It has been snowing here since last Thursday.  Not really hard all the time but consistantly.  Right now it is really snowing hard, possibly the hardest that it has the whole time.

This is a picture taken standing at the front of my house looking across the road.  On a clear day I can see the mile to state route 5 across that field.  When I took that picture I could barely discern those two round bale feeders that stand in the pasture.

This was taken standing at the back of my house.  Usually I can see across the valley, across the pasture, into the woods on the other side.  When I took that picture you couldn't even tell that there is a pasture across there let alone a valley or woods beyond.  Now the weather forecasters are talking about another 3-6 inches tonight and more heavier snow on the weekend. Thank God for four-wheel drive and plenty of fire wood.

Outside my window....it is 25 degrees and snowing.  Fancy that just what it has been doing all weekend long. Ian has spent very few hours home since Saturday.  He is out with the plow crews making the roads safe so that all the drivers who forgot how to drive in snow can be on the roads and those who never knew can endanger the rest of us.  Take it easy out there folks and we will all get to where we have to go.

I am thinking...about attitudes.  Mine needs adjustment.  This kind of weather and this time of year brings out the worst in me and that shouldn't be so.  After living my whole life within a thirty mile radius you would think that I would be used to the vaguaries of people and the weather but I get more and more impatient as the years go on.  Lord give me patience to bear with others in silence since it is my tongue that is going to get me into trouble one day.

I am thankful for....family, good friends, and good times spent together.  Yesterday was the Chorale concert.  What a pleasure to sit in the audience and listen to that caliber of performance in our little town.  The music was outstanding and I am proud of my daughter for persevering in the rehearsals and making it to the performance.

From the schoolroom....there has been a changing of the guard.  Mary-Kate is on break for the next few weeks and I begin a new semester.  Matthew continues to plug along trying to fit his studies into his schedule at work. 

From the kitchen.....there are leftovers today and then I hand the magic cooking wand over to Mary-Kate and we are all at her mercy.  I am sure that she will rise to the occasion and that delicious meals will come forth from her imagination.

I am wearing.....jammies. Way too early and too quiet around here to start the day.  Jeans and a sweatshirt later though.

I am creating......a cocoon of warmth and a haven of peace.  Whenever I look out at the snow it makes the warmth from the fire all that much warmer and the peace in here (when Layn is napping) all that much quieter.

I am going....it is Monday, nowhere.  Schoolwork to commence, laundry to do, a house to recover from a busy weekend and Christmas preparations to chivvy along.

I am reading....The Mists of Avalon (required reading for this semester in school)

I am hoping....that prayers get answered and dreams come true.

I am hearing...the clock ticking, the tap of my fingers on the keyboard, and the shush of the snow on the tires of a car as it passes the house.

Around the house....it is dark and that is a very good thing.  I don't yet want to see the messes that are all over the place.  Time enough for picking up and setting things to right later.

One of my favorite things....warm blankets, fluffy pillows, hot coffee, and a room full of lit candles.

A few plans for the rest of the week....school, errands, family, home, and more school.

Here is a picture thought that I am sharing with you....

I was trying to compose a few lines last week and Layn was begging for some attention.  It is next to impossible to type with a 7 month old in your arms so I put him in this box.  He wasn't sure at first but he spent a good hour talking to himself and playing with the flaps on the box.  Who needs expensive toys.

That is the face of Christmas.  Mary-Kate making music at the concert yesterday.  There is no more lovlier expression of joy than that look.

Yesterday morning I went out to run my errands, this is what the weather was like.  I thought seriously about going by the ark dealership to see what I could find.  Even Ian was a bit concerned about the amount of rain that had been falling and was still falling, before he went to sleep he asked Matthew to keep an eye on the level of the creek and to call the town barn if we started to have water going over the road.  Did I mention that the thermometer said 62.

Later in the afternoon when I sat down to rock Layn (still cutting teeth and being a crank about it) this is what befell my eyes.  Same scene out the same window (a little less zoom this time).

It wasn't long after that Ian came rushing downstairs, poured himself a traveling mug from the ever-full coffee pot and left to make the roads safe for anyone stupid enough to be out.  Thus begins the season where Ian is a ghost, a wraith, a figment of our imaginations.  The only evidence of him that we will have is the continually emptying coffee pot and the pile of dirty, sandy jeans and carharts in the laundry room.  Thank God for men like my son who work so tirelessly so that people who don't know how to drive in snow can risk all our lives by being on the road.

Puns for Educated Minds
 
1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
 
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .
 
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
 
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
 
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
 
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
 
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
 
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
 
9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
 
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
 
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
 
12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'
 
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
 
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
 
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
 
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
 
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
 
18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
 
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
 
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine.
 
21. a vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.'
 
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!'
 
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
 
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'
 
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
 
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.