first of feb

It's February, and there are pile and piles and piles of snow on the ground. Piles. Mountains of shovelled snow flank the driveway, and winter wonderland continues to get whiter as the snow keeps on falling. To tell you the truth, it doesn't bother me (yet) - winter might be growing on me as time goes by, and I'm thinking it's because it's not as cold as last year's deep-freeze winter in Gatineau. Minus 10? No problem. Snow? I'll take some exercise (Steve and I shovelled four driveways on Monday). Sure, I prefer summer and warmer climes to these colder ones, but like a good Canadian girl, I'm coming around to sort of liking the cold and snow. (Maybe it has something to do with my new warm-warm-warm Sorels, or our neighbourhood (quiet and calm), or the fact that it's easy-ish getting the kids out to play (we have a backyard) - who knows!)

Steve's parents were here for the weekend, and the kids were beyond excited to see them (okay, so was I). We went out to dinner on Monday night - we walked and tugged the kids on sleds - and Hendrik showed some serious skill with the menu: I read him the kids meal options (he had a menu in hand), and he said, "Well, what about the pulled pork?" and pointed at the pulled pork in an entirely different section. Well sure you can have the pulled pork! If you can read it you can order it? That might depend if there's a dessert menu... right?

Speaking of dinner (this problem does not apply with dessert) - what do people make for dinner every night anyway? I'm going to ask for some meal suggestions on Facebook I think, and also plan to make a giant poster of meal options organized into categories: fish, chicken, vegetarian, side dishes, etc., and then classify them as a one-pot meal or ready in under 20 minutes or requiring specialty items etc. Right? Should I? YES! But really no I will not make a giant poster with classifications and subclassifications, since that is only something I could do if I had full-time childcare and nothing else to do with my time ever. I like the idea, but I also am aware that something like this would probably never happen. So - google maybe? Maybe. Add it to the list...

I have much more to write about (the summer is starting to shape up, I'm doing a really interesting assignment for my Children's Materials course) but really, I have to get to those next time. Dinner calls (tonight is minestrone (homemade - recipe from The Joy of Cooking), cornbread and salad) and I need to wake the sleeping babe (Alana: she's been staying up WAY too late (10:00) and then napping - a vicious (I mean it) cycle) - so those items are on the list for le next blog. I'll leave you with my February calendar page:

our across-the-street neighbours brought this over to us tonight apres dinner - it was AMAZING! love this neighbourhood!