joy in the Mornings

The snow has been melting at my house as the temperatures have been warm - relatively speaking. Temperatures up until yesterday were getting as high as 50 or so degrees.

The melting has wreaked havoc all around. The ice and snow has slid off our roof in great big sheets that sounded like bombs going off when they hit the ground. Two of our vent caps were broken and torn off by the sliding sheets and one window was broken as the ice slid off and hit it.

At my husband’s place of work, the ice melting and sliding off the roof ripped gutters off and caused other damage.

In addition, during the day the temperatures have been warm enough to melt snow, but then it drops back down and re-freezes overnight - making everything a slick sheet of ice.

Now today - Tuesday - the temperature has dropped down to 12 degrees!

Will winter ever end? Not soon enough according to the groundhog. Darn groundhog!

I’m officially sick of winter.

It started Monday night with sleet, then kept going and going and going. Tuesday afternoon, Hubby came home early from work then didn’t work at all on Wednesday due to the weather.

There was a solid, tw0-inch sheet of ice on everything, then it snowed about 5 inches overnight Tuesday/Wednesday morning. Wednesday saw us sledding and doing nothing productive - all schools closed, businesses everywhere closed. Everyone was pretty much stuck inside.

I listened to the snow plows going up and down the roads all night.

Thursday, Hubby was able to get to work - his boss had plowed the parking lot.  Business was slow though, schools and many businesses still closed.

Because we live in southern Illinois, we barely missed the really bad ice storm (we did get it last year). Most counties south of us and into Kentucky were hit hard - trees down, power out.

There were people coming up here from Kentucky looking for generators, coolers, food, supplies, chainsaws, kerosene and the like.

In addition, I heard that many banks in my area are having problems due to the power outages and satellite issues. Some people are having trouble using debit cards and their banks are offline.

It pays to carry cash.

My yard is still covered in snow, but it’s melting a bit. I’ll be glad to see it all go!

Do you deal with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder with one of your kids? My oldest has ADHD and I’m always on the lookout for new products to help him.

I found a neat site that offers some great resources like behavior charts to help kids with ADHD and parents of kids with ADHD.

Specifically, there are printable behavior charts - or more specifically even, ADHD behavior charts to help out.

As a parent who has some attention deficit issues and has a child with the same issues - any help I can find is worthwhile.

I’ve always liked charts and other visuals that help a child (and myself) stay focused. So behavior charts are a great idea - and printable? Even better!

Be sure to check it out!

My three little hens have been a bit frozen over the last week - I’ve only been getting one or two eggs per day. Most days there’s only one lonely little egg.

Today, there were two! Yippee!

The sun is shining brightly today and the temperature is actually warm. It feels like 50 degrees out there!

Maybe soon I’ll be back to getting three eggs everyday and sunshine daily. Although, typically, February is the worst winter month in Southern Illinois. So I think we’ve still got some nasty stuff coming.

Spring fever, I’m already suffering!

We awoke to a dusting of snow on the ground and more flurries throughout the early morning. There’s not much snow, but enough to say we got some. This is probably the most actual snow accumulation we’ve gotten all winter.

The temperatures have been definitely winter-like - hovering in the 20’s. But I’ll take it - I much prefer these temperatures to those we had about a week ago. Then we had a couple of days with highs between 8 degrees and 11 degrees!

I’ve started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “The Longer Winter” to my kids every night before bed. I thought it was quite appropriate with the cold weather.

I wasn’t sure what they’d think, but they have really been enjoying the book.

At last check it was about 10 degrees here in Southern Illinois. I think yesterday’s high was 11 degrees.

We are stuck in this deep freeze and I’m hoping it will pass quickly. Last check with weather.com showed tomorrow being up in the low 40s. Could it be? Oh how strange, to look forward to 40 degrees!

I think the weather is calling for a chance of snow on Sunday. Last year in February, we had a couple of massive ice storms that wreaked havoc all over. There were broken trees and limbs, power outages, and plenty of damage from ice.

I just hope and pray we don’t have a repeat of that anytime soon - or at all actually!

My rooster, Captain Jack, is up to his usual antics.

Besides being a pain when I or anyone else goes into the chicken pen (he pecks at my feet and tries to nip at my fingers in an attempt to get my attention or at least show that he’s in charge) he has now gotten his internal clock all messed up!

Last night I stepped outside for a minute at about 10 o’clock and I heard something. Then I heard it again. Then once more.

It was that crazy rooster crowing his happy red head off! He should have been tucked away safely and warmly into the chicken house but instead he was out crowing! I’m sure the hens were shaking their heads and whispering to each other “What on earth is wrong with him? Has he lost his mind?!”

Dumb rooster!

Here’s another round of special days for the week.

This week in history (these are pretty neat):

January 12, 1966 - Batman debuted on television. Pow! Bam! Holy premieres, Batman!

January 14, 1784 saw the United States of America ratifying a treaty with England - ending the Revolutionary War. Oh I could go on and on here - that is one of my favorite time periods in American history!

January 15, 1974 - Happy Days premiered on TV. I loved Happy Days when I was a kid - it was my favorite. And the Fonz? The coolest! Aaaaayyy!

January 15 is National Hat Day - wear your favorite today!

January 18 is Winnie the Pooh Day - actually it’s WTP’s creator A.A. Milne’s birthday - born on this date in 1882. At our house, Winnie the Pooh has always been A-ok. Maybe I’ll wear my favorite Pooh sweatshirt that day.

Next week will be a full week of special days - the inauguration, President’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, and much more - so keep reading!

And have a joyful day!

I had the opportunity to try out “Building Thinking Skills” - a critical thinking workbook fromThe Critical Thinking Co. recently.

Since my two oldest are in 4th and 6th grade I received Book Two - Grades 4-6.

Now, first of all - my kids hate worksheets. They like more hands-on learning and find straight worksheets to be boring. I still incorporate some worksheets into our learning and I found that some of the pages from the Building Thinking Skills workbook were a good fit for some extra fill-in time, but I don’t see myself using it more than occasionally.

Critical Thinking offers a huge variety of products - workbooks and software - available for homeschoolers to use.

Although I wasn’t blown away by the Building Thinking Skills workbook, I did see that Critical Thinking had some products that I’d really love to check out. They had a Math Detective workbook and software that looks right up my kiddos’ alley and a news/editing module that looked really cool and that I might be saving up my money to buy.

While I - and my kids - might not have been overly impressed with the workbook I received to review, I think Critical Thinking looks to have some other great products available.

It’s definitely worth checking out.

The kids and I stopped by another antique store yesterday afternoon and we really enjoyed it!

My son found some Star Wars figures that sent him over the moon.  He then began bargaining and making promises to convince me to buy them for him. No dice, sorry.

Turns out my kids enjoy looking at antiques and the old things found in antique stores. I’ve always enjoyed antiques - but I like seeing my kids learning to appreciate them. It’s fun to hear the kids asking what something is or what it was once used for. We then discuss how things were in “the old days.”

I don’t really buy anything (except for my teapot the other day!), but I enjoy seeing the momentos of yesterday.