dreaming of spring...

We got hit with a late February storm (again) - and a broken snowblower necessitated us spending some time outside on Saturday shoveling ourselves out. I helped on the driveway a bit - although Hubby did the majority of the work. We get plowed in by both the village plows, and the sidewalk plows, so it can get pretty messy near the end of the driveway. We also had a lot of wind, so a lot of drifting on the driveway side of the house.

Disappointingly this was not good packing snow - although it seemed to be sticking to everything else. There was a lot of air in it and we just could not get it to stick to itself to build a snowman, so the Munchkin busied himself making trails through the snow, or sledding down the miniscule incline next to the driveway, or trying to help shovel with the shovel out of his sand box, or posing for pictures.

Meanwhile I went searching...

...for signs of spring. I found a few - mostly in the buds of the lilac - which should be gorgeous unless the deer decide they are hungry and try to eat the buds off as they have in the past. For now they seem content to raid the bird feeders and leave the lilac buds alone -

The heaped up piles of chopped up leaves we put into the raised beds seem to have settled, and hopefully all the compost goodness we layered under them is right now making that soil nice and rich and yummy.

This weekend we will set up my little indoor greenhouse - basically a 4' tall wire shelving unit with a vinyl cover that I can set up in front of my south facing french doors. Things did well there last year -but with the cover I am hoping for some extra warmth and humidity and an even better kick start to our growing season. The 4' is also about triple the space I had last year - so I have room to try more things!

I want to monitor the temperature for a bit before starting anything, as I want to see just how warm it can get in there and how much I will need to ventilate when I am at work during the day. Don't want to cook the greens until they are ready to be eaten, know what I mean?!?

We are barely in to March - and the snow of 4 days ago has given way to bare patches of lawn (again). I am sure we will have more snow to come before we can truly call it spring - but it is getting closer... little by little it is getting closer.

The Perfect Storm

The past few days we have been getting bombarded by snow. Not DC/Virginia/NYC snow - but a good foot or so of nice, wet, packing snow.

With some milder temperatures today, no wind to speak of, and a house full of HEALTHY people for a change - it was the perfect recipe for some fun in the snow.


First we got all suited up - thanks to some great hand me downs from Uncle Bill and family, and a wonderful polar fleece from Disney, the Munchkin was nice and warm.

The first order of business was building a snow family. Matt was busy snowblowing the driveway - which was a daunting task due to the drifting, and the sidewalk plow, and the snowplow residue at the end of the driveway - so the Munchkin and I picked a spot on the opposite side of the house, within view of the dining room windows, to build our family.

The one on the left is Daddy - constructed the old fashioned way by packing the snow into a pile and building up and up and up. Very tiring as the snow is very heavy and wet.

We soon got smart and grabbed some buckets to build Mommy - in the middle. A packed bucket of snow, then some packed on the outside for rounding and shape, and then another sized bucket and a smaller one - this went together so quick.

Two buckets combined made the Munchkin - and a few handfuls made Snow Maggie (on the ground in front of the Munchkin). Carrot noses, black eyed susan seed pod eyes and a few carrots rounded out these characters - no handy branches for arms so we used stalks of black eyed susan's... the birds will be happy!

Then the Munchkin decides he wants a fort - so Mommy starts building some walls using the bucket-of-snow method. Matt has by now finished the driveway and gets in to help - and one thing leads to another and we end up with this:

And most importantly - with this...

The Perfect Storm -all the way around!!!

Fuzzy Face

The Munchkin does NOT like to have his hair cut. Not at all.
We have had 5 different people try - with varied success.

He finally said he would let "Miss Judy" cut his hair if she taught Mommy how to do it, so that I could do it next time.

So she did.... and I did.

Not the best haircut he's ever had - but also not the worst.

We put a sheet down on the floor with his youth chair on top, draped him with another sheet, and popped in a movie.

Not a squirm, not a peep, not a struggle.

Whew.

I cut it as short as I dared - since I don't know how he will be next time we try this, so the longer we can go in between, the happier Mommy will be.

Dad used to cut my hair when I was a kid - not some of my happier moments. It was your typical "bowl" cut with very little in the way of styling going on - but sometimes the "bowl" would be tipped way towards the back and I would have bangs that were shorter than my eyelashes!!! Lets hope the Munchkin has a better experience (and that my technique gets a little better - especially around his ears).

We headed up for a tubby right after this - to get all the fuzzies off. I think I had nearly as many on me!!! It is amazing how much more quickly we can wash and dry his hair, though. It is VERY thick and holds water like a sponge.

Ah - it will be nice when we can do this on the deck in the summertime!!! Right now we are still in permafreeze, with our snowman nearing the ripe old age of 23 (days).

If this snow keeps up, Snowy might need his own haircut!!!

Have scissors, will travel!