nice sunny day....

Looking out at the sparkling sunshine, one would never know it is a few degrees below zero. The sunshine has warmed it up, it was officially thirteen below zero last night. I stayed up 'til after two reading my book, confident that there would be no school. I signed up for a texted alert if school is delayed or cancelled, and actually woke up and checked my phone a few times between 3am and 6:45....there was no text, no delay, no closing...so I did what any tired mom would do...I just went back to sleep. It was simply too cold to send my elementary kids, I reasoned as I dozed back off....the older kids so responsibly got themselves up and out the door. And Jonathan is still sick, he wouldn't have gone anyway. He is just a couch potato, barely eating and watching movies....poor little guy, all pale and blah. Sonja has been saying she doesn't feel well either, so it would have just been Suze...and what if she barfed in school?

So here we are...all toasty warm in our house....Suzanne has played The Peanut Butter Sandwich Game with Camille, and Candyland. Jonathan is watching "Fantastic Mr. Fox", which is an amazing movie (George Clooney as Mr. Fox, quite entertaining) I am pathetic...Mrs. Fox just announced she is pregnant again, and I was like, wah! I want to be pregnant again!

Anyway. I have been doing lots of laundry today, now that all the older kids with their weekend laundry have cleared out. Mirielle and Joseph started classes today. Since they are riding together and have different schedules, Mare had three hours free....so I sent her with my credit card and a grocery list. Jonathan is waiting for the ginger ale. It probably doesn't really help sick kids, but it is the only time they ever get it, so it makes being sick easier for them. In fact, Camille keeps saying she is also sick, and when Mirielle gets home, she NEEDS ginger ale.

Our Oklahoma trip plans are getting more interesting. Cathy, who was born and raised in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and now lives a few miles from here, might join us for our trip. She has driven down there a few times, and would love to visit her parents, and some of the friends from our church live nearby too. If she can get the time off from her job, (she works in the coronary ablation, she was there when Paul had his done), then she will be our seventh traveler, taking up the last and much coveted seat in the minivan. She didn't want to take the last seat from one of the kids, until I assured her it would be doing me a great favor not to have to choose which child got to go. She also told me that it could well be seventy degrees and sunny at the end of February down there....oh joy!! Mirielle says if it is that nice, she will be outside in the sun, even if it is in the parking lot....

Jonathan just went in the laundry room and announced the washer and dryer are both done, yay! I can go put another load in! What? I have to have my fun somehow! I am doing small loads so it dries faster. One comforter, a few pairs of undies, and in it goes....I am on the fourth load of the day already.

So far as I know, today is a stay at home day. Mirielle is bringing home some burger from Wegmans, so I am thinking of making meatballs tonight, to serve with pasta and sauce. Rather pathetic, once again, that I can be so glad about such a simple thing: knowing what I am serving for dinner. I admit, I have nightmares about not knowing what to make for dinner. I dream that company comes, and I of course want to serve a nice meal...so I rummage through the freezer, and only come up with small amounts of things, and end up with a large potpurri of random things to serve....same dream, all the time.....I can never find enough to make spaghetti, even...only like one jar of sauce, or only one package of hot dogs, or one frozen steak....I guess this just summarizes the pressure I feel to put that dinner on the table for at least 15 people, day in and day out....last night, we had hot dogs, which we rarely have, especially in the winter time. In the summer, we usually serve them with hamburgers. Anyway, the kids were thrilled, but Paul...blah, he doesn't eat hot dogs very often....some of the older kids didn't want them either...there were some leftover pork chops, so they were fine. We had a huge salad, and some leftover baked potatoes which I cut up and warmed up with butter. I was planning to make pizzas, but someone had gotten into the cheese, so there was no longer enough.....

It is obvious that I don't have much to say this morning....I am feeling compelled to go put that next load of bedding in the wash....