It's springtime!

Kids are playing outside, barefoot and without jackets. It snowed eight inches on Saturday, but who cares when it thaws so nicely on Sunday and Monday?

And just for fun, this classic Sesame Street video. :)

As far as I'm concerned...

Ethan's been trying to figure out for nearly a half hour, half of WHAT equals nine. I've explained it three different ways, and he just has to come up with it on his own in some way that makes sense to his little brain. It's a waiting game.

Finally he thought he'd get out teddy bear counters and get a pile and make half of it nine. That's very valid, so I waited. Finally triumphant, he came and scrawled 17 in the little square. "It's 17! Half of 17 is nine!"

"Nope," I said, "I'm afraid not."

His response? "Well as far as I'm concerned, it is." And he closed his math book and tried to put it away.

I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't stop him.

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Now playing: U2 - Cedars of Lebanon
via FoxyTunes

Walkin' in a winter wonderland

I think it is colossally bad planning that Christmas is so near the beginning of snowy winter. It adds insult to injury that there are carols that praise laden clouds and snow that say things like, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." that tie Christmas and snow together in my mind, because then I have 3+ more months of snow without a Christmasy reward. By the end of March it's just become a cruel joke to have huge, heavy clouds and four new inches of snow on the ground, but no tree and no presents and no glowing lights and no soy nog.

That's what's wrong with this world.

Christmas should be the reward for putting up with months and months of snow.

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Now playing: The Police - Darkness
via FoxyTunes

Spring (?) break

We're on the second week of our two-week spring break. Last week (the last official week of winter) was gorgeous—temps in the 60s and stretching toward 70, sunny skies, sun-pinked necks, cheeks, and ears.

This week (the first official week of spring) has been very cold, temps down in the 30s, and cloudy. We've had rain and a bit of snow, until this morning. Four inches and counting. It's really coming down out there.

It will help the lawn, that's the good part; but it's not great to have seven kids cooped up and housebound during one of our rare weeks off. :-/

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Now playing: Hans Zimmer & John Powell - Panda Po
via FoxyTunes

Random photo from the archives

I'd already done this over on my LiveJournal, and my niece Alicia just reminded me I hadn't posted it here. Her instructions were just a little different from mine. This is the fourth photo from my fourth folder containing photos.

You can click it to see it bigger. It's from my "nature" folder, and I took it in July 2004 as the full moon rose over the Green River and our little campsite.