It was hard to believe when seeing the huge expanse of bare soggy ground that only 48 hours ago, we had over 6 inches of snow blanketing everything and the children were having a blast sledding. Now there are only a few isolated clumps of snow scattered around putting up the good fight (and slowly losing). :( The children were very disappointed today when they asked to go sledding and I merely had to point out the window to explain why I said no.

I did not get to my goal of straightening the dining room today. I had the motivation and the energy this morning, but today the children started in on their crap rather quickly. The first thing Charles did upon coming downstairs was to grab a huge pillow out from under Deedee's head simply because he didn't think she should have it and then proceeded to utilize every excuse in the book to keep from sitting on the time out chair. I need to pee, I want to hug you, my toe hurts, I want to sit over there, and on and on. His piercing shrieks quickly started a small headache on it's way and my patience (as well as energy) quickly eroded as the others decided they would join him in his antics. Sigh... The biggest thing was Charles not listening to me and taking his frustration out by screaming as loud as he could or trying to hurt one of his siblings. Deedee and Charles especially got into trouble after they'd been sent upstairs for siesta. They were being quiet so I went up to check on them. I discovered that they had quietly stacked some stuff to clime up and get down the new knight light. I'm not upset about them wanting to see it lit up (it is pretty) but they managed to break the sword hand off. :( Thank Goddess the light itself wasn't broken and I can easily glue it back on.

Celestial Soda Pop from Ray Lynch's Deep Breakfast was especially calming. Unfortunately, it's online (I don't own the album) on my play list so I can't listen to it anytime I want to. I tried to find it as an mp3 download at Amazon but I can only buy the album on disc. :( Darn. I still have some bday money left, so perhaps I'll try to find a copy on Ebay.

I did get some laundry put away though, and blogs updated, and a couple of boxes taken care of. I even found a small packet of window cling snow flakes and I had fun putting them up on our sliding door with Deedee. She got a big kick out of pressing them onto the glass and making sure there weren't any bubbles. She even had the idea of putting a few on our full length mirror in the living room.

The children really got to me this afternoon and I was feeling exhausted by the time Carey got home. I rested for a while and then I took the opportunity to take off, and went grocery shopping for the month. The look on the face of my cashier when she saw my mounded cart was priceless but she was very helpful. My only complaint was that one of my fine mesh bags that's specifically for produce (it's just not up to supporting much weight) was used to hold canned goods after I'd taken care to tell the bagger that it was for the produce only so now there's a small rip in it that I need to repair. :( Carey says I went overboard with the $400 that I spent but we're really super stocked up on canned goods, cereal, pasta (plus sauces), etc. and we won't have to do much shopping the rest of the month except for some meat (I didn't buy much, only cleared out the discount bin), fresh produce, milk and bread along with a few other luxuries we might like. I bought some Dagobe Xocolatl hot chocolate tonight and it certainly lives up to it's name. It packs just a bit much of a kick for my taste and it's very rich so next time I'm going to cut it with normal hot cocoa.

I was also pleased that I found three more gifts for assorted family members and my bag that I set aside to hold the family gifts is getting quite full. I've had fun trying to find interesting stuff that I think the recipient might actually like while still keeping the item within budget. So far, on all gifts I've bought, I've come in well under budget.

I picked up a couple of bags of pet food for a Feed of Dreams that we're attending tomorrow at Church; the proceeds will be donated to the local humane society. I also have to come up with a dessert that I'm supposed to be bringing. I dug out a tin of custard powder and a can of apricot filling. I thought I'd make a rich cake that I found a recipe for some time ago and an apricot sauce. I found a recipe using Smuckers jam and it should be simple to replace it with the filling that I have. We shall see. But it sounds like it will be really good and I'm looking forward to making it and finding out. If I have time, I was going to pick up a container of whipping cream to go with it so I've got my fingers crossed for that. I'll also be taking a bag of chips with. We're hoping for a 75 person turn out, which on the minimum would bring in $300 ($4 a person or $12 a family). The recent pancake Feed of Dreams hosted by our youth group netted over $1k. Speaking of which, I just found out a picture was taken of us at said event and can be found here posted on our Church's blog. Just scroll down until you see the post for the Youth Group Pancake Brunch Fundraiser. Carey won't be with me since he'll have class. :( Thank Goddess there will be childcare provided.

Carey got his lap top today and is really pleased with his new toy. He says it will save him a lot of time with his homework (read not as much walking looking for computer stations) and that he looks forward to using it. He's also mentioned that it has enough ram that we could use it to play Never Winter Nights together again like we used to. When we still lived on 3rd St. (over 2 1/2 years ago now) we each had our own computer but when we moved to student housing, there was room for only one. We used to enjoy playing games together a lot and I really miss. That void has been slightly filled with the hidden picture games that we like a lot, but those don't always interest him where you can almost always interest him in the fantasy and adventure of a D&D game.