snow days, and more snow days

We have now had four snow days this February, which hasn't happened in the ten years I've been at my school. Snow days are great, but we're happy to get j back on his regular school schedule, especially since he had a week-long winter break, then three days of school, and then two snow days this past Thursday and Friday. We're longing for the routine.

Thursday was fun, with snow coming down in a reasonable amount. But Friday was crazy--we got something like 36 inches and we still cannot really move around our neighborhood. We can barely get out of our driveway. However, we did get to spend most of Friday outdoors, playing with the neighbors. After a snow-filled morning, the little girl across the street came over for hot chocolate, which turned into lunch. She and j had a good time eating PBJ sandwiches and cracking each other up with poop jokes.

P got a nice workout on Friday, pelting the neighborhood kids with snowballs for four hours. I think his arm was sore on Saturday. :)

cool blog

I think I may have posted about this woman's blogs before, but she has a new one--Happy Janssens, on which she chronicles her family's travels via veggie oil-powered RV (a new one this time). There's a neat video tour of the RV on it. I love the simplicity of it, as well as her beautiful photography.

tea tree tingle

I don't usually dedicate this space to reviewing products, but for years I've been looking for a great natural shampoo, and I think I've found it: Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Shampoo. I've been using it for a few weeks. It's mostly peppermint with just a hint of tea tree; it smells great and refreshing. Like peppermint oil, it works wonders on a headache. (I actually carry a bottle of peppermint essential oil in my bag at all times for headache emergencies.) The other day I ran out of j's baby wash but had to wash his hair, so I used the Tea Tree Tingle. He got quiet as I scrubbed it into his scalp and looked up at me. "That feels reallllllly good!"

When I asked P to put some TTT on our Trader Joe's list, he admitted that he too had used it at least once, even though he has his own shampoo. P liking a scented bath product says a lot. I tossed two bottles in my cart when I stopped there after rehearsal.

I know it's just a shampoo, but it's made me unreasonably happy lately.

valentine's cards

Yesterday j and I worked on his "homework": Valentine's Day cards for both of his preschool classes. There were several side projects, like using the funny face stickers he got over the holidays (thanks, J!) and sticking letters on cards in order to spell names, then ripping off the letters to spell new names. After sounding out "L" and "N" quietly to himself for a few minutes, he asked if this spelled "Lauren": When I said that it was very close to "Lauren," but that it spelled "Lon," he got quite serious and ripped off the letters, a little frustrated but happy to try a new name with the letters he had left.

I don't know who Lauren is, though. She's not a classmate. Maybe a teacher from another class?

Anyway, after the Lauren attempt, he spent his energy on a card for d, one of the girls in his class. While he spent 20 minutes on her card--which featured both a heart and a monster with one eye--I worked on some more cards. Then we finished up our session by starting to decorate the living room windows.