Saturation and Bailout

The theme of my week was water. All of the snow plus freezing rain plus rain over the past two weeks has completely saturated the ground around our house. Our driveway became a sloppy puddly sticky mud pit. Our yard transformed into a squelchy marsh. As the temperature came back up into double digits last week and the snow receded, I noticed that the low gravel area next to the barn had become a full-on lake of frozen ice water. It didn't surprise me because of the intense weather we've had recently. Over the past week, a lot of snow started melting and plenty of rain fell, so I teased the swim team about doing a polar plunge at practice and avoided walking in that section of the driveway.

Winter Weather

 Winter weather hit us HARD this past week. First came the cold: the temperature dropped into single digits, with that painful negative windchill we experienced while ice skating on the canal last weekend. Then came the snow, in several installments. Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so there was no school. After Tuesday night's snowfall, Wednesday school was delayed 2 hours. Youth church activities and parent teacher conferences were cancelled on Wednesday night due to a winter weather advisory in the forecast, but Thursday was a normal school day. The snow started around 11am on Thursday, which caused Jay's swim meet to be cancelled that night. School was cancelled on Friday. Saturday night, freezing rain rushed in, glazing the snow in a shiny layer of ice. Church was cancelled on Sunday (today, Jan 21st). Our week can be broken down into three sections: sunsets, running in the cold, and a snow day. 

Ice skating

 The only good part about freezing winter weather is when it makes the canal freeze! The temperature plummeted into single digits on Thursday night and froze the canal hard and fast. It was the smoothest ice we've ever had on the canal, possibly due to the speed of the freeze. No partial freeze, thaw, freeze cycle. It froze all at once into this diamond hard smooth sheet of glass. Amber and I braved the 1 degree air on Saturday morning (Jan 13th) for some ice skating. We spent a solid 30 minutes bundling and layering up before heading out into the cold. The wind was about 9mph, making the windchill negative. Usually the inside of the canal ditch is protected from wind, but somehow the wind was blowing the length of the canal this time. IT WAS FRIGID. Best ice ever, in the coldest air ever. It figures, right?

The Two Tooth Week

Over the past week, I spent several hours at the dental office. On Friday (Jan 5th) I had a routine teeth cleaning for myself. The following week, both Jay and Amber had separate appointments for troublesome teeth.

Tooth #1: On Saturday (Jan 6th), Amber was playing with a ball on the basement stairs when I heard a thump and a bump. A wobbly little voice drifted up: "I chipped my tooth!" Amber came upstairs sobbing, clutching something in her fist. When she opened her mouth, my stomach clenched. Her right front adult tooth had an unsettlingly large chunk missing! Still crying, she opened her fist and showed me the tooth fragment. 

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year! We had our usual crackers, cheese, and dips for dinner on New Year's Eve. Since my lactose intolerance made me less than excited to prep all of that dairy-liciousness, Rose cut up all of the cheeses, and Jeff and Jay each made a creamy hot dip to go with crackers. Jay even learned how to toast almonds in a skillet! We played several rounds of our family favorite Wii game, Luigi's Ghost House, which had us laughing and screaming. We had "special drinks" (citrus soda, orange juice, and cherry grenadine). I finished my 2023 goal of drawing a picture every single day all year long, and it was a little sad to be done with that quest, but also very satisfying. I went to bed at 10:30pm on New Year's Eve, while my family stayed up. I did not exactly get much sleep-- I dozed off but was awakened repeatedly by random fireworks in the countryside around our house and my own family's various noises as they stayed up till midnight.