Isabelle's attempts to get out of school...

Last week Isabelle had a touch of a cough for a couple of nights (but not during the day). On Thursday night it was a little bit worse (enough to wake me up once) so when she came to me Friday morning saying she didn't feel well and could she stay home from school, I said yes (honestly, if I had been more awake I would have made her get ready for school just in case she felt well enough by the time the bus came, but I was somewhat out of it at the time). Unfortunately, by the time I realized she wasn't coughing anymore the bus had already come and gone. In the meantime, she kept running around and playing and in general being a pain in the rear and I remembered why I hate snow days. So I told her if she was sick, then she had to sit on the couch and read books or go to her room and stay in bed. "Can't I watch TV?" "No." "How about play computer games?" "No." After much complaining and fussing, she finally said, "well if I can't watch TV or play on the computer, then I guess I'll to school." Arg!!!! I felt like screaming. Luckily, a friend was dropping by for a few minutes and she graciously watched my other kids while I ran Isabelle over to the school.

So imagine my chagrin when this morning she comes into my room saying, "So Mom, if I stay home can I practice writing sentences on the computer?" "No" "How about if I study at the counter?" "No. Isabelle, you aren't sick. You're not staying home." "But I'll sit on the couch or stay in my room Mom!" "Isabelle, I thought you liked school. Why don't you want to go?" "Because I don't like waiting for the bus after school. We have to stay in line and we can't even play. It's soooo boring Mom. Why can't you pick me up after school like my friend's Mom does? The bus is boring too Mom. I don't like riding the bus anymore." Um, yeah. She is the last stop before school and the first stop after school. She is on the bus all of two minutes. I tried to explain about how I had to take the city bus from school and wait a half hour for it to come. And then it was a 20 minute bus ride, followed by a 20 minute walk up a hill to our house. It didn't work. I suppose invalidating her concerns wasn't the way to go about it, but I definately think we need to work on entitlement issues with Isabelle. Honestly, I'm glad that she likes her family and home enough that she wants to be with us, but how do you teach a kid that boredom is just part of life sometimes?

Ice Skating

We went ice skating Saturday on the pond below our house. I’m grateful there was a ½ inch of snow on top. It gave just enough friction that I never quite fell down, although it was a close call multiple times.

Isabelle took the hit constantly. Then she’d get right back up and keep going. She loved it. And she is already better than any of the rest of us.

Jonathan didn’t do too badly. He never biffed it.

Miriam and David switched off since we only had one pair of skates for both of them. Luckily, they have almost the same size feet. Miriam wasn’t too excited about it, but she loved pulling Emily around on the sled.

When we finished David said, “I ha fun skaing.” A full sentence from him means he must have really liked it.

Emily fell alseep part of the time all bundled up. We brought a thermos with hot cocoa down to the pond as well. Mmm. Yummy! Warms the tummy right up. J

Our 2008 digital photo book is coming along nicely. We have 62 pages so far. The girls are playing in the snow right now. In the past two days we got a foot or two of snow. So beautiful. It has been peaceful this month. We don’t have any home improvement projects going, and no yard work since its winter, so we’ve been spending a lot of time playing together as a family. I’m lovin’ it.

Christmas Fun

This was our first Christmas with just us and we were worried about it being boring, so we decided to rent a little cabin for a week in New Hampshire to make it seem more special. Jonathan and I decided beforehand that our goal was to play with the kids as much as possible and create opportunities for family bonding. In the end it was an amazing success.


We had planned on going to Church up there, but we were snowed in. We got dressed up anyway and took family pictures with the aid of the timer on the camera.

The first morning, Jonathan managed to "McGyver" a movie screen using a tablecloth, a piece of molding from the basement, and two ropes. He had brought his LCD movie projector with laptop and speakers so he was all set for music and movies.

Jonathan and the kids made "Santa Cookies." We ended up with an entire counterful of treats, some of which were made possible through the Harry & David's basket he hadn't yet finished from his birthday.

Treats? Who needs treats? Shirts are just fine for eating.

I read the first book of the Little House on the Prairie series to everyone. Isabelle especially loved it, but even Jonathan was interested.

I cut Isabelle's hair.

Then I cut Miriam's hair. They were very happy with the results, but I'm still in shock.

There was a wonderful snowstorm while we were there that lasted for days. It gave us the warm cosy feel while it was falling, and great snow to play in afterwards.

Who needs a sled?

My first snowman. Yes, I lived in Utah for 5 years and Connecticut for 3 yrs and this is the first snowman I have built.

To give you an idea of how much snow we had in those first 3 days, the van was completely covered, even the sides, so it just looked like a big white blob.

We held our traditional "Bethlehem Night" for Xmas Eve. Grapes, hummus with pita bread, cheeses, olives, grape juice, etc.

The kids pretended that Emily was Baby Jesus and Miriam pretended to be a shepherd. See her little sheep?

David's hat hair was a great imitation of Louis from Meet the Robinson's.

Jonathan helped the kids build a microphone with the tinker toys.

Who says kids are the only ones who can have fun?

Chug a chug a choo choo!