Survival Tactics

People are saying that this winter is one of the top 10 worst ever recorded in MN history. And there is no end in sight. To survive, we basically stay home and bunker down during each wind or snow storm. It's hard avoiding cabin fever. This is what we do to survive...

Take pictures with the smart phone

Try every kind of moisturizer we can think of for our cold dry skin, including lubriderm, baby oil, Vaseline and coconut oil. 

Play with pots and pans

Wear sound muffs to stay sane from all the noise.

Play ball in the house. All types of ball- both real and imaginary- in all rooms, but mostly in the basement.

Eat lots of staple foods, like PB & J. Tanner consumes them by eating straight through the middle.

Bake goodies.

Take more pictures on the smart phone

Fill the crib with stuffed animals

Play in the basement. 

Dallin loves the Mickey mouse Clubhouse.

Make window paint bags.

Invade fridge.

Do art projects

After being stuck at home for a stretch of 5 days, I couldn't take it! Even though it was only 2 degrees outside, I packed up the boys and we went to the Spam Museum. So nice to get out of the house. We were the only ones there!

Another snow came soon thereafter.

So we needed more survival tactics. Eat more peanut butter.

Eat snacks in different places throughout the house.

Play farm animals with the children's gate. Jeremy is feeding the "horses" through the fence.

Rejoice when Daddy comes home from work. 

Dallin survives better than the rest of us. Being on earth for only 9 months kinda helps. He doesn't really know what warmth he's missing.

There's plenty of things to keep him busy with exploring, so that's nice.

But even Dallin gets bored and frustrated sometimes with being stuck at home.

Luckily, we've been able to make it to two sessions of Mom Time at a community church and three sessions of story time at the library. I would go every week, but it's not worth it when the windchill makes it -10 or lower or if the streets aren't plowed. 

The library has this learning room that keeps the boys occupied for a long time.

It's so cold here that...

• My hands get dry, crack and then bleed.
• We find a way to eat more canned foods and frozen meat because it's too cold to go shopping.
• When you breathe the air, it takes your breathe away, and not in the good sense. It really feels like you might suffocate. 
• 15 degrees feels like a nice day. 25 degrees feels like spring. 35 degrees feels like summer.
• Anything 10 degrees and lower feels the same: super cold.

(Jeremy's car thermometer before leaving for work on Jan 6).

• The only kind of shoes I wear outside of the house are boots. Not because of the snow, folks. Because of the cold.
• Most of the snow is impossible to play in. The entire first two inches of snow is frozen, making it really hard to walk through. And the snow is so cold and dry that it doesn't form into a ball for snowballs or snowmen.
• We spend 15+ minutes getting bundled up for 30 seconds of walking from the car to a building. Worth it? Unfortunately, YES.
• We go too many days without seeing the sun. I've never experienced that before. It's true that you get depressed and completely unmotivated to do anything.

 (It was a sunny Saturday on Jan 18 without too much wind, and luxury temps in the 20's, so we went sledding on a hill in our neighborhood. Notice the snow scattering in the wind? Common sight here. I'll post more pics about sledding later.)

• On windy days, just running from your car into a store makes you look like you've been outside for hours. Your eyes have teared, your nose is running and everything is frozen to your face. 
• If you go outside on a windy day when it's say -10, with windchill at -25, you will get frost bite within 5-10 minutes. That's why this is actually called unbearably cold weather and the government shuts down schools and roads and trash pickup.
• Sometimes, it feels like a dog bit your whole face off. The wind certainly has a way of making things "biting" cold.
• In November, when going into the garage, we have to wear shoes because all the snow and ice chips from the car have melted into big puddles and lakes. 
• In January, when going into the garage, we have to wear shoes because the snow and ice chips stay in tact as snow and ice chips!
• Heating bills suck. I never thought I'd be willing to keep my heat at 63 degrees in the day. But it pays off. When we wear 2 and 3 layers of pants and shirts, plus a bathrobe, it feels a lot warmer, so we survive.

(Here's an example of our common daytime wardrobe to keep warm and cozy so that we can have the heating bill a little lower)

• Taking a shower becomes a huge inconvenience. Even when I blast our space heater to 95 degrees, Dallin and Tanner are shivering in the tub! It's kind of gross; I only shower every other day or more, and I only wash my hair twice a week now to avoid the chills. I can't wait until summer again!
• I even wash my hands less to keep my hands from getting cold and chapped.
• Sometimes, it can't snow. Which is weird because even though the roads are clear and there's no fresh snow, it's too cold to take the boys anywhere. So we're stuck at home- for 3 and 4 and 5 days at a time with no snow to show for it. Ugh!
• I think people go to hockey games because inside the rink is luxury warmth compared to outside. 

(We went on a date to the minor league hockey game in town. It was so fun- and warm- inside!)

• They cancel church. It takes a lot to cancel an entire day of church. We've had three cancellations this winter- none of which had to do with snow. Just cold and wind. And our youth group has been canceled twice so far.
• On TV, the advertisement for the boat and RV show boasted about how warm the indoor event will be.
• We have to keep the gas tanks filled halfway or more to prevent the tank from freezing while it sits in the parking lot while at work or church.
• My hairdryer is used more to warm our bodies than to dry our hair.
• A whiteout occurs. When I heard about whiteouts, I imagined a still day with crystal white snow sparkling in the sun. NOOO. Whiteout means dark clouds, 40mph winds, and snow blowing everywhere all at once, creating a white haze that makes it impossible to drive, walk, or even see the neighbor's house.

Baby's New Look

On January 14 (almost 8 months old), we decided it was time to give Dallin a real haircut. We had given him a trim before, but now it was time to get the hair out of his eyes and see what color was growing under all that newborn hair.

 BEFORE

 AFTER

It's been over a month, and I am still trying to get used to it. He looks so different to me without the long hair and it is much lighter. And it's growing fast! He'll actually need another cut soon.

New Hobby

As you know, we got Jeremy his own drum set in October. He has been playing ever since, taking lessons about once a month and practicing almost every day. There is no exaggeration in saying that he's going from pretty good to REALLY good. I, of course, take some of the credit seeing that it was me who encouraged him to get drums and me who enjoys (most of the time) the loud sounds coming from the basement. 

But there is another hobby Jeremy has recently taken on. 

Everyone, meet Jeremy the BAKER!

His motivation to start baking came from being disappointed in my own baking. (Not to be confused with my cooking.)

When working with food, I have a tendency to do my own thing, like add something extra, use a substitute or try a different twist. It just doesn't seem right for me to follow a recipe perfectly. I need to have that creative element. Sometimes, my creations turn out great. Other times, not so much. This is why cooking is much more suitable for me because things don't have to be an exact science. Baking, on the other hand, kinda does.

My version of apple pie turned out to be delicious sliced apples glazed in honey and cinnamon on a pie crust-a much more healthy option than a real pie. 

Jeremy was horrified. 

So he pulled up some videos on allrecipes.com and figured out how to make his own apple pie. He is really good at sticking to a recipe, and so this is what came of it. I was extremely impressed!

Then, he tried chocolate chip cookies. I've never made those from scratch in my life, so I cheered him on. 

They were very delicious, putting up a good competition with any of your mom's best.

His most recent success is homemade banana cream pie, with pudding made from scratch. 

(He's made this twice now).

Needless to say, this is a hobby I'm extremely happy about.

cute Dallin pics

The afternoon light on Jan 8 made the room perfect for some pictures of my little Love. 

cute fingers and toes.

runny nose.

mesmerized.

blue eyes.

common expression.

chubby face.

middle finger.

leaping from his bum. a common occurrence.

showing off his skills.

teeth! (this pic is my favorite)

New Year's Eve Game Night

We had our friends, the Taylor family, over for dinner and game night on New Year's Eve. We ate Papa Murphey's pizza, salad and lots of snacks. The kids played a bunch together and then we decided it would be fun to do a count down with them. (The real time was something like 7:35). We used our Roku to play the countdown in Dubai on demand. We didn't bang on pots and pans because our little guests seemed frightened by our drums earlier, so we got out a quieter option: BUBBLES!

 We watched the firework countdown about 5 or 6 times, counting down each time. Tanner loved the anticipation!

 And then each time we got to zero, we cheered and blew as many bubbles as we could. We also used a tambourine for some jingly sound effects, but the kids were more interested in bubbles. 

Once we got the kids to sleep, us grown ups played Dominion and Blokus for several hours. It was super fun to play adult games again. We also carried on the Zavoral tradition of ice cream sundays at midnight. It was a smiley, scrumptious, stress-free way to bring in the new year!