Tag: winter

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Selfie

I’m not big on pictures of myself.  Never have been (as an adult, at least.)  I’m pretty self-conscious, and thus, tend to shy away from having them taken.  I know of at least one article out there on the interwebs that talks about how it’s important for you to take pictures with your kids and for them to see pictures of you as an adult. Not just formal family pictures, but everyday, no make-up on, real life pictures.  As I approach my surgery date, I’m trying to be more open to that – though I wish that wasn’t the reason for my change in perspective.  I have no idea what the impact to my facial nerve is going to be post-surgery.  As I look back on pictures from the last several years, I can see that when I smile, my right eye doesn’t close the same way as my left.  It’s not something that anyone else would likely notice, but I do.  My hunch is that Norman is to blame.

I continue to pray that the only side-effect from the removal of the unwelcome guest in my head will be SSD and nothing else long-term. I’m trying to keep my anxiety over the unknown that I cannot control, in check.  On a related note to that, the number of people who continue to come up to me and tell me they’re praying for me and my family continues to blow me away.  And I know it’s people’s prayers that are getting me through this time of waiting.  How appropriate that we’ve now entered the season of Advent.

The reason for today’s selfie is to document my current ability to smile as well as my new haircut.  I had coffee with a friend this morning and afterwards, instead of going home to pick up the house, I decided to shorten my locks.  I realized last week that when they shave the section of my head for the incision, my current haircut would look really lop-sided due to the layering I had.  I had about 4 inches chopped off and now it will hopefully hide the incision a bit better next month.

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Snow turtle

Three brothers in a suburb near our old house built an enormous snow turtle in their front yard.  (Apparently they have made several snow sculptures in the past – wish we had known when we lived in the area!)  I had the older Shecklets with me while I picked up Shecklet #3 from preschool today, so I decided to make a slight detour on our way home to see the turtle in person.  The kids were pretty impressed!

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Sun and snow

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The temps are finally warm enough to (safely) send the kids out to play in the snow. It’s amazing how warm 20℉ feels after weeks of negative windchills. The sun definitely helps, too.

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Apples for applesauce

It has been FREEZING here for a week.  Not your typical December freezing, but middle-of-January, don’t -leave-the-house-unless-you-have-to, and bundle-up-so-you-only-see-your-eyes, freezing.  I like to think I can handle the cold relatively well, but this has been ridiculous for December.  I can only hope it will make getting through January’s cold a bit easier.

Jake takes the boys to the bus stop every morning, so I have only left the house to pick them up in the afternoon.  I feel like a hermit.  And while I’m grateful that I haven’t had have to take the girls out unnecessarily, my cupboards are a bit bare and I’ve had to get creative with meals because I haven’t been able to get to the grocery store.

The uber-frigid temps caused the refrigerator in the garage to hibernate.  Who knew?  Apparently it can get too cold for the fridge to work.  It makes sense now that I think about it, but in our old house, our second fridge was in the basement, so it was never an issue.  Due to its temporary non-working state, I moved our frozen items into the house freezer and left the random assortment of beverages and a tasty big bag of apples from my MIL in the fridge.  Little did I know, the fridge became more of a freezer.  The apples I was hoping to send in my boys’ lunches, froze.  🙁

So what does one do with frozen apples?  You let them thaw a bit so your fingers don’t freeze while you peel them, cut them up and make applesauce.  The house smells delectable this afternoon.

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Where is the snow?

The boys have been extremely disappointed with the lack of snow this winter.  They have asked if we can go sledding or build a snowman every time we’ve had a measly snowfall.  The snow has been so scarce that Jake has had to make a trail of it across the asphalt on the road so the boys can sled down the front hill and glide over snow on their sleds instead of stopping abruptly and getting road rash on their sweet faces.