The huge ice glaciers in our yard are starting to recede from the sidewalk even though they are still 3.5-4 feet in height! This week  has been sunny and blue skies. On Wed, Kenny saw that the grass was peeking through, he checked out the temperature, it was a balmy 40 degrees!! So Ben and Kenny donned their winter coats, hats and winter gloves, lifted their bikes from their lofty positions hanging from the garage rafts and rode their bikes up and down the sidewalk for over 30 minutes!

The snowbanks, which are 2-3 feet tall, on the side of the road are receding also. The roads, sidewalks and driveways are now clear, for which we are extremely grateful! They tell us Spring is only 13 days away, but the snowpile in the apartment building parking lot next door is still 7+ Ft. tall. 

Here is info from Today's TMJ4 weather blogger on Feb. 12th

Milwaukee received a record 7.5" on Tuesday which makes a total of 21" so far in February.  After 12 days, that is the 3rd most snow in recorded history only to 22.3" last February and 37" in 1994.  For the season, Milwaukee is now at 75.7" which is almost 40" above normal for this date.  Remember, 52.2"  is normal for an entire winter.  As of right now Milwaukee's snowfall this season is 13th all-time.  We keep inching toward the record of 109.8" from 1886.

We are gathering information for Jasmine's Graduation from High School. We finally have a portrait selected. She is working on designing her invitations and organizing her party.

Ben is working on his collections of patches- he is documenting where he got each one and why. He has gotten about 6 new ones this year and will have to sew them on to his messenger bag soon.

Kenny is anxious to get fishing!!! He is bugging Darin to get their poles and bait ready.

I am ready for Spring cleaning and ready to be done burning wood so we can clean the carpets of all the winter ash. The boys and I did some cleaning out of the schoolroom shelves and found quite a few items to put in the "Craigslist box" that we now need to take photos and get them posted on craigslist.

Next is to go through all the books that we used this year to study from 1492-1789, sort, categorize and store away for the next time which is in 5 years!! We take 2 years to study from the End of Roman Empire, 476 AD to 1789 AD. In Fall, we will begin studying Year 3 of Tapestry of Grace, the 1800's World History. It is a fun year! Ok, they are all fun years, but I really like Year 3.

The boys and I are going in depth through the Constitution which has been very educational for the teacher as well. We studied Article 1 for 2 weeks already. Two of the most interesting items we learned: #1 the authors of the Constitution knew that the slave trade would divide the states so they compromised by having the slave trade become illegal 20 years later. #2 our national debt is currently 9 trillion dollars.

I am off to church for Scrapbooking Ministry tonight! More another day . . .