Pronunciation Update

Today Evelyn told us the president was "Maraca Mobama."

These little bits of humor are keeping me from going nuts waiting to hear the results of the lotteries for the charter schools. We'll be notified "by March 5th."

Studying History

Evelyn and Amelia each got a dollar in a Valentine card from Jon and Courtney, which was pretty exciting to them. What was exciting for us was for Evelyn to unfold her dollar and say, "Hey, this is a picture of George Washington!" When asked who he was, she immediately replied, "The first president."

Then we asked her who the president was TODAY. "Rocko Bama."

Recitations

This morning the girls and I were working on their memory verses for AWANA club while making crafts and coloring. When I teach the new verses, I'll repeat it a bunch of times with actions or a tune, then start leaving out key words for them to fill in. This is how Evelyn filled in I Corinthians 15:3 this morning:

"Christ died for our sins according to the MENU."

Well, I'm at least glad there's good doctrinal truths on the menu.

Playing the Lottery

So TODAY is the day the lotteries will be drawn for the four charter schools to which we've applied for Evelyn. I'm driving Alan crazy talking about it...but we will know soon. Dare I admit that we'd LOVE for her to get into City Neighbors Hamilton, the K-8, project-based, arts-integrated charter school housed in a gorgeous, 1934 stone school building walking distance from our house? (And City Neighbors High School will be housed there starting this fall--so it will be a one-class per grade, community school K-12. Sigh...) It's our first choice.

We also love the original City Neighbors charter school, only a mile and a half away, and would happily drive her there. It is also K-8.

The Baltimore International Academy is a language immersion K-8, but after tonight's open house (thank you Esther for attending with me to give your perspective), we are really hoping for the first two. We'd LOVE for Evelyn to do language immersion, but to be honest the school just doesn't have a very good feel, and there was no talk of the value of the children or the culture of the school.

The Green School is wonderful, but it's only K-5. Ugh. I just have to "be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and supplication" let my requests be made known unto God...and then I'll have His peace guarding my heart and mind. Whew.

I should probably add how much we've appreciated Calvary Lutheran School this year. It is pre--school through 5, and Amelia will be there again next year for pre-K. Under different circumstances we'd probably stay. When I think of the principal or pastor waiting at the door each morning to greet each child by name with a gentle handshake and a smile and starting every meeting with prayer, I know how much we will miss this place where children are precious creations of God and the stated goal is to "Create Disciples for Christ" and a child's academic evaluation includes the question, "What do you know about Jesus?"

What's happening to all the snow?

Always a little behind...

...no, the tree's not still up, but I realized I'd never posted a picture of it. That made me wonder, though, since I've often called the blog "my photo album & journal rolled into one," if I will actually be able to ACCESS this say, 30 years from now? I have a bunch of writing that I did on my school's original apple computers, and, while I still have the "floppy discs," I'm not sure I'll ever be able to read that stuff again.

Hmmmm....maybe I should print some pictures and throw together some photo albums...

Snow Storm Phase II

That's the view of our back yard during the second storm from the third story window. There's something very exciting to me about these sorts of "acts of nature." I love being snowed in, I love being challenged, I love the adventure of it all.

Alan loves the adventure, too--and he faced it when he climbed out the second story front windows of our house to shovel the heavy snow off our porch roof. (We have enough home improvement to do without the front porch roof collapsing.) The wind was blowing up to 40 mph gusts, and when the girls & I were watching him out the window, Evelyn clasped her hands and prayed, "Dear God, please don't let Daddy blow off the roof!" Our prayers were answered!

Winter Daze

Here's Evelyn making chocolate dipped pretzel rods during Phase I of last week's storm.

This morning we were able to make it out to church, and it felt both exhilarating and awkward to do something normal.

Evelyn & Amelia are in the same Sunday School class this year, and the teacher must have had some class time left over after the lesson, because the girls came bounding out of the room waving paper octopi. (I know, I tried re-wording it so that I didn't have to use the plural of "octopus," but it didn't work and I gave up.)

Evelyn was probably feeling exhilarated and awkward to be back at church after all this cabin fever, too, because her octopus had 11 legs.

A Winter Retreat

Last month Alan planned a wonderful few days away for us at the Hillbrook Inn, a fabulous B&B in WV. Taking advantage of a January special, we enjoyed quiet times at our own fireplace, hiking around historic Harper's Ferry, and something truly special--uninterrupted hours of one another's company. Thank you to all whose hands & hearts held our girls while we enjoyed this wonderful time away!

Overheard Last Night

We trudged through the drifts & gusts to the Smiths' house last night for some much-needed Hamiltopia fellowship. Evelyn walked both ways, kept our pace, & maintained her ebullience the whole time.

As we stamped off our boots in the entryway upon returning home, she smiled her wide-eyed, enthusiastic smile and said, "This is the BEST snow of my ENTIRE LIFE!"

Ours, too, Evelyn, ours too! It's now officially the most snowfall in one winter season since record-keeping in Baltimore began.

Backing Up

While I'm sipping coffee in preparation to go shovel the 6-10" that fell overnight, I'll upload the pictures from New Year's Eve, when we thought it would be fun to see how late the girls could stay up. Esther was over, and I think all of us had our bets on Evelyn, but she must use up all her energy living life, because she literally fell over on the sofa about ten minutes to twelve. Amelia quietly and happily made it until the ball dropped, and we had a little triple-kiss along with all the folks in Time Square.

What we failed to account for was the required recovery from an experiment like this. It was still worth it for the memory, though!

Since it's started snowing again...

...I should show you what it looked like as of yesterday. That's Alan shoveling out from our driveway to the end of the street (since we've still not seen a plow!), and kudos to him--he did it! Evelyn is walking down the middle of one of our cross streets, and there is another picture of the view from that cross street down the un-shoveled portion of our street.

Evelyn walked to the grocery store with me this morning & she was adorable--crawling all over piles of snow and laughing uproariously when she fell over. She made snow angels on the unshoveled portions of sidewalks and made friends in every aisle of the store. She even carried a bag home.

Oh--and the snowplow! It's the only one I've seen yet, and it's the one the owners of the corner gas station miraculously used to clear their lot. There are no passenger side windows and the door is held shut with a bungee cord. And I won't even try to describe the sounds it made doing that plowing!

Barbie Cabbages, Anyone?

Aunt Betty gave me an organic gardening magazine for my birthday in July, and one of the articles was about how the woman who founded the magazine came to love Brussels Sprouts. Her mom called them "Barbie Cabbages" and even gave her a tiny basket in which her Barbie could harvest them out of the garden. She also included some pretty awesome recipes (helps that I've always LOVED Brussels Sprouts.)

We used Brussels Sprouts & other farmers' market vegetables in a stir fry last week & Evelyn TOTALLY got into the "Barbie Cabbages." And while she finished her portion at dinner, admitted, "Mommy, I'm not sure I like how the Barbie Cabbages TASTE."

The Current State of Things

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In the midst of all my catching up, I wanted to upload pictures from TODAY. It is still snowing, and there are 26.5 inches out there. There are flocks of robins flying around in our front yard trees, and twice before noon we watched a hawk catch and devour one. City life--so much violence! :)

Alan got a huge kick out of forcing his way into that drift in the back yard. It's great fun, and it's about the quietest it gets in Baltimore.

Would you believe all these pictures were taken before noon? That's how dark these snow clouds are. (Well, except for the one of the main street a block from our house. Alan took that near sunset & added it here later. That street is usually packed with traffic--it looks like a ghost town!)

An Afternoon with the Lions

Back in November Evelyn and I had a rare afternoon to go to the zoo just the two of us. We've gone since she was a baby, but we'd NEVER seen the lion so close to the glass.

I can hardly ever think of lions without thinking of Narnia.

Here's what Mr. Beaver says to Susan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe when she asks if Aslan is a man:

"Aslan a man?" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion--the Lion, the great Lion."

And another:

"At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer."

Someday I will re-read the Chronicles, hopefully aloud to the girls. They are among my favorite books and Alan gave me a collector's edition boxed set as a wedding present. I take something new away from them with each reading, one of which is (and grateful I am for this!) that I am more and more in love with (and in awe of) Aslan.

If I ever get on the Amazing Race...

...the leg of the race that will be the end of me will have a task that involves putting gloves on 100 three year olds.