Running the Holy Week gauntlet

It's been a busy week. Not just for my faith, but also for teaching: conference night and midtri grades. We also had spring finally arrive:


Followed by snow:


Typical for April snow, it disappeared by the afternoon, much to the delight of my lacrosse players at school.

Holy Week is always challenging. Since both my husband and I sing in the choir and the Chorale, a smaller group, and my husband plays trombone, we attend every service Holy Week. This includes Easter vigil and every Sunday service. Don't get me wrong, this sustains our faith, but it is tiring, especially for the two boys, who also must attend. The best decision my husband and I have ever made regarding Easter was not cooking a meal, instead finding the best Buffet around. Today was Maple Tavern. Mmmm...

Another thing that sustained me this week:


A package from GCD Studio! This box was packed with goodness. It was so heavy I thought I would tear a spleen carrying it in, but tear a spleen in a good way. And look what was on top:


The mustache I fell in love with at CHA. My son Rowan begged for me to take it out of the packaging. Photos coming soon, as well as much varied scrapbooking projects.

Snowy serendipity

Last year my winter coat died, so I asked my parents (former employees of LLBean) for an early Christmas present of a new coat. It arrived Friday, in time for a mammoth snowstorm on Saturday.

My favorite moment came from Dominic in the wee hours of the morning. He looked outside, gasped, "Snow!" then cheered, "No school!"

The boys spent HOURS outside, "shoveling" (throwing snow at each other with shovels), sweeping snow off the deck and the trees, and making a snowman. By the end of the storm, we probably had gotten between 8-10 inches of the wettest, heaviest snow you can imagine. Thank you, Derick, for shoveling.

The snow meant little travel, which meant scrapbooking! I finished some projects I'd had in the works for a while. Here's my Project 12 October page:




Based on this sketch:


Since October is a busy month for us, I added some photos to the sketch in order to fully represent the month. I also stitched in two colors--white and then a brown and white baker's twine. The latter I had to do to cover up a mistake: I punched brad holes near the title, but they looked bad, so I took out the brads and stitched using the twine, adding coordinated stitching in a visual triangle.

I also finished my 5 Vacation Favorites mini-album for DisneyWorld:






I used the packaging from the Making Memories Panorama stickers. As soon as I had those stickers, I knew I'd use the packaging for this mini-album.

For anyone vacationing, I heartily recommend asking each family member for their favorites from vacation. It's a fun manageable project that gets you started on scrapping the memories without overwhelming you. Just pick your favorite photos (don't think too much about that) and scrap!

Spring, we miss ye...

On Groundhog's day we had an interesting conversation, the boys and I. They asked what it meant if the groundhog saw its shadow and I told them the tale: 6 more weeks of winter. Then they asked, what if it doesn't see its shadow? That one stumped me, until I thought about it and told them the truth: 6 more weeks of winter. I explained to them that spring starts the middle of March, which is about 6 weeks after Groundhog's Day. No matter what, we are in for six more weeks of winter. (Truth be told, here in Minnesota, winter will last for another month after that.)

Dominic got especially frustrated; he wants to use the fishing rod my parents got him for Christmas (no way am I taking him ice fishing). I told him that once spring arrived, he'd have to wait another two months for the fishing opener.

I mention this because we've had pretty consistent snow this week, so my front yard looks like this:


Can you see how the snow banks reach the mailbox? It's not that deep in the yard, but it has to be at least 6-8 inches deep all around. I can tell because that's how deep my garden implements like my baby's breath rings are buried. (I use some small peony rings to rein in the baby's breath.) I had to go out and shovel the wettest snow since Christmas, only a couple inches, but Derick wouldn't have been able to drive up to the garage Friday if I hadn't. Every shovelfull felt as heavy as water.

I've been busy with conferences and LOAD this week. Here's some of what I scrapped. More pages from the vacation album:


Some more kit and stash pages:




And the boys got into the art too. Here's a drawing Dominic made for Grandpa L's birthday yesterday:

He thinks they live in the RV, since that's where they are every time he's seen them.

At least it's above zero

When I woke up the morning, it was below zero here in Minnesota. We survived the blizzard yesterday (no school cancellations for us here), though Rowan and Dominic were unenthused when I took their pictures picking them up at school Tuesday.

Post-blizzard, we are now in the deep freeze. How can I tell? Because of this:


It's hard to tell what that it, but that's the lower corner of my front door. Yes, there is ice on the inside. That little corner tells me how cold it is outside. If there is snow inside, it is near or below zero.

I did a layout about that corner last year:

Sorry for the crooked photo. The photos on the layout are a little dull, so I added a bunch of snowflakes. 'Cause that's how it feels right now.

Brrr!

The weather outside is frightful

Monday was a picture perfect snowfall: huge flakes, not too cold, plus some accumulation. I drove through snow to take the boys to school, then snapped some pictures as I dropped them off. My boys were so excited about the snow:

Dominic looks sort of funny because he was throwing snowballs. He had outgrown his gloves, so his first snow day was barehanded. I hurried after school to get him mittens, because this snowfall stuck. Not hugely, but we still have snow, and should get more tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before a long weekend, and I get to fly to Chicago to meet friends (hey, Alexandra!) and visit Derick as he works. My parents get to take care of the boys. I can't wait to see what the boys convince my parents to let them do. Last time it was climb up the cat furniture.

Here's a couple layouts I've done for LOAD:

Brrrr...

I knew it was coming--I am a weather junkie--but it still was a little shocking to wake up yesterday to this:


Might now seem like much, but that would be accumulation, about an inch.

Roswell seemed a little pensive:

As I walked her around the yard, I heard what seemed like rain--patpatpatpatpat. It was the leaves, mostly the elm, dropping leaves one after the other, all green.

That's not grass under the trees, but a pile of green leaves.

Now that the cold has really come, it's time to cut down my gardens, no small feat. I have to do the South:

And the North (ignore the garbage can):

And the East:


And the big bed:

And small beds 1-4:


This takes me weeks. And I usually have to finish it up during the inevitable January thaw.

But though I dreaded the snow a bit, one person in our house was excited. Dominic, a February baby, has been incessantly planning his birthday party since summer. Fed up, I told him he couldn't talk about his birthday until winter. When he looked outside yesterday morning, he pumped his arms in the air with glee and shouted, "It's winter!"

For a creative sign off, here's the layout I made with the colors from Friday: