Well, we survived the Blizzard of 2019 and the kids have been home from school for the past three days.  On Tuesday the weather was beautiful – a warm 68 degrees and we were outside without coats.  And Wednesday we had a raging blizzard with hurricane force winds.  I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced wind like this before – howling wind, all day and night.  The windows were plastered with snow making it difficult to even see what was going on outside.   

Anna has been sad school was cancelled and James has been bouncing off the walls with excitement.  Thankfully I checked out a TON of books for the kids at the library while I was there on Tuesday.  I’m so glad I did!  The kids have spent quite a bit of time reading which has been great.   

I’m also thankful that Kenny has the ability to work from home.  Many people traveled to work Wednesday morning while the weather was still okay, ignoring the advice of the weather forecasters.  And around noon when the weather turned terrible it either took them hours to get home or they ended up being stranded on the roads.  I’m so grateful Kenny decided to just stay home and work for two days.  Not only was he safe at home, but we were able to have more meals with him and overall spend more time with him.  

What have we done with all of our time at home? 

Baked cookies and homemade granola…

Anna helped me tack up the hem of her colonial costume for school…

The boys worked on fixing a tablet…

The kids played Forza…

We found the “Little House on the Prairie” TV series on Amazon Prime!

The kids played chess…

And we made snow ice cream!

One day I made ham and bean soup with cornbread for dinner.  Since we were home all day it was a perfect time to soak beans and have it cooking on the stove all afternoon.  I felt a bit like Ma Ingalls making this meal.  Of course, how they endured a blizzard was quite a bit different than what we experienced this week.  We’re so thankful for the comforts we have today, but I do appreciate the slowing of life when weather hits and the making of a pot of soup to remind me of how grateful I am.    

We enjoyed plenty of down time just playing, reading, and hanging out too.  And of course we all helped shovel snow!