>Frankie just gave me this picture she drew of a duck. I thought it was really beautiful so I decided to post it here! And not to be outdone, Bee drew a mermaid and then cut it out!

>the snow keeps coming! We had snow all day saturday and more yesterday evening. We did get up to 25F yesterday so we took the “break” in the weather to play outside. here is Bee standing in our front yard! We wanted to make a snow fort, but the snow is too cold to pack, so Be had a great idea of just digging a hole in the snow and making a snow nest instead! Does that officially make us snow birds?

>Here are some pics from Christmas (finally).  Some of them are blurry but I like them anyway, so, they’re included.

>Would you be surprised if I said it was snowing today? It is. But it is going up to 16 degrees this afternoon! I just read on the special weather statement on weatherunderground.com that the winter 2009 in Lansing is the snowiest winter (to date) since 1952 and the second snowiest in recorded history. We have 48.5″ of snow already, and we are only 4 weeks into winter, officially!

>Well the weather station is reporting that it is -10 this morning and the windchill is -22. But hey, we are warmed than our neighbors down “south” in jackson where their temp is reported at -13! So, school is closed! Of course MSU is not closed which creates its own set of issues but i think we will have two happy campers when they get up in a little while!

>its a balmy -7 out there at 8am. Im looking forward to noon when we should top out at 0. well, we did make the salmon, risotto and broccoli on monday. Tuesday was left over bean soup, and last night we made chicken pot pie. im thinking san su tonight but it could be leftover pot pie. And now lets walk the dogs. The cold weather really hurts their paws – poor things!

But really cold mornings can have beautiful sunrises… here is the view down our street!

>
we were coming home from school today and just before we turned the corner for beech street we saw this house – we call it the icicle house! Take a look at those icicles!!! Well, subzero temps can really dress us the landscape!

>21 is the sum of our forecasted highs for wed, thur, and fri this coming week (9, 7, and 5 respectively). Anyone seen that ground hog yet?

Update: So now thursday’s high is predicted to 1 degree F. You know what? that makes sunday’s weather prediction of 33 look down right balmy. I think we’ll go running in shorts and a tank top!

Update 2: I forgot to report on supper. We had pasta y fagioli (AKA bean soup), spinach salad and bread. yum! great for a cold and snowy day! Tonight I think we are going to have salmon, winter squash risotto and broccoli. Lets see if we really get our acts together tonight for that!

>We are starting to gain fast and furious here up in the north country! By this time next week we will be gaining a a minute and a half of sunlight a day, and Jan 11 marks the first day the sun will start to rise earlier!!

Jan 8, 2009 8:08 AM 5:22 PM 9h 14m 02s + 1m 14s
Jan 9, 2009 8:08 AM 5:23 PM 9h 15m 20s + 1m 18s
Jan 10, 2009 8:08 AM 5:24 PM 9h 16m 42s + 1m 22s
Jan 11, 2009 8:07 AM 5:26 PM 9h 18m 07s + 1m 25s
Jan 12, 2009 8:07 AM 5:27 PM 9h 19m 36s + 1m 28s
Jan 13, 2009 8:07 AM 5:28 PM 9h 21m 08s + 1m 32s
Jan 14, 2009 8:06 AM 5:29 PM 9h 22m 44s + 1m 35s

Now, in case you’ve been wondering what we’ve been eating, well its nothing too special. Last night was spaghetti with homemade pesto, the day before was beans, eggs, tortillas, salsa and such, and the day before that we went out to eat at a yummy fish place.

>If you dont live on a hill you might ask well just make your own with the deck!