Snow Days in November?

As everyone knows up here in the frozen tundra of North East Idaho, "Snow Days" or "Cold Days" are bonus school vacation days. You can count on them ... and we do! We may not get many days for Spring Vacation but we get our two weeks of Harvest Break and then up to 10 days of  school closure days. Every so often, like once a decade, we use all ten of those days. But even more rare is a year without a school closure. They are loved by students and teachers here and envied by every school-aged child everywhere else in the valley.  They usually come during the months of January and February when the cold winds seem to blow the dry snow around and the temperatures can dip well below -20. How nice it is to hear that telephone ring at 5:00 a.m. and know, without answering, that school is canceled. What do you do then? Call all your friends, cheer, praise the bus supervisor, and then crawl back in bed for a couple of more warm winks.

We had NO snow on Friday!

But, a snow day in November? And then two of them - unheard of. Uncouth. Freaky. Absurd. And absolutely WONDERFUL!!! especially if they just happens to come on the week of Thanksgiving. So, with the Blizzard of 2010 (as it is being called) wreaking havoc outside we have hunkered down and baked cupcakes and muffins, designed the Christmas card, cleaned the bedrooms (somewhat, teenagers in charge of that), thought about doing ironing and caught up on the Blog. Oh yeah, we've played in the snow. It is, after all, a SNOW DAY!!!

Gobble Gobble. Happy Thanksgiving!

Kenna's shelter - protecting her from the 30 mph winds.

Katy trying out the shelter. "It's warm in here."

Poor Trent, however, has not had Snow Days and so we have carefully watched the weather report and road reports to make sure that he can get to work safely. Sometimes the 40 mile drive can seem like a 1000 mile drive. When the road report says dangerous ... it is. Lucky for him, he has made down and back safely each day. Our fingers are still crossed for one more day.

Life is Good - and even better on a SNOW DAY!

Fall Activities

One of my favorite activities in the Fall is canning. So, I decided it was about time to get some pictures of the festivities. We can Chili Sauce, Green Beans, Carrots, Corn, Bottle Tomatoes, Peaches, Apples and Salsa - lots and lots of salsa. Canning season does begin to drag toward the end, I must admit. But today, a couple months later, when the roads are drifted over and the wind is blowing like a banshee, I can look in the storage room and be grateful that I don't have to go to the grocery store. 

One of a billion batches of salsa that we made.

The assembly line. From beautiful washed tomatoes to smushy gushy salsa guts.

 Home canned goodness - Life is Good.