SNOW DAYS!!!

When I was a kid I loved snow days. A snow day meant bundling up in my warmest winter gear and playing outside with my sisters in the fresh white snow. We would build snow men, make snow angels, create snow forts, and run around until our ears, noses, and cheeks were pink and our gloves and mittens soaked through. Then we'd come inside, strip off our wet clothes and change back into our warm pajamas, and sip mugs of hot chocolate while watching one of our many favorite Christmas movies. Good times.

As a teacher, I also love snow days... but for much different reasons. Now when I get a free day to spend at home, I look forward to doing dishes, laundry, and other household chores. I still look forward to the hot chocolate (but perhaps with a little something extra mixed in ;-)

Yesterday I enjoyed the snow day by getting some chores done around the house. Today I have gotten a little farther with our Christmas decorations. I got the ornaments on the tree and put up a few of our nativity sets. I haven't found the tree topper yet, though, and may need to go hunting for more Christmas boxes in the basement.

It's a beautiful day outside and Seth and I are going to drive around a bit and get some pictures of our snow-covered town. For now, here are some pictures from our yard. We got about 12-14 inches of snow yesterday and overnight, and now the wind is blowing at 25-35 mph and making some lovely drifts. This one was peeking out our front door. That's Seth standing at the bottom of our driveway... with half of it left to shovel.Looking back up the driveway at the trailblazer

More to come later :-)

Fire!!!

Almost as exciting as the first snow of the year is the first FIRE of the year!
One of my favorite things about our rental house is that it has a fire place, and in celebration of the first snow, Seth and I decided it was time to use it!

We even took a shopping trip to Menards to get an ash bucket and a fireplace tool set (I'm sure it has a better name than "fireplace tool set" but at the moment that's all I can think to call it). Today it was about 30 degrees outside as well so we've had the fire going since we got home from church this morning and I LOVE IT!!!

I only hope we can keep up our wood supply enough to keep the fires going all winter. Plus - as long as we had the fire going, our furnace didn't kick on - so we're saving $$$ too!
Best of all, I love the way it makes the house smell. :-) Here's to life by firelight!

Welcome to Iowa

Seth and I woke up this morning to about an inch and a half of SNOW on the ground!

Just to clarify, it's October 10th, it's 31 degrees outside, and it's snowing.

Wow.It's so strange to see snow on the ground when the trees still have their autumn colored leaves on!

It's all relative I suppose...

I lived in Chicago for 6 years. During those years I got used to pretty cold winters, lots of ice, snow, and wind. I got used to short springs and autumns, and very. long. winters.

Then I moved to St. Louis and all too quickly forgot all about the Chicago weather. Suddenly spring started in March instead of May and leaves didn't start to change color until the middle of October. Even though winter was much shorter and somewhat milder, I still complained. I remember complaining to my mom on the phone about how cold it was and she laughed at me and asked what happened to the "Chicago girl".

Now I'm in Iowa and summer is definitely over. The high when I left work today was about 45 degrees with really strong winds. I'm starting to get a little nervous about winter up here. If I went from Chicago winters to St. Louis winters and turned into a wuss... what does that mean for me going from St. Louis to Iowa?!?!

I'm trying to channel Chicago and prepare myself for the months ahead... but I'm thinking it's not going to be pretty.