I know it's been awhile...but I have no pictures to post. I have taken pictures but I can't upload them to the computer because the C drive says it's full withthe other eight thousand one hundred eighty six photos. Chris needs to figure out what to do- burn them onto cds, get an external hard drive, delete half of them without my knowledge, etc- but he's booked up until next Thursday studying for a big certification thing. So, no pictures. =(

This week was scheduled in my heart for spring cleaning. My new favorite homekeeping manual, Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson, made it sound irresistable:

"It is delightful to begin the new season with a home that has been scoured top to bottom, every drawer emptied, every piece of china washed, every bit of metal polished, every fabric washed, every square inch of all surfaces washed, polished, scoured, waxed, or otherwise brought to its finest state. This helps you feel motivated to keep things as pleasant as they are after spring cleaning. It also means that you do not have a dozen big jobs constantly hanging over your head, getting in the way of your free time."

It's almost like she's promising me free time if I do all my cleaning... Except waxing, I don't know anybody who waxes. Well, furniture at least. Also, she promises that 'a full spring cleaning takes the average suburban household 2-3 days, rarely more.' (Really? Even with one worker and two dis-workers?) But she warns not to have any guests and to only do light cooking. So, we started the week with no plans but cleaning, no week menu because light cooking is surely Chic-fil-A or similar franchise, and health. I was so excited to start, I even status-ed it on facebook.
Sadly, health checked out Monday afternoon. That brought us through Wednesday with only half a day's cleaning. Last night, as I was laying plans for the morrow with renewed spring clean fervor, my sweet college girlfriend phoned and will be staying here today through tomorrow. I gladly pushed back cleaning until Friday. This morning, Chris calls and some dear friends from Philly will be coming down, for all day Friday.

I tried. I did try.

Anna has a book with the different names for animals- ram, ewe, lamb etc. She was looking through it today with Chris and quizzing him. He got all of them right until, "What is a mama dog called?" Uh....

What have we been doing this morning? Wasting time? No, wasting thyme.
I personally thought we were having a productive morning. We all were up at 6:30. French toast was on the table by 7, we even had family worship before Daddy left for work. I updated our blog (below), responded to emails, and tidied up a bit. The baby went down for her nap and I jumped in the shower thinking we were well on our way to a productive day. Meanwhile, the elder daughter prepared a gourmet fare for her stuffed dog- plastic play food spiced up with real thyme. Lots of it. In fact, all of it. So, I came out of the shower to find our thyme was wasted. I know there are a billion puns I could get out of this, but I simply don't have thyme.

On Monday, Dad came home early from work so we puffalumped the girls up and played in the snow!

These two LOVE sledding.

Her first snow angel.

"MUSH!"

Sonja and I came in to point out the window and make hot cocoa, respectively. Dad and Anna stayed out for awhile longer- Anna really enjoyed being pulled around on that sled. =)

I'm trying to plan out this week's menu and am so overwhelmed with trying to put together healthful meals that Sonja can eat too that can be leftovers for Chris' lunch and that include the meat or poultry on sale at Giant. I've made several lists out this morning, but I just can't get it all together today. We were going to leave for the store at 10:30- the girls were all dressed and ready- but I didn't have my list set. And I still don't. And it's noon. And tonight's dinner needs to be on the table by 5 because tonight is Viking Club, which I'm still excited about, but slightly stressed about the time limit. So why am I wasting time blogging? Uh... Actually, I started this paragraph in an email to Chris, but it was a little whine-ish and I know he's pretty busy at work, so I figured I'd clean it up a bit and put it on the blog where you other mothers can read sympathetically. Ho hum...back at it...

Who sews Sue's socks? Sue sews Sue's socks.

In December, Chris found a little quilt shop not too far from us that I didn't know about. He gave me their newsletter and gift card at Christmas time and, guess what! They have sewing clubs for the different brands of sewing machines! So, once a month, you come in with your machine and do a project that helps you learn how to better use your machine. How long have I been looking for this??! Chris, you rock my world.

Anyway, I somehow found it difficult with two small children to get to the quilt shop during the day and it closes at 5 most days so weeks passed. Then this past Saturday, I ran out by myself to finally check it out. I signed up for Viking Club (!!!), picked up my class supply list and spent an hour looking through all their fabrics. I picked these two for this month's project:

I came home pretty giddy about the whole thing. I was too excited to wait until Tuesday's class to sew so I pulled the big lady out and made these coasters Saturday night:

(There's your picture, Mom.)

So, that's the sewing news. Other news- Snow! We've got it. We're still getting it. There's maybe five inches or so on the ground so far. Most of it came down last night so we haven't been out in it yet but we're REALLY excited- there's a sled downstairs that Anna doesn't know about... =)