winter's back

No summer breeze today. It was snowy and cold for my morning walk with Rosie-The-Bad dog. The ground is covered with whiteness, and that muffled quietness was back. After wearing shorts outside just yesterday, brr!

And according to the weather forecast: Wednesday is going to be gorgeous! 61 degrees! That is balmy for around here in March! And partly sunny, too! So of course I am going to either get the younger kids out half day or let them stay home, we are going to the park!

Between now and Wednesday, we shall have some snow, and tomorrow the low is thirteen degrees. Weather in central New York state is so strange!

Camille helped me make the cake yesterday. I don't use a recipe for the frosting, I just put in a stick of butter, some shortening, a splash of vanilla, cream it together, add some confectioner's sugar and a bit of half and half, a bit of milk, and taste it to see if it needs more vanilla or more sugar or whatever...anyway, Camille said, "Mommy, you got three tastes and I only had one, so I get two more!" I think kids learn so much just by being with Mommy.

Today is one of those No Plans days. Emily and Abigail, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, and Suzanne went out to lunch for a surprise birthday party for their cousin Olivia. Olivia is a sweetie, she was here last night for a little while and had some pizza and cake with us. We all try to give her good birthday memories to try and compensate a little bit for her horrible birthday a few short years ago when her beloved Uncle Billy took his life, at her house, on her birthday...her cake was there waiting, the party ready to start...nothing can erase the memory, and perhaps least said soonest mended, I don't know...but the fact is, it was totally traumatizing, and so we try....to give her better birthday memories.

Forever and ever when the this time of year rolls around I will be thinking of
Billy. I am still pretty mad at him for what he did, especially because it was Olivia's birthday, and she loved him so much. I am mad that he never asked for help.

Anyway...today this house is messy. Nevermind that I cleaned so much yesterday. My boys aren't here, they are at the young brother's conference at church for the weekend. The girls are now gone, so it is just Paul and I and the younger kids. All the cleaning I did yesterday is null and void this morning, one could never tell that I had swept and mopped yesterday. In some ways, I miss carpet in the livingroom. It hid more.

Rosie is deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner. She sees Paul cleaning up (yup, I am sitting here blogging and he is picking up the living room.), and she ran into her cage and curled up in the very back.... he isn't even vacuuming, but I think she associates when people are cleaning up with that Scary Vacuum Cleaner.

I did just a little bit of walking/jogging in place yesterday, some light arm exercises....just a really really light get-my-heartbeat going faster session, I can not wait to start getting into this stuff again. My weight is going down very slowly but steadily. If I could jump back into some exercising I know it would kick-start some real weight loss after all this stagnation...soon, soon.

Well, it is no longer comfortable for my conscience for me to sit here while Paul cleans up..blah.