perspicacious.org

I've totally been neglecting you, haven't I? I'm sorry for that. However, given the choice, wouldn't you rather I be out experiencing life and love and the pursuit of happiness than here at home writing to you? You probably want both, don't you? OK, I'll work on it.

So, it's Halloween, and we had an ice day today. There are really no snow or cold weather school cancellations here because, really, where do you draw the line? I mean, we have recess until 20 below. Ice, however, is treacherous enough to shut the town down. There had been warnings of freezing rain all week, and I was prepared with food and water and Halloween candy and company. The bare essentials. Woke up this morning to a slippery, icicle world. I haven't been out other than to go to the bathroom. My car windows are covered with a solid sheet of ice. I'm not sure I have the arm strength to scrape them. In spite of all this, it's been a fabulous icebound coffee french toast futon cuddly sort of day. And I would do it all again.

The school week was OK– some headaches, some laughs. Yesterday I was split between laughing and crying, totally drained of patience reserves and unable to eke out anything other than a sort of jaw clenching "calm" voice. My best laugh was from a little boy who said, in reference to something totally unrelated, "That's because I'm a beaver!" Now when things don't make sense I can just laugh and say, "That's because I'm a beaver!" Really, it doesn't get any better than that.

I play music in the mornings with the early kids. The other day the kids listened to the Beatles with me and choreographed their own dances around the carpet. Most of the kids love music in the mornings and even my occasional singing, except for one boy who covers his ears and says, "No, no, no!" Keeps me humble. I taught one boy how to waltz. Then there was wrestling and injury and general chaos. We had fun, though.

It's been a good week. Hooray for unexpected 3 day weekends.

Today was our first real wintry day, and I wanted you to see what I'm up against. (I'm joking. Winter is exciting thus far. Granted there are like 6 months of it left.) It takes us 15 minutes to get the kids into their gear (they get dressed by themselves, for the most part), and they are totally unrecognizable lumps of down and gore tex once we get them outside. They had fun making a lopsided snowman and snow angels, though some stubborn kids still played in the sandbox (snowbox?) and in the one patch of snow-free gravel.

Driving was OK. I went really slowly and tried to remember all of the winter driving advice I've been given. I did fishtail a little when accelerating from a stop, though not much if I took it really slow. I only really skidded one time, on the turnoff to my house. I don't think I can keep taking the new road from my house. There are 5 foot ditches full of snow on each side– too scary. There is another road with no ditches. So if I skid there I'll just skid into a tree rather than the ditch. Which seems preferable, if those are my options.

I'm still totally enamored of winter so far. Shh, don't spoil it for me.

The world is asleep under a blanket of fresh snow, disturbed only by two sets of footprints and the frantic, laughing barks of the neighbor's dogs. The clouds shielded the sky and prevented me from getting lost in the aurora last night. There are other places to get lost, though. And found.

I'm slightly snowbound today, but I feel peaceful rather than trapped. It reminds me of being a kid and wishing for rainy days. My favorite craft book had a section of rainy day activities, and I always longed for fireplace hot chocolate reading nook weather to accompany that chapter. Now I have a whole snowbound, snuggling winter to look forward to, and it's fantastic. (To be tempered with studded tires and frosty scarves and snow shovels and ice, to be sure.)

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully,mysteriously)her first rose
-ee cummings

I want today every day.

My life is currently all about death by cooking projects, I swear. (Though, to my surprise, I actually had a lot of fun this morning.) Today we tried to make these sugar cookies that you mold into candy corn. This will probably make no sense, but here is how you're supposed to make them: Make sugar cookie dough, split into 3 parts. Color one part yellow, one part orange, and leave the third part white. Make a roll of each color, stack them, and press the dough into a triangular sort of tube (triangular prism? whatever) that can be sliced and baked into candy corn shapes. Only not. Because it was a shortbread recipe (all butter, no eggs,) and the dough was not cohesive. At all. Ah, well.

I bought Pillsbury sugar cookie dough and tried the coloring and rolling and stacking that I just explained (though poorly). The dough is chilling (yo) in the fridge, and I will try baking it in a while. If I can get the cookies to resemble candy corn I will take a picture. If not, well, I'll get some bat and pumpkin cookie cutters and do that instead. Because the third time is the charm. Only I hope it's not, because I'm tired of baking.

I wondered why I was using so much gas lately, but it's because I'm always warming up my car. I've been using the block heater for a couple of hours in the morning (it's been in the teens), though I've not plugged it in at school yet. I keep thinking I've lost my keys when they're actually in the ignition. Today I locked the keys in the car with the engine running. (I've been all kinds of distracted lately. But in a good way.) I have a hidden magna key under the car which required my crawling around in the dirt to retrieve it, but that's better than calling a locksmith. I'll get this winter thing together, I swear.

No real snow yet, just lots of frost and a misty icy lake that looks like something out of Sleepy Hollow. It's surreal. It's always surreal here.