As IHA and I were both nursing colds and achey backs today, we also had to entertain 3 children home on a snow day.  Apparently, the dreariness of our weather (as it was an “ice” day rather than a true go-out-and-make-snowman snow day) has forced us to find other ways to keep warm and cheery.  Here you can see us “cooking” up our own tropical island:

Can you see all the little sculpey trees we were making last night for Dr. Franklin’s Island?  They needed to bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.

It didn’t really help all that much as when we looked out the window we still saw this:

What else to get through a dreary snow day?  An American Girl tea party of course!

Felicity and her lamb await their tea and crumpets (in this case the crumpets were actually bananas and kiwi). Below, you can see Agent B and Kit posing while J sets the table.

We also watched Mama Mia today.  It was a great movie for a dreary day; happy and uplifting and it takes place somewhere tropical even.  I hadn’t realized this movie was a romance. I had just thought it was about a girl trying to get a dancing part in a Broadway play.  That was way off-base!  I think the girls liked it too though at one point K said “I wish they would just stop the singing so we can find out what happens.”

Last night, I cast on for my 2-at-time Socks using my hand-dyed flat sock blank from Knitpicks.  It is quite miraculous the way this all works and I’m sort of following the pattern blindly in hopes that it will soon click and just all of a sudden make sense to me.  I was knitting during the movie in some pretty dim lighting, so I think I may have a couple of mistakes that may need to be fixed before I proceed.  I’m using the pattern called Twilight on page 80, but I only cast-on 60 stitches instead of the 64 called for in the pattern.  I’m probably going to regret this, but I just thought that 64 would be too big.

Sorry for the poor quality photo – very low lighting here today. The colors are much nicer in real life, I promise.  I didn’t do any precast-on research on these socks. Usually before I start a project, I scour the internet and Ravelry looking for any helpful information.  This time, I decided to just go for it and I can always google later if I need to.

What is up for the rest of tonight?  More homework help — J needs to paint some water for her island and her written part still needs some proofreading…  Also, I will have to go into each girl’s room tonight and make sure there are no spoons under their pillows. I really need them to go to school tomorrow!  Cross your fingers!

The first week of school means getting up early, getting back to routines, and trying to stay organized. The girls just entered 5th, 7th, and 9th grades. They all do sports. They all want to do other things as well. There is a lot of homework, a lot of laundry, and a lot of driving. There is also a lot of quiet. From 7:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. my house is quiet. Of course, I need it to recover from all the time that is not between 7:45 and 3:15, but the quiet during that time is so glorious. I don’t even turn things on. I may watch the weather or listen to a bit of a cd now and then, but most of the time I just enjoy the quiet. The wind is blowing slightly and every so often the windchimes ring a soft tone. Occasionally a car drives by, but as long as the phone doesn’t ring, it is quiet.

At 3:00 though, I start preparing. What to give them for snack? What shall we have for dinner? Who is driving carpool. Will we make it through the evening? Yesterday, we had a particularly rough afternoon. Agents J and B arrived home and they were hot. Sweaty dripping hot. And they had homework and they were tired and they were hungry. Agent B is generally not a fan of school and especially not a fan of homework so she was just not happy. She wanted to tell me every injustice of her day (the teacher did not let her go to the bathroom and she had to raise her hand forever and she never noticed her and then her arms got tired…). Agent J seems to be a lover of homework and she grabs a snack and says “Come on “B” let’s do our homework!” in her characteristic singsongy high pitched voice. Agent B slugs herself over to the table, and they both pull out all the forms that compose my homework. “Ha ha Mommy, you have more forms to sign.” They seem to take glee in it.

I go to take my shower to get ready for our evening activities and it is not too long before I hear Agent B melting down. Her homework is too hard she tells J and she can’t do it. She is starting to get worked up, but then I hear something different – laughing and giggling. What happened? I go downstairs to find that J has come up with a plan. For every question that B answers, she gives her a piece of a fruit roll up. When that runs out, she moves on to chocolate chips. Maybe not the best way to get homework done, but I’m all for smiles rather than tears.

Agent J coaxes Agent B into doing her homework.