SNOW!

Gosh, it's been a while since I posted to my blog, eh?

I just haven't felt inspired to write about anything lately. I've been making a conscious effort to spend more time reading, and an unconscious effort spending more time playing video games on the X-Box. I started to write more about what I've been reading and what I've been playing, but I decided to save that for another blog post.

The main reason I sat down to write today was to share some pictures from our first snow fall of the season.

The fact that it really, no-kidding snowed today really surprised me. The fact that the snow STUCK and we have about 3 inches on our back deck surprised me even more. Last winter the weather forecasters threatened snow on so many occasions and it never came. When the weathermen said it would snow today, I didn't believe them. I just figured they were crying wolf again.

Our Freaky-Tiki deck lights are growing white mohawks.

It amazes me how clumps of snow accumulate on narrow and bare tree branches.

This is a closeup of a branch just outside our family room window.

Chalk this one up as another "milestone" post. First, 8 year old ES wanted to mow the lawn back in the spring. Then, he wanted to rake the leaves in the fall. Now, low and behold...

...he's out shoveling the snow in the driveway.

We didn't even ask him to do it. He got all suited up to go play in the snow. I went to take a picture of him from the living room window and discovered him out there with the snow shovel making himself useful. Will wonders never cease?

Warning: Tangent Ahead.

I enjoyed New Holland Brewery's Ichabod (pumpkin ale) so much that I actually went back to buy more at Wegman's after my pumpkin ale blog post. On my most recent trip to Wegman's I noticed they had New Holland's winter brew called Cabin Fever, so I decided to give it a try.


Although the Cabin Fever bottle says "brown ale" on it, I would have guessed this to be a stout. It's a thick, heavy, dark brew with no detectable hops and a slightly sweet flavor. It goes along nicely with a cold winter night sitting by the fireplace.

End of Tangent. Resuming original line of thought.

I never would have guessed that the view outside my family room window would look so much like the artwork on the Cabin Fever bottle so early this season. I'm excited it happened on a Saturday for once so I can sit and enjoy the view from the comfort of home and not listen to my feet squelch and squirch their way through the cold slush from the bus stop to my office building.

Here in the toasty warm comfort of our home watching the snow fall outside is...

...bliss.

Milestones: Get a Rake

I know I keep saying how much I love autumn.

Raking leaves? Not so much.

Flashback - yes, yes, I know I said last year I didn't mind raking the leaves, but we had just moved back from Hawaii so it was a novelty.

This is just one of those cases in life where you've gotta take the good with the bad. Good = Beautiful red, orange, and yellow leaves on trees, pumpkins, that slight chill in the air that nips at your cheeks, and a nice cup of hot apple cider. Bad = Heaps of dead brown leaves a foot deep across every square inch of yard you own and won't just go away no matter how hard you ignore them.

I've been looking forward to the day when the boys would be old enough to start picking up some of chores around the house. First, I was surprised in the spring when 8 year old ES offered to mow the lawn for 50 cents.

Just yesterday, ES and his neighborhood friend P offered to rake the leaves in our yard for a dollar. They drive a hard bargain don't they? Actually, the conversation with ES was something more like this:

Excited ES: "Mommy, Mommy! P said I could have 30 cents if I help him rake the leaves in the yard!"

LW: "What's P getting out of this deal?"

ES: "P said he's charging people a dollar to rake their leaves."

ES's grandma says P is a modern-day Eddie Haskell.

Anyway, we agreed to pay their outrageous price of $1 for them to rake the leaves. Much to my surprise, they didn't do a half-bad job.

ES raking leaves.

Unfortunately, I didn't read the fine print on the contract. Oh wait... there was no contract. It was a purely verbal agreement, and apparently there was something lost in translation. Just in case any of you readers find yourselves being extorted by 8 year-olds, here's a translation guide for you.

When they say: "Will you pay us $1 to rake your leaves?"

They actually mean: "Will you pay us $1 to rake the leaves just in this 20 foot by 20 foot patch of the front yard before we go to the next-door neighbor's house and get them to pay us $1 to rake only one-sixteenth of the total yard area of their yard and then move on to the next house and so on and so forth?"

When ES came in to tell me he was "done" and asked for his $1, I went outside to inspect their work.

Me: "What about the sides of the house?"

P: "We don't do sideyards."

Me: "What about the back yard?"

P: "We don't do backyards. Front yards only."

Me: "What about the front yard portion on the OTHER side of the driveway over there?"

P: "No, we don't do those either."

For a minute there, I thought maybe in his quest to read every book in our house, ES read the chapter of my social psychology textbook on sales tactics and low-balling. They got me to agree to the lowball offer of $1 to start the job, and now they need more money to finish the job. So I offered to pay them another dollar if they raked the back yard, too, but they were already packing up their gear and moving on to the neighbor's house.

Oh well. Chalk this one up to you-get-what-you-pay-for.

Milestones

Wow, I have TWO milestones to report in the same post!

First, on Sunday, ES told us that he would mow the lawn for us for 50 cents. I said, "DEAL!" before he could give it a second thought.


Okay, so he's not QUITE strong enough to push the mower up-slope... YET. He's getting there, though.

I walked along with him and helped him with the tough spots. We were about half way done when he stopped, out of breath, looked at me with beads of sweat running down his temples, and said, "Now that I know how hard this is, I might have to charge you more than 50 cents." I told him once he learns to push the lawn mower in a straight line, I'd happily pay him more to mow the lawn. The lines in the lawn looked like an intoxicated baboon was pushing the mower, but I'm not complaining. I'm just happy he was interested and willing to do it. The straight lines will come with time - he's anal retentive like I am.


Over the weekend we also spent some time working with ES trying to get him to ride his bike without training wheels. Then, last night after I got home from work, that magical moment happened where he took off on his own without me or LW holding on to him.


Credit actually goes to LW for this achievement. She had him get used to just coasting in a straight line on the very slight downhill slope of our street with his legs out straight (feet just skimming off the ground). Once he got so he could just ride in a straight line, balanced with his legs out straight on either side, all he had to do was lift his legs up onto the pedals and start pedaling.

He's still pretty rough on the concepts of turning (the whole tilting over while turning thing freaks him out) and of getting started on his own from a stopped position, but he and I worked on turning and starting for a while last night. After he rode to the end of our cul-de-sac and back to our house four or five times with me running along beside him, he asked me to get my bike out and we rode to the end of our street and back several times. We stayed up way past his bedtime, but I remember when I first learned to ride a bike and I didn't want to do anything but ride and ride and ride some more. It was fun riding up and down the street with him for the first time on his own two-wheeler.

Hooray for ES! Keep up the good work!