to let her bangs grow out.  She decided the same thing about a year ago, we started letting them grow, had to start pinning them back once they were in her eyes, and she then decided she wanted bangs again.  She hates wearing clips or headbands in her hair, so she decided she'd rather have bangs than wear something in her hair while they grew out.  Well, now she's sick of her cowlick, which is only getting more pronounced as she gets older, and wants to grow out the bangs again.  So we'll see how long she lasts.  I've told her it means she'll have to wear clips and headbands again, so we'll see.  It'll probably take all summer, at the very least.

kiss her, she's Irish!

I'm not Irish, but she is, sort of (actually, I  think my husband's ancestors were Scottish, but we have an Irish name....)

She chose green socks, too, because she wanted to  make sure she didn't get pinched.

Rebecca wanted to wear green, too, and wanted her picture taken, too.

So there are my Irish (Scottish?) cuties (ignore the un-brushed hair...l hadn't gotten to that part, yet!)!

update

I know it's been awhile....the biggest reason I haven't written is because we've all been sick--AGAIN.  This winter has just been the worst.

But in other news, today was very spring-like.  Rebecca said, "It's a beautiful day.  The sun is shining, and there's nothing in the sky but blue!  There is no snow drip dropping down."  So funny, that silly girl.

When she got home from school Rachel wanted to go outside and play.  Usually I make her do her homework right away, but since I knew by the time that got done, it would be dinner, and by the time dinner got done, it wouldn't be so bright and warm out, I went ahead and let her go out until dinner, telling her she'd have to get it done after dinner.  So the girls went out (and got filthy in all of the mud....but I guess I'd rather deal with mud than snow!). 

She tried her first try on the monkey bars since the infamous elbow break in October.  She got up there to start, and was too scared.  I watched from the window and could tell that she was afraid.  Eventually she got down and didn't attempt it.  A little while later I went out and asked if she had tried it.  She said she was too scared.  I told her to just try hanging and dropping to start.  That sounded okay to her.  Well, not only did she hang, she did three monkey bars.  She was so proud of herself.  And I was thrilled that she pushed through her fear and tried.  I'm sure she'll work back up to doing the whole thing in no time.  I'm just glad she was willing to try it, even though she was afraid.  She doesn't have a good track record at doing things that scare her.  Way to go, Rachel!

Yesterday she had to get impressions of her teeth taken at the dentist for a retainer.  That was another thing she was really scared about, and she did a great job and didn't put up a fuss.  This is another case where I was thrilled with her bravery--she really doesn't have a good track record when it comes to being brave during medical procedures.  So proud of her when she pushes through the hard stuff.

She has a molar that is growing in sideways, which is why she needs the retainer.  It will be cemented in her mouth for 1-3 months, they said.  We'll see how that goes, and how it affects her eating, speaking, etc. 

I'm on "spring break" from my teaching for a couple of weeks.  I'm really hoping we can all get well in the next two weeks and not have to deal with any more sickness for the rest of the year.  It's causing all kinds of problems with my getting to work (either I'm sick, one of the kids are sick, or my friend Emily's kids are sick (Emily watches my girls for me before school and watches Rebecca after preschool is done on the days I teach), practically every week lately!  It's been a huge stressor, trying to juggle child care and work and my own sicknesses.  I don't know how moms who work full time do it.  Ahhhhh!!!)

I recently wrote that I found my first grey hair.  Well, last night I got my hair cut, and the woman cutting my hair said, "Did you know you have all kinds of really curly hair back here in the back?"  I haven't had a curly hair on my head in my life--not even the few times I got a perm, desperately wanting curly hair--they never took well in my stick straight hair.  So I couldn't believe it.  She cut one of them to show me.  Not only was it super kinky-curly, it was also grey.  She cut another couple to show me.  They were all grey.  So apparently, I have a bounty of curly grey hair growing in the back of my head, underneath my top layer of hair, so they're not visible.  So strange.  And gosh, am I getting old.... 

Speaking of getting old, I only have one more week in my 30s.  Then I'll REALLY be old.

And that's the update in our world.

author, author

Rachel's becoming a writer.  This sudden love of the A to Z Mystery books has inspired her to start writing her own mysteries.  For a couple of weeks now, she gets up every morning, and after getting dressed, making her bed, and brushing her teeth, she sits down in her room and writes a chapter.  She's on her second book now.  

She plans her stories ahead of time, coming up with the chapter titles first, and writing a table of contents.  After writing her chapter she then draws a picture.

And she does it all with oil pastels, so her hands are a MESS when she comes downstairs every morning.

But she's having fun, using her imagination, which has always been amazing, if you ask me, and practicing some great skills.  I'm thrilled!

She's now trying to decide if she wants to be an artist, writer, or a chef when she grows up.

sweets for my sweets

Valentine's Day = sweets

My present to the family ( this is my Grandma's famous Christmas cookie recipe, so it tastes like Christmas today, not Valentines Day!):

My husband's present to me:

My presents to the girls:

So much for watching what we eat.....

be my valentine

Rachel's never had to decorate a Valentine's box before.  They've always decorated them at school, so I've never had to worry about helping her make one.  I've seen other people's creations on Facebook and Pinterest, but we've never done one.  

On Monday we got a note from the teacher telling us that because of all of the snow days the kids have had, she didn't have time to have them decorate them at school, as usual, so we needed to have them decorate one at home.  I got on Pinterest to see what ideas I could show Rachel, but some of them were so elaborate that I knew it would end up that she'd want ME to do it to make it look "right." I decided I didn't want to be the one doing it, I wanted it to be her creation.  So I didn't show her any ideas.  I didn't give her any direction, really. I just wrapped a box with the only non-birthday/non-Christmas wrapping paper we had, and turned her loose with my scrapbooking supplies.  

She had a blast!  

Afterward she wanted pictures of ALL of the sides....

She's so proud of it, and I'm happy that it's all her work, not a mom-made box.

little engineer

Rebecca LOVES Legos.  She spends much of the day some days making and tearing apart different creations.  We don't let her play with regular Legos yet.  They're just too tiny and she'd make a huge mess with them, but these duplo blocks are perfect.

She makes "Zoomers" and planes and cars of all sorts.  (She calls them Zoomers.)

Love my little future engineer!

round two

Yesterday we came home from the library to find a SNOW PLOW on our street!!  I can count on one hand the number of times a snow plow has come through our neighborhood, but on our little street, a cul de sac, not a through street?  NEVER!  We were so excited (and almost took a picture.....but resisted the urge, because who  takes a picture of a snow plow on their street??)

It plowed the street, which threw more snow into the end of our driveway, but once my husband shoveled that out, it was lots better.  

But then.....it snowed again this morning.  We have probably three or four more inches of snow in the street.  We got stuck again trying to get out this evening.  Ugh.

So now I get to look forward to the stress every morning again of whether or not I'll get stuck on the way out.  So much for our snow plowed street.  Thankfully it's supposed to be cold again tomorrow morning, so it should harden again like it did last time, so hopefully it will be okay.

In other news, the Olympics are on, of course.  I wrote two years ago about how every two years the closet sports fan in me comes out and I'm glued to the TV for two weeks.  Rachel seems to have inherited this gene.  She loves the Olympics.  We watched the opening ceremonies from start to finish yesterday morning (recorded from the night before) and it was so fun to watch it with her, listening to all of her questions and comments about the countries, their flags, their outfits, their athletes....  Yesterday and today she watched bits and pieces with me of ice skating, ski jumping, luge, snow boarding, and even hockey!  Then she'd go to the other room and have her own version of the Olympics.  She and Rebecca put on leotards and tap shoes and pretended to ice skate through the kitchen.  Today they went outside with the sled and pretended it was their snow board on the very tiny hill in our yard.  Hilarious.  

In other Rachel news, she wrote her first fan letter today.  To Ron Roy, author of her current favorite chapter book series, A to Z mysteries.  She became obsessed with these books a couple of weeks ago (which led to giving up on her 41 book run of reading through all of the Magic Treehouse books, which she's been working on since last summer), and she's plowing through these new books.  They're too easy for her, which I don't like, but since she's sitting down and reading on her own without being told, I don't say much about it, because I'm just happy to see her reading for pleasure.  Anyway, she told me yesterday that she wanted to write a letter to the author.  So this morning she got up and stayed in her room for close to an hour, working on a letter, all on her own.  Then during rest time she re-wrote her letter as neatly as she could, made an envelope, and a stamp.  She only asked me how to spell the word partner, and there isn't a single spelling mistake in the letter, which is a huge surprise, because she's not the greatest speller.  She's been asking me all afternoon when she can mail it and whether he'll write back to her. The whole letter made me smile.  She told him what book she was on, asked him how many books he's written, and whether he would come visit our town.  She said she meant to ask if he would come visit the library here, but she forgot.  It's so cute.

snowplow?

Three days after the storm, and we still haven't seen a plow in our neighborhood.  There's almost 10 inches of snow, full of ruts, up and down the roads.  Yesterday I got stuck in the middle of our road trying to get Rachel to the bus stop.  She had had a two hour delay, so it was the middle of the morning and everyone was at work by then.  The neighborhood was empty, and there I was, stuck in the middle of the road with two little girls in the car.  I didn't know what I was going to do. I kept going forward and backward, tires spinning, but finally I somehow got out and got to the bus stop.  

At the end of the day I didn't want to chance getting stuck again so Rebecca and I walked.  But the guy that lives in the house behind us doesn't shovel his sidewalk, and it's a corner lot, so that's a whole lotta sidewalk, unshoveled.  Rebecca's little legs had a lot of trouble in all of that snow, and she was crying, not even halfway to the bus stop.  I finally go us out into the street, which was a little better than the sidewalk, but then we had to keep stopping to wait for cars to go by.  It took a long time, but we got there, and then got back, with Rachel in tow.  

Last night I asked my husband to try and do something it in the street to make it easier for me to get out.  He tried using the snow blower, but it had no traction, since there's solid ice under the snow, and couldn't get through the packed down snow.  So he shoveled some of it out.  Then he got in my car and tried to get out.  And got stuck.  The neighbor was out and he helped push him out.  He shoveled some more.  

And this morning we hoped for the best.

Thankfully it's lots colder today.  While I knew that meant we couldn't really walk to the bus stop, I thought it might make the soft, slushy snow harder, and maybe it would be harder to get stuck. Well, it worked!  I got out without any problems.  Now I have to hope for more of the same this afternoon.

But what I REALLY want is a snow plow!!!  

Groundhog Day

You know the movie, Groundhog Day, where the same day keeps repeating over and over and over?  Well, that's what it feels like here right now (how ironic that tomorrow IS Groundhog Day!).

First Rachel was sick.  That was a week ago.  Then Rebecca got sick a few days later.  Then my husband.  Now it's my turn.  Meanwhile, Rachel and Rebecca are still coughing up a storm, and my husband still isn't completely well, either.  None of us is sleeping well.  So for a week straight, we've been replaying the same cycle.  Fever, chills, lots of blankets, ibuprofen, fever going down, sweating, naps, rinse and repeat a few hours later.  It seems to go in five hour cycles.  But we have to wait six hours to take ibuprofen, so the last hour is hard to endure, and then it takes about a half hour to feel better.  

I'm REALLY TIRED and this can be over anytime now.  I've basically been stuck in the house for an entire week, first for snow, then for cold, then for sickness.  

I feel horrible.  I haven't been this sick in a long time.  And I thought my month long sinus/ear infection in the fall was bad.  At least I could function most of the time during that.  I've been in bed/on the couch for pretty much all of yesterday and today.

Thankfully my husband was able to take a half day off work yesterday to help me, and it's the weekend so he's been here all day today doing everything....cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, you name it.  And he's not even all well yet.  What a guy!  I don't know what I would've done without him today.

cabin fever

Today was day 1,000,000 of being in the house all day with two sick kids.  Well, I guess I'm exaggerating a little, but wow, am I tired of this!

Yesterday Rebecca came down with what Rachel's been battling. I took them both to the doctor.   She didn't think it was the flu, and it wasn't an ear infection or strep, so that was good.  Just your run of the mill winter virus.

Rachel was pretty miserable yesterday.  A little better today.  Rebecca's a day behind Rachel, so she was pretty miserable this afternoon/evening, and hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Rebecca got to choose the movie today.  One guess.  Yes, The Incredibles.  Ugh.  Hopefully Rachel will choose something better tomorrow (I actually like The Incredibles....I'm just tired of it!)

This morning was play doh (yuck, I really don't like play doh!  What a mess!).  But they had fun and forgot about being sick for awhile.

The silver lining is that Monday there was a two hour delay, so Rachel only missed a shortened day of school, and today and tomorrow school closed for cold, so she's not missing anything.  I think she'll be good to go back on Thursday, because her temp was normal tonight before she went to bed....the first time it's been in the 90s since 4:00 AM on Sunday morning!  Yay!

a snowy sick day

This winter has been something else!  Sub zero temps, snow and more snow....when is spring going to be here?

Yesterday we stayed in all day because we got about six inches of snow and the roads weren't great.  We watched movies and ate popcorn and played board games.   

Last night Rachel was up at 4:00 AM not feeling good.  Fever, cough, chills, headache....  So she and I stayed home from church while Rebecca and Daddy braved the roads (it was snowing again and the roads were not that great again) and went.  Rachel and I watched the movie, "Akeelah and the Bee," about the National Spelling Bee.  Rachel decided she wants a dictionary so she can spell that well.

She felt better for awhile, but then the medicine wore off and she was down again.  Next we watched "Pollyanna."  Now she's feeling better again and the TV is off until the medicine wears off again.  I'm completely movied out!   

We had talked about taking the kids sledding today....the last day before the bottom falls out of the temperatures, but obviously that couldn't happen, since she's sick.  

Everyone's expecting there to be no school for at least the next two days because of the temperatures, and this time I hope that's the case, because then Rachel wouldn't miss any school because of sickness.  

I'm ready for spring!!

Speaking of spring, this greeted me when I came downstairs yesterday morning, while the snow fell hard outside.

One of my students gave me this for Christmas.  It was just a bulb in the glass container.  We've watched it grow and grow for the last month, and could  tell it was ready to bloom soon.  The girls were thrilled to see it had opened up yesterday.  So we have a tiny piece of spring on our kitchen table.

incredible

Rachel once went through a phase where she was obsessed with the movie, The Incredibles.  During that time, my mom happened upon a Mr. Incredible costume at a consignment sale and bought it for Rachel, who loved it.  (For some reason, though, I can't seem to find a picture of her in it).

After she outgrew The Incredibles phase, the costume hung in the closet, and somehow ended up in Rebecca's closet. 

About a year ago Rebecca noticed the costume and started asking questions about it.   I kept telling her it was too big for her, but she finally found out it was from the movie, The Incredibles, which we own, but she'd never seen (she hasn't been interested in any movies at all until the last couple of months).   Every once in awhile she'd ask about it.

So finally, a couple of weeks ago, we went through all of our movies and made a pile of movies Rebecca hadn't seen and was old enough to watch, since she's now showing interest and will finally sit through an entire movie.  The Incredibles was one of them.  We had a family movie night, and she chose that one.  And fell in LOVE.

The next day she begged for the costume to come out of the closet.  She's had it on pretty much every day since at some point.  She even snuck out of bed one night, put it on over her PJs without our knowing, and in the morning came down with it on.  (She got in trouble for that one....and the costume got put away for a day as punishment.)  She'd watch the movie every day if I'd let her.

So here she is....this picture cracks me up. 

I tried finding the picture she was trying to recreate, which is a picture of Mr. Incredible from the menu screen on the movie, but I can't find it online.  He has his hands behind his back like she does.

Oh, this crazy girl.  (And thank goodness she's had her hair cut since I took this picture.  Man, those are some LONG bangs!)

(Now she's asking for Mr. Incredible boots, gloves, and mask for her birthday.  She doesn't understand that they don't make Mr. Incredible toys anymore. )

what's old is new again

Most of these toys have been in the toy box for years.  Occasionally they get taken out and played with, but mostly they stay hidden away in the toy box and rarely see the light of day.

Yesterday my parents brought me the bookshelf for the play room.  I just emptied the toy box and put the toys on the shelf, and suddenly, these old toys have new life!  Rebecca's playing with one after the other, because she can actually SEE them.  Of course, the shelf looks rather cluttered, and maybe someday I'll get cute baskets to make it look better, but for now, it's all about function. 

The toy box is now the dress up clothes box.  The dress up clothes get the most mileage around here, play-wise, so I'm not worried about them being forgotten in the toy box.  

The dress up box is now the musical instrument box (we have SO many guitars....Rebecca is a little less guitar obsessed than she used to be, but she still loves them!)

The train table has become the play table, since no one is into trains at the moment (my husband wants to sell the table and the train set, but Rebecca plays at this table ALL the time, so I don't want to).

We'll see how this arrangement works.  And I still need to figure out what to put on the top two shelves that the girls can't reach.  I'm thinking paint, play doh, etc, but we'll see.  For now I'm just happy that things are getting played with and there is less sitting on the floor.

cookies, anyone?

Rachel and her troop are selling Girl Scout cookies.  If anyone is interested in buying any, please let me know.  Even if you aren't local or don't want to eat the cookies yourself, you can order some to be donated to a local food bank.  They are $4 per box this year, but our troop gets a bigger percentage of the cost of each box than we've gotten in the past.

Thank you for supporting her and our Brownie troop!

a little stir crazy

I heard on the news today that the first Monday in January is considered the most depressing day of the year.  But in my world, today should've been a GREAT day. The day when half of my children go back to school after 2+ weeks at home and life starts to get normal again. I've been looking forward to today since about Dec 28th (when the post Christmas depression set in.....I get a little depressed every year after Christmas and it usually lasts until school starts and life gets back to normal).  

But things didn't get back to normal today.  Like much of the country, we are experiencing the "polar vortex" they're going on and on (and on and on) about, and the cold temperatures cancelled school.  I actually was glad I didn't have to get us all out the door to the bus stop first thing in the morning into the brutally cold air, but......I'm going a little stir crazy, and so are my girls.  

They're still playing with Christmas presents, but they've lost a little of their luster. They've played dress up ad nauseam.  They have watched more TV than I'd normally allow.  They've played school, house, American Girl, doggies, princess, and every other imaginary make believe concoction you can think of, and probably many you would NEVER think of.  They've colored, made books, done crafts, played  games, read books.....you name it, they've probably done it over the last two weeks.   They've played outside pretty much every day except today, when I couldn't, with a clear conscience, let them go out.  So today it was playing inside ALLLLLLLLL day.  

Ordinarily, I'd love a "snow day" off of school.  But I'm just ready for real life to start again.  I know I'm not the only mom feeling this way....

But guess what?  School is already called off for tomorrow.  For me, too (I was supposed to start teaching again tomorrow).  And Friday is an already scheduled day off of school.  So IF Rachel goes back to school on Wednesday, it will only be for two days, and then she's back home.

I love my girl, and love having her home (Rebecca's not going to know what to do with herself once Rachel is in school again), but I'm just ready for some normalcy.  Guess I need to wait awhile longer for that.

I shouldn't be complaining.  I'm happy to be home with my girls.  Happy we are in a warm house with food.  Happy they get along (MOST of the time) and have fun together.  Happy.  Really.  Just VERY stir crazy.

mother daughter bonding

Rachel and I did a little bonding today while Rebecca took her nap....

Lego Friends assembly and Saige Paints the Sky