More Winter

I am soooo over winter.

I think it has snowed weekly since like August (ok, I like to exaggerate). Seriously though, I have never seen so much snow in my life. The kids ended up missing 4 days of school last week, in addition to the gazillion already missed. We ended up spending one of those days sledding. Well, some of us went sledding. Kate started snowball fights with everyone. She thinks she is sooo funny.

We spent another day working with the youth of our church to shovel sidewalks and driveways for those needing a little help. Well, some of us shoveled. Some of us built tiny snowmen. Or started snowball fights. Kate's favorite thing was to hand me snowballs and tell me to throw them at Matt, who is one of her grown-up buddies.

And I won't even tell you about the day that the kids broke one of the beds, and I had a temper tantrum. It wasn't pretty.

I have had enough.

And tonight, they are calling for more snow. I swear, if they call off school one more day, you might find me on my way to Florida. I have had it.

Happy Chinese New Year!

All this week our family will be celebrating Chinese New Year's, aka the Spring Festival. We are still learning the ins and outs of this holiday, but several things we want to participate in:

• Spend time with friends and family. We are doing pretty well with the friends one (we have plans to hit several Chinese restaurants this week), but next year we need to do better and include more family.
• Do spring cleaning. I got an early start on this one with the whole getting new flooring thing. Since I had to move every single item in my home (unless it was on a high shelf), it was a good time to purge. Today I plan to sweep and mop and finish off the spring cleaning. (That is, if I can get off the computer long enough.)
• EAT! If you know me, you know that I firmly believe that food is the one of the best parts of almost any holiday. Preparing and sharing a meal brings people together.

I have decided that I would like to learn to make a new Chinese dish each year so eventually we can host a real celebration. Last year I failed miserably at that task. This year, I was determined to learn to make Chinese dumplings. I found a really easy recipe (although time consuming) and bought all the ingredients (I had to ask the Kroger lady for help in locating the Napa cabbage, and I had never even heard of white pepper). Will and I even watched videos about how to roll out and fold the dumplings. We were ready.

One of traditions involved in making this food is that the whole family is supposed to participate. That was probably the most challenging part:), but we did it. Ben read the recipe to us, while Kate and Will mixed the filling. They all took a turn rolling out the dough, and then Tim, Will, Kate, and I stuffed and folded the dumplings. Mama had to do the cooking, of course. Our friends Alex and Christa came over to share the feast with us.

I was a bit nervous about how they would turn out, but they were sooooo yummy. We all ate way too many (well, ok, Ben and Kate didn't really like them, but they can be picky), especially Will. After eating 5 or 6 of them, Will came and curled up in my lap. He said, "I have decided I don't like Chinese dumplings." Well, did you eat so many that they hurt your tummy, or do you not like the taste? "I ate too many," he moaned. So yes, they were a hit. Next year I will have to come up with a recipe that the other two like.

The dough, the filling, and the leftovers:

Can't wait to make 'em again next year!

Checking in

There really isn't much going on around here, but I felt the need to check in with everyone. I am starting to get out of the habit of blogging, but I am trying to reverse that. Beware of the randomness of this post.

We have had a week of trying to play catch up with all that went wrong in the previous few weeks. I still have piles of laundry, piles of dust, and piles of junk. Once I get behind, I have a hard time getting anything done. That's where I am now.

I spent the weekend on winter retreat with 29 of our church's teenagers. Tim is a youth pastor, and so I get recruited for these events. It seems fair to me, since I completely refuse to chaperon a lock-in or summer camp. The kids were great, the sessions were awesome (well done, Tim), and I got to spend some time with good friends who also work with the youth. It was a really great retreat.

The kids spent the weekend with Daddy John and Jee and also had a great time. When I called they said they were watching movies and eating popcorn. Sounds like an awesome way to spend a weekend to me.

We woke up to several inches of snow this morning, enough for Ben not to have school. Once again, I am having a lazy day with the kids, trying to ignore those piles I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure how much longer I can do that though.