Tag: winter

A snowy day

January 11, 2025
Woke up to a winter wonderland

The snow began around 6:30 a.m. This was the scene that greeted us when I took Sadie out around 9:00 a.m. Big Girl has never experienced snow this deep. I had to walk out in the snow first to show her it was okay to go out. As predicted, we played several versions of the in/out game. She waited patiently to be toweled off after every round.

Total snowfall was about 3 inches. More snow and freezing rain are expected overnight. Late this afternoon, our HOA hired a contractor to provide snow removal and road salt services. I’m glad they did because the slush started to melt and is expected to refreeze overnight. Should make it easier for neighbors who need to get out tomorrow morning. Sadie and I may take a walk tomorrow mid-day, but I’m not planning to leave in my SUV until Sunday afternoon.

Doing EPP while I watched the local news coverage of our winter weather

Today was a lazy day. We watched the neighborhood kids slide down the hill in front of our house and visited with the next-door neighbors as their 3 year old experienced snow for the first time. So much fun! I did venture downstairs to my sewing room for a bit, but returned upstairs to the warmth of the fireplace and a mug of hot tea. Making a few EPP hexie flowers, reading a book and taking a nap were about as productive as it got today. Dinner consisted of leftover Hawaiian Chicken, jasmine rice and macaroni salad – my homemade version inspired by Mo’Bettahs that I enjoyed while at the Riley Blake Garden of Quilts event a couple of years ago. There’s even enough left for lunch tomorrow to pair with a small garden salad!

The local news anchors just reported some power outages in my area. Hopefully, we still have power in the morning. Regardless, all devices are fully charged, the laundry is done and my flashlight is handy.

Wintry mix forecasted

January 10, 2025

Snow, ice, freezing rain, or just plain old rain? Local weather forecasters keep revising the forecast. We started with 3-6″ of snow. The latest forecast shows us receiving less than 1″ of snow on Friday, changing over to freezing rain the remainder of Friday into Saturday. Expected ice accumulation is about 1/4″, which should be cleared up by lunchtime on Sunday.

My plan is to hunker down until Sunday afternoon. A little bit of snow isn’t the issue – it’s the ice you can’t see when driving on the hilly, shaded streets around my home. Said ice on the power lines could potentially cause power outages (not fun). From experience, I know the house temps will settle in the mid-50’s if there’s no heat and outside temps are in the single digits. We’re forecasted to be at least 20 degrees warmer than that this weekend. The front of our house faces the sun, so the front bedroom is the best place to bundle up and hunker down while it’s cold with no heat. A hot meal can be had if I fire up the Big Green Egg.

I’m ready for whatever happens: a stack of books, handwork projects, my journal, a deck of cards and Sadie to play 9,000 iterations of the in/out game.

Storybook Arts & Crafts with a side of Sadie {Update}

January 7, 2024

Monday enrichment begins anew on January 22nd. I’ll have 3 classes this semester lasting about an hour each. My students are K-5. I told my boss I was flexible and could arrange activities to suit any of the K-5 groupings I might be assigned. This semester, I challenged myself to not spend any money on picture books and to use existing supplies for craft projects as much as possible.

Class rosters came out yesterday. This semester, I have 31 students spread over 3 classes – many more than anticipated. This called for revamping the activities I’d planned to do with the kids. I had to pick-up more scissors, crayons and construction paper to start the semester. When I started to overthink activities and go down the maker rabbit hole, hubs yanked me back to reality. He wisely reminded me to keep things simple. Use what I have, but go buy what I need. [Made use of the giftcard my aunt gave me for Christmas!] Make activities enjoyable, keep weekly preps easy on me. The kids will have fun regardless of what we do. Good advice, but so hard when you find all sorts of cool projects you want to make…

Here’s the plan through Winter Break:

1/22 & 1/29: How to Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton – snowman activity from A Simple Mom plus whatever snowman/snowflake book I can get from the public library – cut paper snowflakes using templates from Superstar Worksheets and by hand following art teacher video on YouTube. Update: 4th & 5th snowman activity: download assorted snowglobe templates and have students design trap to keep snowman from escaping snowglobe. 

2/5: Grumpy New Year by Katrina Moore  - Dragon paper roll activity for the littles and fabric fortune cookies for the big kids (hand sewing).

2/12: Whatever Valentine book arrives first from public library – Paper plate Valentine suncatchers.

2/19: Sadie visits – dog themed stories from Sadie’s library - simple craft activities - littles: paper plate puppy activity. older students : origami dog bookmarks.

And this gets us through Winter Break the last week of February!

Note: I post these ideas to share with librarians, teachers, former colleagues, homeschool moms or anyone really who is looking for great read-alouds and low cost craft activities to share with their kids. I may be retired, but I still get texts from former colleagues needing ideas for books and teaching research skills.

Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.com