Finally, pictures.  Sorry for the delay; I was really busy with a creative project for church.  (Now that it’s done, I have to do another.)  So I really HAVE been at the computer for most of this mega bad weather, just not blogging.  And while I enjoyed the project, I would far rather have been in front of the fireplace with a good book.

The blizzard is over, but after eight consecutive days of nearly constant snowfall, the snow remains, and shall for a while.  While it’s pretty, this is also kind of a bummer, since now that everything is reopened, I actually have to DRIVE in it.  Being a major homebody, I really didn’t mind the blizzard.  Every place we normally go was cancelled for a few days, and I just got to stay home.  In fact, I never even ventured off our property from Friday noonish all the way until Tuesday evening.  Wednesday I actually drove somewhere, for the first time in six days, and now life is pretty much back to normal.

Of course, driving is quite different now that winter is truly here.  My normal MO is “leave late and drive like mad”, which normally works fine since most of my driving is on country roads and expressways.  However, that obviously does not work well in the snow and ice unless my intended destination is a ditch.  Which, generally speaking, it isn’t.  That means that this time of year I have to switch over to something like, “Leave early and drive cautiously.”  Or more likely, “Leave late and drive cautiously while mad at oneself for leaving late.”

One nice thing about icy roads is that I am occasionally granted the privilege of drivng Hubby’s 4WD Cherokee.  Even so, I still have to drive cautiously, since he won’t LET me “drive like mad” in his precious baby (even though he does).  Besides, it handles quite a bit differently than my van, and since I am not very fluent in Jeepanese, I have to really stay on my toes while driving it.  (Well, not literally; I’m almost always on my behind while driving it.)  Aside from that it is rather fun to be Little Cool Mama Driving SUV rather than my usual Boring Homeschool Mom Driving Van.  And it’s certainly MUCH better than being Mom Trying to Pull Van Out of Ditch.

OK, enough of that.  On with the pictures…

Just for comparision, here are some pics of our back deck...

Tues, Jan 30                                  Thurs, Feb 8

And...   

Thurs Feb 1                                                                 Sat Feb 3

 (In case you're wondering how we got a tree to grow on our deck-- it's our poor Christmas tree, moved out to the deck, stand and all, on the 1st of January and now having to brave the elements.  That's a little kid-size picnic table to the right of it.  And of course, my d8 trying to shovel.  That's hubby's shop in the background.) 

Thurs Feb 1                                           Sat Feb 3                                Sun Feb 4

And a couple fun ones...

Sun Feb 4 - View thru our front door, snow-spattered glass and all.  This front door is (supposedly) "sheltered" from the elements by a 5' deep covered porch-- which, as you can see, did little to keep out the snow.  In the middle of the pic is an old T-square that I stuck in the ground to try to "measure" the snow; however, I could not get it all the way down thru the snow underneath; thus the snow does not appear as deep as it actually was.

Sun Feb 4 - My d16 ran PJ-clad and BAREFOOT down the driveway to fetch the morning paper.  Don't ask me why.

(I have GOT to figure out a more efficient way to post photos; can't remember how I did it before, and this was a big pain.  I wish I could "play" with them more and make a nice arrangement like I do in printShop & PowerPoint, BUT I am pretty web-illiterate.  Oh well....)

Winter hath returned with a vengeance!  (I’m sure that’s not original, but it sounds very appropriately dramatic.)  Actually, winter returned a few weeks ago, and at the moment it is making up for all the time it lost here in December while it was off vacationing in Denver.  Not that anyone is surprised by this; any seasoned Michigander knew the mild weather we had for the holidays wouldn’t last.

Let me backtrack a couple months.  The first 8 days of December brought us an ice storm, several days of almost constant snowfall, hazardous conditions, and a couple near-blizzards.  Then… Nothing.  Temperatures rose, the mounds of snow melted, and no more came to take its place.  Weeks went by.  Christmas came and went, green as could be.  The new year started out downright balmy, and on the third of January, I actually hung out laundry.  That’s not normal for January in Michigan.  And although many around me were rejoicing, I secretly kind of missed “normal”.

Well, normal has returned, and then some.  Snow and icy roads were the order of the day by January fifteenth, and winter really has not let up since.  And now, we have ourselves a blizzard, and I do mean a blizzard.  Weather reports have monopolized the local TV stations all day long;  police have been warning motorists to stay off the roads; sections of expressways have been shut down due to 50+-car pile-ups; many churches have cancelled services for tomorrow (which is supposed to be worse than today); even malls and movie theatres are closed.  We have 15” of snow in the front yard, 22” drifts on the back deck, and are scheduled to get anywhere from 7-13” more dumped on us tonight.

And I say, bring it on.

Why?  Because I have four things that I did not have two winters ago, nor any preceding winter since I have been grown and married.  I have:  A fireplace.  Another fireplace.  An adequate mudroom.  And a garage.

Now granted, the mudroom is four months new and still contains nary a hook nor a shelf.  The only physical evidence of the six individual cubbies that will eventually grace this space are the vertical pieces of lumber, cut to size, rounded and routed, leaning up against one wall.  The rest of the project still exists only in sketches and plans and notes scribbled on scratch paper and Panera Bread napkins.  Oh, there are bins lined up along the wall, patiently  awaiting the shelves which they will someday call home, and these are full of gloves and hats and scarves and …soccer shinguards.  (Yes, it’s indoor soccer this time of year.)  As for the snowpants and coats, well, there’s always the floor for those for the moment.  It beats cramming them onto the pitifully inadequate row of hooks in the kitchen like we did last year, and even an unfinished 4x12’ mudroom trumps the tiny space that used to pass for one back at our old house.

And the garage.  Oh, how I love finally having a garage, and an attached one at that.  Before we annexed approximately 100 square feet of it for our mudroom and half-bath, this garage was slightly larger than our old house, basement notwithstanding.  Unfortunately, about half of this space is taken up by tools & lumber from a previous business of hubby’s (which he somehow can not find room for in his 2400-sq-ft shop), so what we essentially have is a 3-car garage which holds only one vehicle.  That’s fine with me, as long as that one vehicle is MINE.  And it is.  Because, you know.  I. Am. The. Mom.  True, I did have to give up my spot for about three weeks last fall when our mudroom-and-half-bath project was first underway;  there was a table saw parked in my spot, and so I had to park outside under the maple tree.  But that was fall.  Pigeon poop on my door handles I can tolerate; ice on my van is another matter entirely.  (Funny how I lived with that for 23 years, but now having had a garage for 18 months, I am irreparably spoiled.)

So yes.  I have a garage.  I have a mudroom.  I have two fireplaces.  I have food in the pantry, more food in the freezer, extra blankets in the closet.  I have DVDs, CDs, books, sudokus and crosswords, a computer.  And I have my family.  Who needs to go anywhere?  Let it snow, let it snow, etc.

(Now that I think about what I just wrote…  “I have my family.  Who needs to go anywhere?” …By mid-afternoon tomorrow, that will probably be amended to, “And I have my family.  They are all driving me NUTS!  Please, I need to go somewhere!  Or I need them to go somewhere!  Anywhere!....”)

Oh, yes, and I have that new camera, and I have been documenting the snowfall.  I will see if I get a chance to post some pics tomorrow.

Well, the great weather has come to an end, as all things must.  In Michigan, the end usually comes much earlier, so I have nothing to complain about.  We are in the middle of a major ice storm and every school for miles around is closed, including the major city district, which is extremely rare.  Since we no longer live in a tightly packed neighborhood, this turn of events would not have to affect our homeschool day-- except that I HAVE a kid in school, and once she gets up and the ygr kids realize she is home, they will deem it unfair for them to have to "do school" while big sis gets the day off.  Never mind the fact that they have already had a few days "off" while she went to school, and that they will again come the week before Christmas (she has school thru the 22nd, which is insane imo).

So I think I will make them a deal: we'll do math, piano practice, & history, and if they can cheerfully cooperate, we'll ditch everything else and spend the afternoon making Christmas cookies-- something I unfortunately rarely make time for anymore.  They LOVE to bake, so I think they will like the idea.  Of course, I anticipate s11 trying to make a deal of his own and negotiating for play time instead of kitchen time (he loves playing even more than baking).

Well, d8 just moseyed out of bed, so once again, I will neglect my "Five List" (lately I've just been forgetting anyway) and go give some snuggles under the living room throw.