It Ice-Pelleted =)

On Monday morning it started icing here. We went to the library at 9 a.m. and it was already starting to come down. By the time we left at 11:00 or so, I had to use the scraper to clean off the car, or as James said, "Break the windows!"

Then at 1:30 Ben's work got canceled and he got to spend the afternoon with us. That was pretty great. We bundled up and went outside and "skated" on our back porch. It was very, very cold.

When we woke up on Tuesday morning, we found out that Ben's work was canceled for another day...and that it had SNOWED as well! So we bundled up again and tried to go out, but it was raining ice pellets, like someone dumped a sno-cone factory on our heads, and it was not gentle, so we headed back in.

Later, though, we spent a good hour outside sledding down the hills in our front yard, and down the driveway, on a cookie sheet. Yes, that's right, a cookie sheet, and yes, Ben and I did our fair share of the sledding, usually with James lying down on our backs.

It was so much fun!

Buying a House

We've been considering buying a house lately. We're not completely decided, but we've been looking on websites and driving around looking at houses and reading books on buying a home and all that.

And I have to say it is very depressing. Not buying a house--that's exciting. But driving around and looking at all the subdivisions being built, all the blatant waste, all the houses that are huge with tiny yards, all the confusion and backwardness of what we think life should be like, the distancing of our lives from nature and from the resources we're wasting. We don't need that much space. We don't need that much stuff. And we're hurting ourselves and our world and we need to stop it. And our system is set up so that we can't stop it--we are supposed to keep producing, so people can keep buying, so people can keep getting paid, regardless of whether or not we need the products (mostly we don't), or how many resources we are burning through needlessly, with God-knows-what consequences for our children and our world. Very depressing.

However, the books provide some comic relief. My favorite is one of the money-saving tips from Your First Home: the smart way to get it and keep it, by Lynette Khalfani-Cox. I don't have the book in front of me so I'm paraphrasing here, but I am completely serious that this was in the list of ways to cut back on expenses so you can have a sizeable chunk of cash for a down payment:

"Bounce one fewer check per month."

What a brilliant ideas. Those experts, they are so smart. Why didn't I think of that? Problem solved!

Sigh.

(PER MONTH? SERIOUSLY?!?)

Because I Like You

Or, rather, because you're very patient with me. I haven't posted pictures in FOREVER!

Our camera has been lost in the move...so don't expect much more where this came from, for now. We do have a bunch of holiday pics thanks to assorted grandparents, but not where I can post them here.

Anyway, here, in all his Autumnal Glory, is James, at my mom's house in October. I just love this picture because it is so very Fall-ish. =)


Of course, in typical Oklahoma fashion, today it was something like 75 degrees Fahrenheit. And tomorrow it's not supposed to get above 40. So we tend to go straight back and forth between summer and winter around here. Ah, well.

Cheers!

Commence Comments

Tanya at The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog has a post up today that informs me that it's National De-Lurking Week. Thus, I beg of you, de-lurk!

For those of you wondering what the heck this means, a lurker is someone who reads a blog but does not comment on it, especially if the reader checks the blog fairly regularly. Thus, de-lurking is making yourself known to the blog author by commenting. So comment, please, especially if you're not a frequent commenter, since I have no idea who reads this blog if you don't comment...and don't forget to tell me who you are!

Just for fun, please also tell me one of your favorite books and why you like it. I can always use more book recommendations! =)

Oh, and Happy New Year!