Catch Up

When I started this blog in January of '07, my intention was to take a picture of my kids each day to see how they change and grow and to take a picture of something that reflects who I am and what I do. I've done several variations on that and I enjoy looking back on the year and being able to see and remember what happened instead of drawing a blank like I have in years past when trying to recall what happened and when it happened and even if anything significant happened. (BIG run-on, entirely confusing sentence!) Lately my life has become somewhat routine (get up, check e-mail, educate my kids, straighten house, go to work, come home, play a game, watch TV, go to sleep) which is good AND bad. I'm enjoying the relative calm (before the storm) but there just isn't as much to blog about. I've already come to the conclusion that my blog "is what it is". I'm not looking for a large audience (I love the three people who check it everyday- you know who you are!), I'm not trying to be smarter or funnier or hipper than other blogs that I read, so I'm pretty comfortable doing what I'm doing. Maybe I'll go back to posting quick, daily photos, but maybe not! In the meantime, this is what the last week looked like starting with yesterday (Thursday) and going all the way back to last Wednesday!!

We've had a ton of snow lately which I've really been enjoying. It's been a long time since it has snowed like this. I could do without the freezing temperatures, but this is the first winter in a long time that I've reveled in the winter weather instead of longing for Spring.

This was our science experiment yesterday, straight out of Exploring Creation With Physical Science, which we love and highly reccomend:
The experiment demonstrates how the water cycle works. We boiled salt water and waited for it to "rain":

We waited and waited. . .

. . . and waited. . .

We got a little tired of waiting so we each wandered off to do other things. BIG mistake. It wasn't long before the bag of ice slid off the lid it was resting on and hit the burner, catching fire and threatening to burn down the kitchen. Fortunately I heard the "clunk" as it fell and put the fire out pretty quickly. . . my only regret was that I didn't take a picture first!!! Oh well, here's the melted bag. . .

Wednesday classes at church were canceled due to the weather but we die-hard quizzers met for a couple of hours anyway. These guys really know their stuff:

An experiment earlier in the week proved to be much less dangerous. This glass contains syrup, colored water and vegtable oil. It was an experiment about density and, as we dropped in a variety of items, we were able to tell if they were more or less dense than each of the three liquids:

Very interesting.

On Sunday, we hired the three boys to help us move things from one of our buildings to the next. (We have been reorganizing things since we rented out half of one of our buildings this month. It's been a huge amount of work, but it will be worth it in the end.) The boys did a fabulous job!!

Apparently I didn't take a single picture between Thursday and Sunday, therefore I have no idea what I did . . . We celebrated Rob's 40th birthday on Thursday and my mom and dad wrote a song and sang it to Rob. It was pretty funny!! I was really hoping other people would be around but no such luck!

The four of us went to Sizzler to celebrate Rob's inevitable demise and I couldn't get these two to smile nicely to save my life. (Zach also lost his wallet this night with a $50 bill in it. I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing that again. . . )

Zach took pictures at youth group Wednesday night:

. . . And we made cute litte snowmen in Kid's Club. . .

(yes, that's a hair extension clipped in Gloria's hair- not my idea):

And, finally, I love this picture of Snowfie all curled up on Rob's butt. She has no idea that he isn't a cat person. Luckily, she isn't really a cat.