NINE

Monday. That is not snow. That is a collection of tiny ice balls. 

 2014 week nine

We finally got a taste of that icy winter down here.

V loves her little dinosaur and horse. She makes them kiss. She took the dinosaur on a walk this weekend. If you ask her to bring you a book there is a high likelihood it will be the informational book about Dinosaurs. 

Other obsession: mardi gras beads and cups. I stopped counting the number of meltdowns she had over "needing" more cups for her beads.

Wednesday. Hey it looks like Texas again.

It was hard to find enough things to do when we couldn't run errands because of the icy roads.

Friday. Proper snow. It snowed all day, and eventually the grass was completely covered!!! :)

Last year at almost the same time. 

The cat found a plastic bag and entangled herself in its crackly recesses. 

When my husband makes cookies I feel so much love for him. When he insists on listening to gangster rap while making cookies that feeling weakens...

Yzma was really unhappy about the snow. She would exorcist twist in your arms when you had to throw her outside to relieve herself.

Cold family walk.

Unimpressed. 

This is her fake laugh in action.  It's really done out of pity for us because she knows we're trying to be funny, and she wants to encourage us, but it only makes us think of this:

Saturday night we had friends over to make homemade pretzels and play a game. We tried to put a movie on for the wee ones, but if the adults aren't trying to watch a movie, they must be doing something more fun, obviously.

This sign has been like this for months...

Inspired by a friend who said she started to read her boys a poem every night, I have also been trying to work in more varied literature to our day. Heaven knows we love Goodnight Moon and Madeline, but if I have to read The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear again, I might cry. That or Hop on Pop. *Shudder*
Matthew has an old Barnes & Noble edition of Aesop's Fables for Children. He received it as a birthday gift when he was eight. We now keep it on the shelf in the kitchen with my cookbooks. Every morning at breakfast we read a fable. I initially wanted to just do it for Family Home Evening, but I love reading them so much that we just read one every day. Even if this fizzles out, I want to remember that I did this and maybe do it when my kids are running off to school in the morning. What a great way to start a day. A prayer and breakfast with family and then a fable. The morals at the end are great, but the stories of the animals really stick with you.
Additionally, I straight out copied my friend and started reading a poem to Vera every night after scriptures. I borrowed a book of poems for children from the library and we devoured it. Some poems, like Paul Revere's ride, took a few nights because they were so long. But after only a week Vera started to request poems, not just at bed time, but at nap time, and periodically throughout the day. It gave me a thrill to hear her little sing song voice ask for a "po-uhm." After we finished that book we moved on to our own copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends. There is a great place for Shel Silverstein, but what I loved about the other book was the breadth of authors that we got to read and the various styles and subjects.
I think my friend started it just because she loves poetry and reading poems with your children is such a lovely thought. And I agree! But I also started to think what a lovely thing to do in general because these poems are often built into our culture's world understanding, it is exposing Vera (and myself, let's be honest) to different writing styles and forms of language, and it makes bedtime special. Often we are rushed to get her to bed because she's exhausted and we are no different. Having a new poem every night to whisk her away to sleep it such a treat. It softens my heart as a mother to make a part of her world beautiful and magical every night.


Also, Happy Texas Independence Day/ Dr. Seuss Birthday!