It's one of those blustery, freezing, wintry days today.
The house is quiet now and I'm enjoying listening to the wind while I stay cozy and bundled with my hot chocolate and Snuggie and trusty dog at my feet by the crackling fireplace. (or in reality, wrapped tightly in my blanket in the freezing basement sniffling and trying to fight off nausea--close enough)

When I was a kid on these days, I remember feeling kinda scared but at the same time like the weather was neat-o. Maybe it was just the possibility of a snow day that got me excited. (please let it not be a snow day tomorrow) But extreme winter weather always seemed a bit larger than life and so kind of thrilling.

I remember walking with my two neighbor friends from home to some activity at the rec. center about a mile away in what (at the time) felt like this kind of weather. (though I'm sure mom would never have let us go if it was this bad. right mom?) (plus we were like 6 years old)
It didn't start out too bad, but the further we walked, the nippier the wind seemed to feel and snow was blowing harder and our situation (to our young scared minds) seemed to become bleaker.

We all huddled together to brave the "winter storm" and ultimately decided to go back home even though we were almost there.

Life is so dramatic when you are a kid. I remember picturing what we must have looked like and thinking the nasty storm would force us to take shelter in some nearby woods or maybe we'd pound on some poor stranger's door claiming to be starving orphans in need of cookies.

And I wonder why my kids are so dramatic.

I don't mind this cold and wind too much, (said from someone who did not have to leave the house today) but this picture looks nicer.
It was taken just a week or two ago when we all got a wee taste of spring.


This was today. The kids are playing some sort of photo shoot game. Dan is the photographer and Shannon is the model. He kept saying "next, next next..." prompting her to pose until the timer on the little microwave went off and then he would abruptly say "You're done. Next!"

I made Perfect Pot Roast and Chocolate Sheet Cake yesterday.
I cooked the roast in the crockpot because I now know that my large pot with a plastic knob on the lid IS NOT oven safe. (a smelly mistake I discovered a few years ago)

It still tasted fantastic. Very tender. We ate it all.

The cake is good too, though I think I prefer brownies to cake. Cake just doesn't pack as much of a chocolaty punch. But it was delicious. Like chocolate flavored butter.

I took today off from cooking because Tim had to work and because I had Huevos Hyacinth on the menu. And though I recently made fried eggs over-easy for myself on a daily basis, now the idea of even smelling eggs makes me sick so I may put that one off for a while.

Homemade pizza tomorrow.
Maybe.