My snow angels at Mastodon State Park.
Okay, it's officially after 8 a.m.. The girls are both still cozy in their beds. Their kittens are all snuggled up in the middle of my kitchen table? And I'm planning our day! It is one thing that I CAN plan. Things I can't plan: my daughter's 10th birthday party, car repairs, and the money for either.
My grand plan... First, throw some food down my children's throats. Hopefully there will be nutrition and protein involved. Next, get them totally psyched about this here plan. To be followed with NO whining and a fast episode of hair combing, teeth brushing, and extreme weather dressing because...we are walking to Mastodon State Park! We will have the park to ourselves as Eric has just called and told me that the park, is in fact, closed. I choose to ignore this.
We will follow animal prints into the woods. We will look at beautiful Rock Creek and walk down to it. We will pretend that we are walking on our OWN land in Shannon County and not a public park in Jefferson County. I will take tons of amazing pictures-or maybe just one decent picture. Most importantly, we will have FUN in the snow!
We will come home, build a roaring fire, bake a cherry pie (that some Amish folk has conveniently canned for me), make homemade hot cocoa, play with kittens, watch something on t.v. that isn't a cartoon, make these (really) amazing wood snowflakes, and be content and happy. The End. I plan on recording the REAL events of our day later. I'm hoping for something wonderful.
The 6:30 p.m. update:
Did I just discover something? I make plans, write them down, and follow through with them? Is it really this easy? Man, I should write down some really major plans for tomorrow.
We did EVERYTHING on my list, minus the whining part, but even that was at a minimum. Breakfast: Me- a pumpkin waffle, Audrey- eggs-in-a-basket, Ava- French toast. I couldn't decide if we should walk to the park or drive there. I ended up parking in front of the closed gates to the special uses area of the park. A sheriff drove by as I was parking and looked at me. I figured my illegal parking and trespassing would probably be the least of his worries, so I did it anyway. And I was right-never saw him again.
We were the only people there! It was so snowy and perfect. We found a path through the woods and immediately started looking for tracks. We found lots. Audrey followed some into the woods while Ava might have proclaimed this to be, "the WORST day EVERRR" because snow was falling in her face and her hat kept falling over her eyes. All it took was for Audrey to act like a total clown and make her laugh. There was no complaining after that.
We hiked down to the creek. Ava said she thought it would be frozen (it wasn't). The girls would periodically stop on the wide, open path and make snow angels. It was so sweet. We could look down the path and see where animals had crossed it. Being there alone on this snowy morning was beautiful. It was nice knowing we wouldn't see anybody else out on our special hike.
We came home and made homemade cocoa which was just what we needed after the hike. I made a fire, forgot about it, and it went out. This is a normal occurrence when I'm in charge. I just get busy and forget to go check on it. We watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (non-cartoon!).
We made our snowflakes. They aren't completely finished because we have to spray paint them white and we couldn't do that because of the fumes and weather. They are really gorgeous. We made them out of: sticks of 3 different lengths and widths, wood squares in 3 sizes, and square mirrors in 3 sizes, and hot glue. I can't wait to paint them and hang them up.
The cherry pie is the best I've ever made. I made a new crust recipe that is incredibly flaky and good. It's a mixture of both butter and shortening. I didn't like how it rolled out, but the end result made up for it.
The Amish jar of cherry pie filling had 3 ingredients: cherries, sugar, and modified food starch. I could taste almond in it as well. We all loved it.
What else we did: Audrey and I decided that we are going to have her birthday party in July. Really, we are. It will be her 10 1/2 birthday. January birthdays are a little tricky. I looked into a lot of different options, but none of them made us happy. We still have major January birthday plans, but the fun kid party will be in July.
Ava and I played Candy Land while Audrey shoveled the neighbor's driveway. I think that is it. Tomorrow is Friday and I think Ava has school. I'm a little bummed about that. All of the local school districts are closed. Dang private school not calling a Friday Snow Day! Maybe I'll make another list.
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