Play Day

Five inches of wet, heavy snow fell here yesterday giving pretty much everyone the day off. At 2:oo AM the ground just had a dusting of snow. (Yes, I was up. Couldn't sleep.) At 4:00 AM, freezing rain was falling. I could hear it hitting the house. (Yes, still awake!) The news stations all came thirty minutes early - at 4:30 AM instead of 5:00. (Guess how I know!) By 5:32 AM my school district closed, and that's when I finally went to bed. Mayhem sounded the alarm at 9:00 AM. "Snow! Snow! Look! It snowed!" She grabbed boots, snow pants, mittens and coat, then out the door she went. I groaned and rolled over, hoping she might, maybe, try using the snow shovel for a few minutes.

Mayhem wasn't going to shovel, which meant I had to get out of bed. The snow was fun, great packing snow. Snowman snow. Sledding snow. Sledding? Did someone say sledding?

Today the kids and I bundled up and headed to a metropark nearby that has a hill big enough for sledding. It's nothing like the hills in central Ohio where I grew up and sledded as a kid, but good enough to give my kids some thrills. Afterward we hit Starbucks for hot chocolate and coffee, and came home to build a fire in the woodstove. Pictures, you ask? My camera battery dead. Sorry. Imagine smiling, rosy-cheeked, wet kids wearing snow-caked mittens.

It's February, and looking at the calendar today I realized that my January socks for Sock of the Month Club at Yarn Haven are nowhere near completion. I have until Feb. 11 when we meet again to finish up. Sometime in there I have to buy my yarn for February's socks. We are using a pattern I have knit before, so hopefully I won't get so hopelessly behind. Hooray for Thuja!

The Irish Hiking Scarf is nearing completion. I have to wind the second skein of yarn, the yummy Dream in Color (Classy). Looking at the current length of the scarf, I'm anticipating some leftover yarn. Maybe I'll have enough left over to make some fingerless gloves - Dashing perhaps? What about Axel Fingerless Mitts? I sure won't run out of things to knit anytime soon.

I have to thank Buddy Bill for a wonderful gift that is making my computer time so much more pleasant. My computer is in a corner of my kitchen, near my laundry area, and by the back door. It's often quite chilly back in this corner, especially in the evening. One day last week, in my office at school, I found a box with a small space heater! "It's for at home under your desk," Buddy Bill told me later. The heater oscillates, and even came with a remote that controls the temperature and fan... it's wonderful. Even the dogs love it, and when the heater is on, they are parked right behind my chair snoozing. You're the best, Luv!