Warming my heart with a touchy toaster-oven

Entering week twelve over here without access to my kitchen.  Granted, for 6 of the weeks we stayed at my parents and used thier kitchen- but it's not the same.  I guess if anything has been clarified by this process its that I love to have my kitchen handy.  I'm not any kind of great cook, but I do like to get in there and make things.  Particularly things in the oven on cold days.  Bread, muffins, scones...love them all.

We borrowed a toaster oven from Kirk and Kelly.  It has worked to heat up a frozen pizza or warm up other already cooked items.  But it's touchy- I'm never sure if it's going to work or not. But this weekend I had a cup of cream that had to be used and went out on a limb to make some scones.  The problem was that in the process of making them I start anticipating pretty seriously- so if it didn't work, it was going to be a bitter disappointment.  Luckily, the little toaster oven came through.  It was just the step towards normalcy that I needed as progress on the remodel seems to stall.  The smell, the taste- brought me to a happy place.

Urban ski

I hit the lottery today: A day off, no appointments or meetings, 28 degrees, and sun.  I was a littel nervous about skiing due to the grand meltdown we had yesterday when it hit 45, but thought I'd venture over to the lakes to check it out.  It was indeed a little icy, but on skate skis I did ok.  And at one point I intersected with the groomers, who were making the skate trails just beautiful.  I parked right off of Lake of the Isles, skied around Isles, through the channel to Cedar, and through this little tunnel over to Brownie.  I contemplated heading up over the highway overpass and into the quaking bog area as the groomers had just come from there and it looked lovely, but I was running out of gas and my car seemed a long way away.  So I just skied around Brownie and headed back through the chain of lakes.  I love that in the middle of the cities I can ski this far without having to cross any roads- although at one point a train did cross my path- luckily for me I got to sneak through a little tunnel while the train was thundering overhead.  The sun was fabulous- clearly others were enjoying the relatively mild temperatures after the deep freeze, as other skiers passed by with idiotic grins on their faces.  And out in the middle of Isles was a lone person- not on skis- dressed in a big coat and boots.  I don't know if the person was listening to any music, but he or she was certainly feeling it.  I like to think it was a thank-you dance to the weather gods, because today was a peach of a day.  

Venturing back out...

The deep freeze is finally over- for now.  If my math is correct, yesterday when Theo and I were out playing in the snow it was a full 65 degrees warmer than one week earlier.  65 degrees!  And it was still only 40.  But we took the opportunity to get out.  I wanted to ski but was worried that it would be too slushy, so we opted for snow sculpturing with some good pals.  At first it felt a little like legos to me.  All those legos and no idea what to make.  But then someone had the idea to use a tree as antlers and to make a deer head at the base.  It was a lot of work to get enough snow up next to the tree.  And then we ended up with something that looked a lot more like Donkey from Shrek than anything in the deer family.  The boys spent far more time rolling around on the ground and throwing snow at each other than working on our sculpture, but good times were definitely had by all.  

Possible Pal

As I've mentioned before, Theo loves his new school.  He his a tireless advocate for Open School- volunteering for Open Houses, the School Fair, and to be a 'shadow host'.  Earlier this year he was hosting a prosective student.  This young man kept a notebook handy throughout the day and was taking notes about his experience.  At some point Theo noticed that one of the pages had the heading "Theo".  And there were three bullet points.  He could only read one, which read, "Possible pal".  When he told me this my heart got real warm.  I love that a kid coming in to a new school would take notes.  I love that he made bullet-pointed lists about things.  And that one was that my son would be a possible friend.  But both Theo and I are seriously wondering what the other two bullet points might have read!

Family pictures

All the Sage kids and grandkids got together on the sly this November to pose for a family portrait for Jean and Rodg.  In all fairness, it was the newest family member's idea- she has firmly lodged her place in Jean's heart with this move.  And she deserves it.  It is no easy task to herd Sage cats.  And we never lined up a photographer, but were able to pull off a decent self-timer shot.  We ended up giving Jean and Rodg a large framed canvas of all of us.  It went over well.

Then there is the Martinson photo.  Kirk had the idea to recreate a favorite childhood photo for Sherry and Rollie's 50th anniversary.  It is a much cherished photo of the four siblings taken when Jon was about 8.  I don't know if Sherry will 'cherish' the new one, but when she opened it, she laughed uncontrollably for quite a while.  It was a pleasure to watch.  Here's both the original and the recreation.  I think the sibling shot of the Sages is a bit more dignified, but not worth as many laughs, for sure.

Sherlock-ed

I'm a fan.  I admit it.  I don't know if I've ever looked forward to the start of a TV season before.  The bummer is that the season is just 3 episodes long.  I love that it is a show that all four of us enjoy- and that it's smart, funny, and suspenful.  What more could we ask for?  More episodes for one.

Brutal re-entry

Winter break ended today in the most brutal fashion.  When Eli's alarm went off at 5:45 am I heard a loud groan and then, "I can't do it."  When I went in to the room he repeated that he was unable to get out of bed and asked me to call him in sick. When I refused he said, "Ok, then turn on the dang light."  And he was up.  The boys walked out the door and into inky blackness at 6:40 am.  Had to wait for the bus with temps at -11 and windchills hovering around -30.  Welcome back to the real world....