The kids have not been to school all week. They were supposed to have Monday off too, but now the school has decided to make it a regular school day, so at least there's that.
It's not that I don't enjoy having my kids home. It's just that in the winter, your options are limited, especially because we live in the south, and it's not supposed to snow and be cold, and we don't have the proper gear for when these things happen. I haven't purchased snow boots or gloves for people. We don't have sleds. We have books, and board games, and video games, and each other, and after awhile, you get sick of those things.
We attempted to make taffy the other day. This is because we were stuck in the house, and my car couldn't make it out of the driveway (because you have to drive UP a hill, and my tires are bald), and we had all the ingredients on hand.
The taffy tastes like butter and it's too soft.
I pulled and pulled and pulled, but I must have done something wrong. Maybe I didn't boil it long enough? I got the temp up to 265, like the recipe said, then took it off the heat right away. I think I should have let it boil a little bit longer at that temp, or maybe I need more salt or cornstarch. I don't know. I do know that it gave us something to do for a couple of hours, so it's a win in my book.
Meanwhile, I have been working on some Primary and cubscout stuff. It's the end of the month, which means it's time to get the February newsletter out, and I also need to prep for the next set of songs to teach the Primary kids. For scouts, it means that the blue and gold banquet is upon us. At any rate, I have been working on various projects, and I save everything to my external hard drive, because that's just what I do.
The kids DROPPED the hard drive. It was an accident, but something was knocked out of place, and now I can't access anything! AACK! I don't really have the budget to fix this right now, but I kind of NEED to fix it. Plus, I just transferred Peonies and Poppyseeds to our own server, and it went almost seamlessly. All the links and labels and tags stayed in tact, which is glorious, because I was seriously losing sleep at the thought of having an issue with the permalinks! But not all of the images transferred (strange) so I need to go in to the individual posts and change out all the images.... The images are all on my busted hard drive! AAAHHH!
It's just annoying.
Plus, I'm changing schools, to do classes that are closer to me and more flexible. So I have to drop my classes at the community college, send over my transcripts to the new one, and update my FAFSA. Plus also, do all the regular cook, clean, parent stuff.
MY CUP RUNNETH OVER.
Just kidding, I'm really good at saying no. I know my limits, and I'm not overwhelmed, but I tell you what, if someone offered me a night off, I'd take it.
I feel like since we moved to King William, I've been much more home-maker ish. This is partly because I really enjoy being a homemaker, and partly because we live in the middle of nowhere and options for *everything* are limited. There's not even a Walmart or a McDonald's by us, and those guys are EVERYWHERE. We have become that family that gets excited to go to Walmart. And places like Target? Super fancy.
But what I'm saying is, that when you want something? You have to make it. If you have a craving for something? Too bad. We have learned how to make our favorite dishes from different restaurants. It's actually kind of fun, because it gets everyone excited to cook. Plus, I really like to know exactly WHAT I'm eating, because we have food issues at our house. I am very against preservatives, it makes my girls eczema flair up like crazy. And I've severely limited the consumption of bread products. Pasta is on my iffy list, and so is rice. Of course, if I make the pasta, that's a slightly different story, but that is still a special treat, you know? I'm just more into eating foods as close to their natural states as possible. You don't need a lot of ingredients to make a delicious dinner, and spices are fantastic.
Anyways, I'm rambling, it's 2am, and the kids have another snow day tomorrow. I predict there will be no less than three arguments by lunch time.
