What does one do on a snow day?

Yesterday afternoon at 1:04 it started snowing. By the time I got off work at 4:30 the snow was about about 3" thick (seemed like 4" but the ruler proved otherwise). We Southerners (do you like how I called myself a Southerner?) don't know how to drive in the snow and I'm not sure the city even tried to treat the roads. I think this storm surprised them. I don't know where all the people came from but it was bumper to bumper traffic in all directions and the fastest anyone was driving was 15 miles an hour. At times we were stopped still in our tracks for minutes at a time. My gas tank light came on shortly after leaving work telling me I that I needed to fill the tank. Fortunately with everybody moving so slowly there weren't any accidents that I heard of, though I saw people sliding and did a little slip of my own. What normally takes me 10 minutes to drive took me about an hour. I was happy to get home with a little bit of gas left in my tank. One co-worker who's commute is usually about 20 mintues was on the road for almost 3 hours trying to get home.

The snow had quit falling by then and no more snow fell during the night but it's almost the end of the day today and plenty of snow still remains. It got up to 37 degrees today so we've had some melting goin on. Tonight it's going to freeze so it'll be icy in the morning. We're going to stay home until it thaws. I expect all the snow will melt completely tomorrow as it's supposed to get up to 48 degrees.

So, no yard work today and I wasn't inclined to go out. So what should I do? Make soap, of course!

Well - maybe not "of course" but that is what I did today. This is something I've been planning to do for quite some time. I have been gathering the tools (a soup pot here, a roaster pan there, etc) and ingredients. This particular recipe called for lye, olive oil, coconut oil and shea butter. It was time to take the plunge!

My teacher is a book called "Smart Soapmaking" by Anne L Watson. She lays it all out simply and easily; explaining what's going on chemically (not too technical), suggests a starter recipe but includes several others and gives step by step instructions. It took me a couple hours but most of that was prep time and clean up time. The actual soap making took about 20 minutes. With practice, the prep and clean-up will go much faster. I'd love to show you photos but that will have to wait for another time. I was home alone while making it so there was no one to take pictures. :-(

I can show you pictures of the snow though.

It's been 33 years

A week ago today we had a visit from a friend from our youth - Jim Redwine. While we've stayed in touch through our parents (pre-internet; well actually - pre-computers, I think), later via email and later still via yahoo groups and Facebook, we actually hadn't seen each other in 33 years. We were so privileged to have several hours together. Jan and John came (John's taking the picture) because they go back that far with us. (Poor Judy was home with a cold and was selfish about sharing her "fun". We missed having Bud and Lacey too).

Jim is very interesting to talk to as he has done so much in his lifetime, lived so many places and has so many interests (and stories to tell). I think we could have talked for days.

Thank you Jim for coming! Next time, bring Caryn... and the kids.

Brrrr Cold

Sorry - no photos but I just wanted to say "It's cold"!

I've heard of cold winters in these parts but this is the coldest it's been since we've lived here. I suppose that's not saying much since this is only our 4th Winter but still. Even the "natives" are saying this December was colder than usual and now that we're into the first week of January it's even colder. Yesterday it snowed - just enough to put about 1/4" of snow on the surface of things - but then it froze. A good bit of that 1/4" is still here tonight. Today we had a high of 22 degrees! Yes, I said "high". I thought we lived in the South!

The Big Day

January 1st, 2010... "The Big Day" finally arrived. Dad & Millie got hitched!

I'm sure it was a tough decision but they decided to get married in our home. I believe weather was a big consideration for this and it turned out to be a good decision - at least for those of us in the South - because there was 8" of snow "back home" and more on the way. Here, we had a beautiful day; very cold with temps in the low 30's, but blue skies none-the-less. Whatever the reasons were, I feel quite blessed that we were able to be in attendance.

I didn't think to count how many were here while it was happening but I do believe there were 15, counting Dad, Millie and Walter, the preacher. There were 7 more (if I count correctly) in attendance via the phone as well. We had this idea to call anyone available back home and let them listen in on the ceremony. I hoped they could hear okay.

Millie prepared a small feast that could have served twice or three times as many people as were there. It was all yummy, especially the potato soup she made.

Don't they look happy? (Did you notice that the bride and groom on the cake top are sitting down?) So cute (both couples, that is).