Well, we had a couple feet of snow followed by a brutal deep freeze. Now the temperatures are climbing back up and the world is filled with watery slush all over town. It’s too slippery for a ride on my bike, but I’ve been making use of the Keystone Trail for a couple daily walks. I’ve been keeping my feet mostly dry and enjoying the winter landscape. Someone also made use of the snow and left a little snowman on the trail to greet me the other day, which was cute. It’s certainly a better use of time than putting graffiti all over the place.
Royal Rangers has started up again, and that means getting set for a Pinewood Derby. Vivian and I took Aaron by Hobby Lobby on Thursday to shop for some decals, weights, and paint, and then on Saturday, I took both Hannah and Aaron down to Spirit Life church to do a little wood-working.
I let both of them mark up their woodblock car models how they wanted them to be cut, and I also got to drill a couple holes for Hannah’s car to add a few extra weights to the back end. Since doing this for the first time a year ago, I felt a little more knowledgeable about what to do to create a race-worthy little car for each of them. Next we’ll just have to paint and decorate before the weigh-in.
On Monday afternoon, the temperature finally rose above freezing, so we took the kids down to Memorial Park for a little quality time sledding after school. We weren’t the only ones there, of course, but we had a giant hill and plenty of room for an hour of sled time up and down the east hill. I was in my element getting photos from the top and the bottom of the hill, of course, and it was good exercise all around.
In other news, Harold’s mom has been with us for a couple weeks since New Year’s but finally got to go home that evening. We were very sorry to say goodbye, since Harold always seems so much happier when he’s able to run around with her on our living room floor.
A few of our regular activities started back up again for the first time this year. On Tuesday, Wildewood had its Men of God dinner after a week’s delay (since it was apparently a little too cold last week for some people). We had some meatballs and noodles and talked a bit more about John Eldredge’s Fathered by God as we went through the stages of Boyhood, Cowboy, and Warrior together with Pastor Ron.
Then on Wednesday, Aaron went back to Royal Rangers. He and his fellow Rangers went through a bit more of 1 Samuel and played a game guessing each other’s various identities (Aaron got to be Abraham Lincoln). The Ranger Kids made some cereal bars with Lucky Charms in the meantime, which gave Aaron a bit dose of sugar before playing some Gaga Ball.
