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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Blizzards and Birthdays part 1

First let me just say that I hope that all of you who read this had a wonderful and joyous Christmas day. We sure did.

It doesn't take much for our family to get excited. We revel in the simple pleasures of life....a frog caught....spotting a rare bird at the feeder....fresh garden veggies....iced coffee....tickle fights....snow storms.

Woke up this morning to this forecast on weather.com:



2 things...first: do you see that the forecast for the next 36 hours are bracketed in red? That means trouble...it also means awesome. Second...do you see the forecast under the "Tonight" heading? 1 word. Blizzard. BLIZZARD. YES!!!!! We're big on natural disasters around here. We spend lots of time, money, and energy getting ready for stuff like this. My pops and I feel that it's much better to be proactive and prepared than reactive and frantic. The Winter storm warning mentioned widespread power outages, 50 + mph wind gusts, and the possibility of 20+ inches of snow. Let's party.

We started by stocking our wood bin and hearth with 3 days worth of wood:


Between my dad and I, we've got a pretty good supply of wood, food, water, gas....probably enough to lock it down for several months if we had to. I credit him for instilling the attitudes of preparedness and pro activity in me. While others are scrambling to react to adversity...we are able to calmly deal with what comes our way with an attitude of preparedness. It may seem overkill to some...but the reality is, that it doesn't take that big an "X" factor for the average family to start panicking. 2 Winters ago there was an ice storm that knocked out power for thousands of families just North of here for 17 days. Most people had to scramble to figure out how they were going to survive....many families had to head to emergency shelters....our household would have hardly noticed.

In my families opinion...it's important to be prepared. Tonight there is a blizzard outside with wind gusts reported locally of 44mph....if a tree branch were to break off and smash through someones front window, would they have the knowledge and resources to be able to immediately deal with the situation? most wouldn't....If the power went out for days or the water were to get shut off or sanitation removal were to cease or if gas or food were rationed...would most households be able to survive without panic? It's sad to say that the answer is probably "no".

The Lord, through His Scriptures, has called us to be skilled and wise....I'll go ahead and include "prepared and proactive" in the definition of "wise". It's a joy to be able to enjoy this storm. My work called me this afternoon and cancelled for tomorrow. I get to ride this baby out prepared and protected alongside my family. That's a simple pleasure that I'll take any day. Here's a few more pics:


First Flakes

Here's how it looked at about 4:45 pm EST:



The call is for 15 to 20 more inches to fall before all is said and done. Bring it. We're ready.

On a completely separate note...my son turns 4 tomorrow. I can't even begin to believe that he's 4 years old. Someone is stealing months away from my calendar when I'm not looking, I swear it. He told me today that he doesn't want to turn 4 because he's afraid that Mommy and I won't care for him any more or carry him to bed. Sweet little soul. If he only knew that I'd do that 'til he's 30 if he'd let me.

We were planning on heading to Chuck E. Cheese for some birthday fun tomorrow, but given the present weather circumstances, we're gonna be home bound. Well, score another one for preparedness and pro activity....we dug through some old totes of old party stuff that we had stored downstairs and found a bunch of decorations that we used to dress up the dining room:



We decorated after he went to bed, so he'll be surprised when he wakes up. I know for a fact that he's not too old to be excited over a roomful of decorations and 2 feet of snow outside. I'm 36 and I'm not.


Once all is said and done and the snow totals are tallied, I'll post part 2 to discuss how we fared on all counts. Right now i've got to hunker down and get ready to party.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Heading Out and Laying Low

Some people may think Chrissy and I have a problem. Some might say that we spend way too much time with our kids. We hardly ever are away from our children. Since Ivy was born 16 months ago, Chrissy and I have been out to dinner 1 time without our kids. We went to a place 1/4 mile away and called home twice while my parents watched the chilluns. Basically, we just love to be with our kids. Chrissy engages them pretty much all day while I am at work, and we party hard together when dad gets home. Tonight Chrissy stepped out big time.

She went out to dinner with her friend.

Without the kids.

For 3 hours.

Now this may seem like standard operating procedure for many women....but this was a really big deal to Chrissy. She'd never done anything like this before. But daddy came home from work, Chrissy got her stuff together and she was out the door to meet her friend. I was so glad that she got to spend some time away from the typical routine of " Mommy, mommy, mommy..." It's important.

She had a good time. She would never tell you (but I will) that she even had herself a beer with her Thai dinner. I'm glad for her. She had a great evening with her friend. Meanwhile...i had a great night at home with the boy and girl.

It started the way any good night home alone with dad ought to start....with fish sticks and grilled cheese for dinner. Money.

Once we had our fill we moved on to our nighttime activity....Fort Chewto. Named after the delicious cheese curls "Cheetos"...Gavin had called them "Chewtos" his whole life...and it's so stinkin' cute that I don't have the heart to correct him.
Basically, the concept was simple...let's build a huge fort out of furniture, blankets, and pillows (something I'd done ad-nauseum as a kid) and eat Cheetos (read "Chewtos") inside of it. Mission Accomplished.

Once the fort was built, Gavin assumed the role of "Lieutenant Cheese" and was responsible for a number of missions including:
"Operation Find-The-Baby-Doll"
"Operation Rescue-Luna" (Luna is his stuffed bear)
and "Operation Get The Juice From The Fridge"

We had a great time destroying the sun room. Here's proof:


Fort Chewto as seen from the Northern Approach.
note the blue tube opening to the right. There was a secret back escape tunnel, just like any good fort should have. We can't tell you where that is, though. We could...but then we'd have to kill you. Then there'd be no one to read this blog.


Every good fort needs a "lookout". Ours was Joseph from our crappy porcelain nativity. He did well and didn't let many enemy troops approach unannounced...(and those that did were promptly dealt with by Lieutenant Cheese).


I mean really...A "Fort Chewtos" without Chewtos is just a fort, right?


Ivy "Guarding" the northern Approach.

All in all, not a bad night at all. Here's my bumper sticker moment:

Kill your TV.
Hug Your Kids.
Build a Fort.


Be Good.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Hunkering Down

By this time last year, we already had enough snow to cancel school a few times. We awoke to a dusting this morning, but it won't be long before our first big snow, and Gavin, Pa, and I took the morning to batten down the hatches by taking care of a few outside chores while Mama and Ivy put on a MAJOR cleaning session inside.

I won't bore you or I by listing all the chores we did, but in completing these tasks, I remembered one thing that I had thought of late last winter that I wanted to build this year....a glove and hat drying rack near the wood stove.

We are outside ALOT throughout the Winter, and normally when we get back inside we just drape our wet stuff on the gate surrounding the stove...but there's always a glove or a hat that gets buried under some jacket and doesn't dry. Today Gavin and I took to the workshop again and whipped up this bad boy:



First, we selected a 1/2 round piece of split log off of the wood pile. Then we headed to the back yard and lopped off a few branches from one of the trees back there and cut them to size. We figured on making a 12-point rack...enough for 4 pairs of mittens and 4 hats.
Next we rounded the tips of the points using a grinding/sanding wheel and tapped them into the log using appropriate sized spade bits.
We secured them using wood glue and drywall screws screwed in from the under side.

At first, after we installed it on the windowsill, I thought it looked a little cracky and ominous. But the more I look at it, the more I like it....and, from a functionality standpoint...it's going to be super convenient. Here's how it looks with the rest of the stove area:




I can't wait for that thing to be filled with hats and mittens all soaked through from a session of sledding/quadding/snow forts/snow angels/snowmen....gear drying....fire roaring....family warming....cocoa flowing....bring it on, Winter.

We're ready :^)

Friday, December 10, 2010

Morning



Dudley, MA
6:43 am
6.8 degrees Farenheit
as seen from our back deck


"Your glory shines
You teach the sun when to bring a new day.
Creation sings,
'God You Reign'".
- Lincoln Brewster

Have a blessed day, everybody.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Tree Trimming....literally

This time of year, I love driving down the road and seeing a family driving the opposite direction with their Christmas tree tied to the roof of their car. Selecting, transporting, and erecting the Family Christmas Tree is such a fun kickoff to this wonderful season. Our family joined the party this weekend. In years past, we've hit random roadside tree lots to select our tree. This year, we wanted to cut our own....Not so much for experiences sake, but more for functionality. Our home is a bit on the dry side with the fireplace going 24/7 and trees seem to brittle up pretty quickly in here. Also, we are having some family up from Jersey in early January and wanted the tree to still be in pretty good condition late in the season. So, we figured that fresher was better. There's a guy about 1/4 mile from our home who owns a couple acres and has planted some Christmas trees to cut yourself...the trees aren't the fullest you've ever seen, but they're pretty enough. And for 25 bucks, you can't go wrong. It was nice buying local and supporting a neighbor. Anyway, here's how it played out....


looking....


still looking...


Found It!! Now, a couple of things about this photo....

1. The chainsaw. Not the way our forefathers did it, but look, here's the deal...anytime you go to a "cut your own Christmas tree" place, they send you off into the woods with some old, rickety, dull, rusty, busted hand saw that looks like it should be hanging on the wall of a Cracker Barrel...sure it looks all old timey and what not, and probably nice in the family photo of the event, but the reality is that it's fun for about 5 seconds, then the nostalgia of the moment wears off real fast when dad is on his knees in the freezing cold just sawing and sawing and sawing and sawing and sawing....I'm all set with that. let's fire up the Stihl get to gettin'.

2. We have 8 foot ceilings in our living room...This tree is just under 12 feet tall...looks like a drastic miscalculation, right? Well, only sort of...we all really liked this tree...it's got these really cool short, stubby, rounded needles...not all jabby like a usual Christmas tree. We decided to cut it down, lop off the top 4 feet or so, and reshape the new "top" to look more Christmas tree-ish...It ended up coming out great.


Cuttin' her down....


Loadin' her up


My Girls decorating





These 2 photos are like a microcosm of our lives...we do things together as a family, give our children opportunities to try things and experience life under our close supervision and guidance, and do our best to help them avoid blunt force trauma from nosediving off a chair.



"I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love." - Linus Van Pelt


Here's to hoping for a blessed Christmas season to you and yours.