For those of you who don’t live in Iowa and aren’t all that familiar with the weather here…I just thought I’d give you a quick low down on the past few days. Saturday it was sunny, a little breezy, and FIFTY degrees outside! All the snow and ice were melting, the streets were wet with run off, and it felt like spring was around the corner. On Sunday morning it was still mild when we left the house for church, the sun was shining and it was FORTY-EIGHT degrees. As we made our way to church, we could see clouds headed our way and the wind started to pick up. By the time we came out of church it had completely clouded over, the wind was howling, and the temperature was TWENTY! The crazy temperature continued to spiral lower and lower quickly to a brisk THREE degrees. INSANE!!!!!!!!!!! Wind chills were negative TWENTY-FIVE this morning as I made my way to work…that’s NUTS folks…NUTS!
Anyway, we managed to have a really good weekend, despite the borderline personality disorder of mother nature. Inspired by my good friend Jami, I decided to take Friday off as a day to bake Christmas cookies, sing…er…listen to Christmas songs, watch Christmas movies, and just spend time with Matt getting in the Christmas spirit. And I’m SO glad I did! I flipped through my cookbooks to find the best recipes to make my traditional Christmas cookie assortment. And ended up making five different kinds! We spent the day with wonderful smells drifting from the oven, warming the house and us. Matt dutifully tested each batch of cookies to ensure their quality, and of course, washing them down with his beloved AE eggnog. (It was a tough job, but one he takes very seriously and truly excels at!) We made lists of things to make for our various family get togethers and got all excited just thinking about how much we’re looking forward to seeing everyone in the coming weeks. It was also just a good day for us to enjoy our home together and the user friendly kitchen configuration really made baking so much fun for me. I just loved being able to do my thing with the cookies while Matt sat on the couch and we watched our favorite Christmas movies together!! It couldn’t have been better!
Saturday we took advantage of the strangely mild (and oh-so-fleeting) temperatures and spent some time cleaning up the car and the garage together. Matt took the license plate off the front of the car and hammered it flat again…I’m not sure how it managed to get curled on both ends. I’m sure it has everything to do with the aerodynamics of the car and nothing at all to do with the way I drive…or where I park. I vacuumed out the car, swept up the garage and put away a bunch of things that had somehow managed to get out of place…weird. Matt and I enjoyed another evening hanging out with holiday movies…I frosted some cookies while we watched It’s a Wonderful Life!
Sunday evening we headed up to Hope and Chad’s for Meghan’s church Christmas program and dinner to celebrate Chad’s birthday. Meghan’s program was cute and she did a great job as a cow (the ONLY one – she kept reminding us). Matthew was his usual two year old self, however and decided he would only be happy if he could either crawl underneath or over the top of the pews in front of us. Since Chad and Hope would let him do neither, he naturally dissented and pitched a big ‘ol fit. So, Chad missed most of the program…poor guy! We rushed back to their house in the frigid temps and snow flurries for cake and ice cream and a quick birthday celebration. Heading back home, where we pulled into our garage and shut out the cold behind us, we were reminded again of how blessed we are to have this new house. I hope I never tire of saying that…it is just so wonderful for us to have a house where Matt is free to do his own thing and we can enjoy life, rather than struggle through it. Laying in bed last night, as the wind howled outside, we couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to still be living in our old house. How I’d have to make so many trips back and forth in the cold from the car to the house with the wheelchair, and then Matt, and then our stuff, and then take the dogs out, and then bring them back in, and then put the car away…oh, what a pain that was. And we’d hurry and rush because we’d be so cold, and rushing Matt while walking is never a good idea (which might be why we landed on the driveway that one time)...and man, as we laid there under the warm covers, in our warm house, with our doggies all curled up on their bed beside ours, I could not have been more thankful.
Anyway, we managed to have a really good weekend, despite the borderline personality disorder of mother nature. Inspired by my good friend Jami, I decided to take Friday off as a day to bake Christmas cookies, sing…er…listen to Christmas songs, watch Christmas movies, and just spend time with Matt getting in the Christmas spirit. And I’m SO glad I did! I flipped through my cookbooks to find the best recipes to make my traditional Christmas cookie assortment. And ended up making five different kinds! We spent the day with wonderful smells drifting from the oven, warming the house and us. Matt dutifully tested each batch of cookies to ensure their quality, and of course, washing them down with his beloved AE eggnog. (It was a tough job, but one he takes very seriously and truly excels at!) We made lists of things to make for our various family get togethers and got all excited just thinking about how much we’re looking forward to seeing everyone in the coming weeks. It was also just a good day for us to enjoy our home together and the user friendly kitchen configuration really made baking so much fun for me. I just loved being able to do my thing with the cookies while Matt sat on the couch and we watched our favorite Christmas movies together!! It couldn’t have been better!
Saturday we took advantage of the strangely mild (and oh-so-fleeting) temperatures and spent some time cleaning up the car and the garage together. Matt took the license plate off the front of the car and hammered it flat again…I’m not sure how it managed to get curled on both ends. I’m sure it has everything to do with the aerodynamics of the car and nothing at all to do with the way I drive…or where I park. I vacuumed out the car, swept up the garage and put away a bunch of things that had somehow managed to get out of place…weird. Matt and I enjoyed another evening hanging out with holiday movies…I frosted some cookies while we watched It’s a Wonderful Life!
Sunday evening we headed up to Hope and Chad’s for Meghan’s church Christmas program and dinner to celebrate Chad’s birthday. Meghan’s program was cute and she did a great job as a cow (the ONLY one – she kept reminding us). Matthew was his usual two year old self, however and decided he would only be happy if he could either crawl underneath or over the top of the pews in front of us. Since Chad and Hope would let him do neither, he naturally dissented and pitched a big ‘ol fit. So, Chad missed most of the program…poor guy! We rushed back to their house in the frigid temps and snow flurries for cake and ice cream and a quick birthday celebration. Heading back home, where we pulled into our garage and shut out the cold behind us, we were reminded again of how blessed we are to have this new house. I hope I never tire of saying that…it is just so wonderful for us to have a house where Matt is free to do his own thing and we can enjoy life, rather than struggle through it. Laying in bed last night, as the wind howled outside, we couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to still be living in our old house. How I’d have to make so many trips back and forth in the cold from the car to the house with the wheelchair, and then Matt, and then our stuff, and then take the dogs out, and then bring them back in, and then put the car away…oh, what a pain that was. And we’d hurry and rush because we’d be so cold, and rushing Matt while walking is never a good idea (which might be why we landed on the driveway that one time)...and man, as we laid there under the warm covers, in our warm house, with our doggies all curled up on their bed beside ours, I could not have been more thankful.
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