Well, around 5pm, the snow stopped.  I think they called for it to last til late evening (maybe?).

Anywho. shortly after my post about how we were all hunky dory, the power went out.   Dang it.   We were out of power for about 2 hours and it just came back on.   Thank you, Jesus!  We would have been alright, but I definitely wasn’t looking forward to doing it “prairie style” (ala Laura and her Little House).

Since I’m updating, here’s a couple of snow video clips I took.   Enjoy them:

Off to put the kids to bed and watch “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”.

“Bless your beautiful hide…. wherever you may be..”

ps -if you didn’t follow the link I included my last post, you simply must check this out.  It pretty much sums up how the media and the better part of our region reacts to a snowy forecast:

Tags: life, snow, winter

Well the blizzard has arrived, delivered on it’s promise, and hasn’t left yet.  The media is freaking out about it, but we are enjoying the novelty, for now.  (Ask me how I feel to be snowed in on Monday).

Tags: around the house, family, kid play, life, snow, winter

So, apparently a blizzard is heading our way.  Perhaps even The Mother of All Blizzards.

My local jurisdiction sent out an emergency alert warning, “Another severe winter storm, with near blizzard conditions, is forecast to hit our area Fri., Feb. 5 through Sat., Feb. 6. Be prepared to shelter in place for 3 to 5 days. Please stay off the roads….”  Zoiks!

Having grown up in this area, I am used to hearing forecasts that chronically oversell and under deliver snowstorms.  So I shrugged and went about my business.  But as I listened to the non-stop coverage that guaranteed imminent disaster, I began to drink the K@@l-aid.  A little.  Enough to think we ought to at least be prepared.   So, like every other fool in the area, I ran to the grocery store to stock up on a few “essentials”.    Thankfully, we were already well-stocked in the ice melt, sled and snow shovel department, because I hear those were selling out like hot cakes.  I went to the library and cleared their shelves of any DVD that looked remotely interested for grown-up or child.

The decision to cancel school came Thursday afternoon – at least 16 hours before the first sky was even forecast to arrive.  I raised my eyebrows and groused with every other parent when this morning dawned without a flake in the sky.  However, the snow arrived, right on schedule, around 10am.   Mike’s work closed down early, so he was home by lunch.

Now we are all home and ready to hunker down.   The wipers are up.

So we are ready for the snow.   Blizzard, are you going to deliver the promised 16″ to 24″?  Can’t wait to find out…

Tags: around the house, family, life, snow, winter

This recipe is my favorite way to use up old bananas.  I found it on All Recipes, and made a few modifications to make it healthier and tastier (IMO).

Mocha Chip Banana Muffins

Source:  adapted from this recipe

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
1/2 cup natural, unsweetened applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
3 ripe bananas
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder dissolved in
1 Tbsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I use *white* wheat)
1/4 cup old-fashioned Quaker oats, coarsely ground up
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp whole ground flaxseed meal

3/4 to 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine wet ingredients in mixer and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Combine dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to wet ingredients.  Blend until flour is mixed.
4. Add chocolate chips and stir by hand to mix.
5. Line cupcake/muffin tin or mini-muffin pans with liners, spray lightly with cooking spray and spoon mixture in.
6. Bake ~25 minutes for cupcakes or ~15 minutes for mini-muffins.
7. Cool 5 minutes before devouring.

Yield:  15 to 18 cupcake sized muffins or 66 to 72 mini-muffins

Notes:

I prefer to make the mini-muffins.  They are just the right size to pop in your mouth and oh so delicious.  I discovered my Oxo cookie scoop is just the right size for scooping into the mini-muffin tins.  It makes getting them scooped a breeze.   I also think the mini-muffins tins are easier for clean-up.  Because they are smaller, I just stick in my dishwasher and they don’t take up much room.

I put 1/4  c. oats in my mini-food processor and pulse for a few seconds. They don’t have to be completely pulverized, just broke up a bit.  If you don’t have a processor, you could use a blender or even a mini-chopper.

Using applesauce in lieu of extra butter or oil makes them healthier and nice and moist.

The original recipe called for using instant coffee, but the mocha flavor wasn’t coming through.   Using espresso powder gives the mocha a stronger taste, but it is still pretty faint – my kids don’t notice or complain.  You could increase the amount of espresso or skip it, depending on your preference.

This post is linked up to the Works For Me Wednesday blog carnival,  hosted by We Are That Family.

Tags: WFMW, what's cookin

Sunday was a beautiful morning, with perfect conditions for sledding. Sunny, not too windy, and not so much snow that we couldn’t drive our minivan to the nearest bestest hill in our neighborhood. It took some effort to get all of the children into their snow gear and out the door, but finally, we made it to our destination (~1 mile away). Amazingly, everyone had a great time. There were a few spills, but mostly laughter and smiles.

Tags: around town, family, kid play, life, outings, snow, winter

Another snowfall has hit our area, so we are hunkered down in front of the fire.

Some of us are playing “Trouble”…

some of us are causing it …

and some of us are blogging about it :)

We’ve been working on some Valentine’s decorations, so I thought I would try and be arty and capture them and the snow together.  The results aren’t as impressive as I’d hoped.

These “stained glass” hearts were fun for the kids to make, and not too hard, as far as crafts go.

This tissue paper heart garland was my own idea,  although I’m sure others have thought of it.

I decided to use some of the tissue paper I hoard and fold it over to make a heart garland, ala paper dolls.  It does a nice job of dressing up my kitchen window, which has no curtain or window treatment.

Since this post is taking a colorful turn, how about a shot of these colorful characters?

We visited Grandad last weekend and he wanted me to take a new picture for his Facebook profile and this is what we got.  In addition to posing for pictures, the kids enjoyed some bike riding with Grandad.

Asher is starting to have fun on his little run bike.  He’ll be gliding in no time.

To wrap up this post and January in general, I have last colorful photo to share.  I got some fabric scraps from some kind Freecyclers, for a different Valentine’s craft I have planned.  One of the scraps was the remnant of a bridesmaid dress.  Wesley quickly commandeered it for herself.

It was hard to convince her she couldn’t wear this ensemble to school the next day.

This round of color amid the snow is linked up to I Should Be Folding Laundry’s “You Capture” series.  Hop over there for more colorful photos.

Tags: family, kid play, life, you capture

Lately, it seems, whenever and whatever I make for dinner gets panned by my kids.   It can be disheartening to work on a meal only to have it snubbed by the 6 and under crowd.   So, when last night’s dinner got rave reviews, I thought it was blog-worthy.

This is a recipe from Mike’s mom.  It doesn’t look like anything special (no fancy ingredients), but it sure was tasty. A bonus for me was I had nearly everything already in my pantry.

Grandma’s Autumn Soup

1lb ground beef
1 cup onion, chopped
4 cups water
2 cups carrots, sliced
2 cups potatoes, pared and cubed
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, mashed or minced
1/8 tsp basil
1 tsp brown bouquet sauce
1 large can whole tomatoes (28oz) put in the processor or blender.

In a large sauce pan, cook and stir meat until brown. Drain off fat. Cook and stir onion with meat until onion is tender. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and cover, simmering til vegetables are tender and for as long after as you want.

Makes 3-4 quarts.

Here’s my substitutions:

I don’t have and have never heard of bouquet sauce – I just used Worcestershire sauce instead. Instead of pureeing whole tomatoes, I use diced or pre-pureed. For the seasonings, I just add whatever feels right – I probably put 3 garlic cloves in. I let it simmer for at least a half hour.

Making a dinner the kids don’t turn their noses up works for me!

Checkout more Works For Me Wednesday Tips at We Are That Family.

Tags: WFMW, what's cookin

Wesley’s elementary school has a big “dance” in the winter.  It’s a sock hop and the kids dress up 50s style and basically run crazy.  There is some dancing, but mostly it’s running around wild.  They have food in the cafeteria for sale (pizzas, bbq, ice cream) and a DJ run dance in the gym.  In addition to various dances, there were hula hoop contests, broken out by grade level.  This was a lot of fun to watch – Wesley did a great job!  Her friend C, who is not yet in Kindergarten (her sisters go to the school) participated in the Kindergarten  contest and nearly won the whole thing.

Here’s the pictures from this wild and crazy event:

Tags: parties, school

I’ve mentioned before, that we typically go to a small cabin out near Front Royal over New Years with friends from college.  The good thing about the cabin was it was free, not too far away, and “rustic” enough that it was okay for everyone to bring their 17 dogs (I exaggerate, a tad).  The bad thing was it was small and short on bedrooms.  This year, we finally came to terms that we had outgrown our lil getaway, so we didn’t make our annual New Years trek.   But I still wanted to have my weekend getaway with my friends, so we began looking for other options.   We discovered that some of the Virginia State Parks have rental cabins and after a little digging, we booked a lodge that was big enough to hold our crowd.

Over MLK Weekend, we went to the James River State Park.  The have a collection of cabins, most are two or three bedrooms, but they also have two “lodges”, which are six bedrooms.   It perfectly suited to our needs.  They were “rustic” with mission style furniture, but also new and clean.  Dogs were allowed and there was plenty of room for everyone.  They didn’t have TVs or phones, which is good for “getting away from it all”, but we did have a plan in place to provide our own entertainment.   The Sunday forecast called for rain, pretty much all day.  So … one of my friends brought her projector, and the rest of us brought our Wii, video games and movies.   We were quite entertained playing games and watching movies.

It was a fun weekend of playing and hanging out, capped off with Asher’s birthday on Sunday.  It would be a fun park to come back to in the summertime, as it is on the James River, but I think we will also look for some cabin getaways a little closer to Northern VA (the trek to the James River park was about 4 hours – it is an hour south of Charlottesville).

Here’s the pictures from our weekend:

It was a fun weekend getaway!

Tags: Friends, trips, vacation, winter

Our little Ash-man doubled his time on planet earth this weekend.

Thanks to Grandad, we have a shiny new “tract-to” to enjoy.

Although there are many times that Asher embraces the mantle of being a terrible two, he continues to delight and charm us.

Happy birthday little man!

Tags: celebrations