Winter Weather Mix

Last week we had some crazy, but fun weather!  We had a nice snow fall on that Monday.  The girls wanted to earn a little money so shoveled a little bit at Lee's office. 


We then went sledding.  I'm so glad we decided to go ahead and go when we did.  No one was at the hill except us.  That is always fun too!


Once a month each kid gets to have a date with a parent.  More often it's with Lee.  They usually get to pick out some sort of treat and play a game or participate in an activity like a hike or playing tennis...or something.  Like what you would do on a date! Haley takes pretty good selfies!  She wanted a HUGE cookie for her date, play monopoly, and have it with me.  It was very fun.  I made her a huge cookie and then left the rest of the cookie dough for cookies for our FHE treat that night.




I love it when snow falls!  It's so calm and peaceful outside. Usually.


Remember how I mentioned that I was glad we went sledding when we did?  This is what it looked like outside the next afternoon.  CRAZY!  It rained A LOT all night, plus the temperature rose quite a bit.  Those two things combined make for fast snow removal.  We still squeezed two snow days out of it which was a lot of fun.


That Tuesday night was date-night mania.  Usually there is only one date per night (when we do them) and if you were curious (but maybe not) they can't be on a Monday, you can't watch a movie or play electronics together.  That is how we do them.  I know others who do these things and it works out great for their family.  So, back to Tuesday.  Elden, Cal and Clark all wanted a date.  I took Elden to 7-11 for a slurpee, then we played Wits and Wagers.  Clark and Cal each had an hour for their date and they shared their dessert---cookie dough.  Cal and I made the cookie dough with powered eggs so it definitely didn't have to be cooked.  (Though I eat cookie dough every time I make it..with raw eggs...I like it better than the cookies!)


Aren't these snow piles crazy?  This was in the parking lot at Target. 


My parents send us Valentine's every year and we love it!  So fun getting cute cards in the mail!


Last weekend Lee and I saw Aida.  I've never seen the play before.  The high schools around here always do a great job with their musicals.  Aida was one of our youth from church.  She did a knock-out performance.  Just incredible.  We joined up with our friends Michael and Brittany and had a great time eating out first, then going to the play.  I think I might be having cabin fever or something because lately I've been craving more social time!  I've been able to get with friends four times the last week or so, and I've loved it.


We went from snow on Monday to 60s on Saturday. It was so gorgeous Saturday!  Clark was on a boy scout campout that morning and I wanted to go on a hike.  We went to Massanutten.  Lee wanted to hike to to top of a certain mountain, but we didn't have enough time.  He took off to spend some time with Clark and the rest of us kept hiking a different trail.






"Look Mom, I found Africa!"










The trail we went on it one Lee has taken his bike on.  Apparently I've been on it with my bike too (can't remember super well).  He told me that it loops around and will take us back to the parking lot.  Well, we hiked and hiked and hiked. I was getting worried because I thought it was a true loop, but we kept going on switchbacks that took us down to the ravine.  We probably hiked at least another three miles.  There came a point where we could keep going, take a left and hike a trail that went up the mountain, or turn around.  I knew how to get back if we turned around, but it would be another hour+ till we got back to our van.  We kept going on the trail but I realized it was taking us around the base of Massanutten mountain.  That would take us HOURS to get back to our van.  Our two best choices were up the mountain, which appeared to be the right, fastest way, or turn around.  I had the kids stop and we said a prayer.  It was a good experience for them because Cal felt strongly about going up (and I had a hunch it would be the best way). So that we did.  About a 1/2 hour later we made it back to the parking lot!  We offered a prayer of gratitude back in the van.  The kids were so excited that we were done with the hike.  It was a great experience.


Meanwhile....Clark got to shoot a riffle and a shot gun at Camp Shenandoah.  I think he had a pretty good time on the camp out. 


Lee and I have been doing a little challenge these past two weeks (just two days left!) of no eating treats/sweets and no eating after dinner.  Last week wasn't so bad, even with the Valentine candy around, and making treats for kids' dates.  But this week hasn't been fun!  I don't think I will be doing this challenge ever again, haha.  But it is nice knowing that if a health problem arises in the future I could stick to a strict diet. Oh, we do get to have a treat on our date night.  Last Friday we enjoyed yummy ice cream!


Found this in the fridge Sunday morning....Shanna wouldn't say much....


The girls had an activity day event last night and did some cooking.  They loved it!  Well, I know Shanna did.  I found their aprons I made them a couple years ago for Christmas.  I used the material from an old prom dress.  Kind of funny that my twin girls are now wearing it as aprons!  I thought it would be fun material to repurpose.


We'll post this again when Lee does his Nicaragua post, but the local paper interview Lee about his Nicaragua vision trip!  (I emailed them telling them about the trip and giving them Lee's contact info if they were interested in an interview.) They did a nice, front page article.  They recorded his hometown right and even did the correct spelling/punctuation for the church!  A common error is to write Latter Day or Latter day.  But it's Latter-day (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)  I recently filled out a survey and at the end it asked what religion I was.  One option was Latter Day saints. Soon after a question was "Do you have any comments?" Why, yes, yes I do.  I wrote explaining they needed to change Latter Day Saints to Latter-day Saints. 




Lastly, I finished reading this book.  I don't feel like I have a problem with hoarding or tidying, but it's something that somewhat interests me and heard it was a good book.  It was such a fun read.  I loved the writing style and it gave me some things to think about.  I want to read it again.  If you've read it you'll have to let me know what you think of it! I won't be following her whole program, but do want to incorporate some ideas.  I love the idea to keep in your home only those things that bring you joy.  And to discard the rest.  It was interesting learning more of the Japanese culture.  One aspect was how inanimate objects to them are almost like living things.  One thing she does it thank an item--say an old pair of shoes--for the service they gave her, then discard them.  I am not sure about thanking items that way, but I definitely can feel grateful for the use I received from a worn out pair of shoes, and get rid of them knowing that I used them, and they worked for me, and their job is done.  But seriously, such a great book!