Snow Days

I wasn't sure what to say when The Farmer's Daughter suggested we make Snow Day posts. My snow days have been pretty lazy. I had already done all of my prep work for both of my jobs this coming week, and I don't have papers to grade. When the snow really started to fall, I was a bit upset because that meant I wouldn't get to use my lesson plans that I spent several hours putting together. And they were good this week. So when The Farmer's Daughter made the suggestion, I was not planning on following through because I didn't want to admit my laziness and I was bitter over the large amount of snow that caused school to be cancelled so many days.

Today though things are looking up. I still am here at the house and there's still a foot of snow covering the yard, but things are looking up. I could leave now if I wanted to do so. This morning I decided I was going to try to clear my driveway even if it took me all day...and it would have, especially once I discovered that there was no shovel to be found. Turns out, it's locked in the garage, which since I'm housesitting I have no access to. I spent about an hour with a broom and bucket clearing the short walk from the house to my car and the six inches right around my car.

Then a miracle happened. A neighbor came trudging across the yard and flagged down another neighbor with a tractor. As I type this, the tractor is clearing me a path out of the yard. I was envious of another neighbor who had someone on a tractor clearing his driveway while I was using a bucket and a broom, but now I'm a bit shameful of that envy. God provided me a tractor. I just had to do a bit of work myself.

You know, I think a lot of things in life are that way. Our selfish nature is to assume that things should be just given to us. I don't think that's how God always works though. Yes, some things, such as grace, are given to us freely even though we don't deserve it, but sometimes God wants us to get a bit dirty and sore first. That's what happened today. God wanted me to get out there and do some work myself before he sent along a tractor. The hard work made me even more thankful for the tractor, because my broom and bucket would have taken me a long, long time to clear that entire driveway.

This was taken sometime in the midst of the snow falling on Monday.

This was the last measurement I took. I'd say we got about a foot out here.

My efforts to clear a path with a broom and a bucket.

After the tractor made a couple of sweeps across the yard.

Hey Farmer's Daughter, I just saw my own sort of tractor pull! A tractor pulling snow!

Snow Day...and other news!

Today has been a long day. I have been somewhat productive..but it's been unusual because of all the snow and my mother has been in the house too because of course, she was off school. As I was thinking of making some coffee this morning shortly after getting up, I was also considering making some scones. I really enjoy scones and I think they're especially good with coffee. I have some raspberries I froze a couple months ago and I was thinking of making some more raspberry scones. I found a new recipe from Martha Stewart (the original Martha, not to be confused with our very own Martha S. on the blog) that looked pretty tasty so I decided to try it. I think they turned out nicely, but I don't know that I would use the exact same recipe again. The only reason I say that is that the raspberries were supposed to be kneaded into the dough, I think I would have preferred to mix them in or fold them in because by kneading them in, I had a couple of the scones with layers of berry on the bottom. The individual scones didn't want to stick together as well this way and didn't bake as nicely. I didn't actually end up eating any of them for breakfast because by the time they got out of the oven I was done with breakfast! But they'll be there for tomorrow...and hopefully the next day. Yum, scones!

Before they went onto the oven..I made them rectangular instead of triangular

I also tried to take a walk today...Ever since I can remember, I don't have any recollection of the snow being so high that I couldn't take a walk. Today I went outside with plenty of layers on and I wore my rain-boots since the snow was so high. I have snow boots which are more insulted but I thought the snow too deep for my shorter insulated boots (as opposed to my tall, cold rain-boots). Although I didn't get any snow inside my boots with the rain-boots, the rubber easily transferred all the cold from the snow onto my legs and feet. Nova also tried to come out in the snow and of course, she couldn't walk very easily. From her vantage point it was probably like trying to walk straight through the side of a mountain with every step she took. Unfortunately my walk was very short. I was also hoping to get the toboggan out and sled down the hill a few times, but I was discouraged with how deep the snow was and went back inside. I needed some friendly encouragement and camaraderie to get me going...but since I was by myself I couldn't seem to encourage myself enough. Since the temperatures aren't supposed to get any warmer, I should have another chance to go sledding tomorrow or even the next day. I'm planning on it!

Like Martha S., I also worked on catching up on some homework today. I finished some math home work that needed to be done and I have also been working on editing more of the wedding photos for the Ramsay's. Perhaps I can motivate myself to study a bit on my time off tomorrow. I'm not sure about you all...but my school has been called off for tomorrow too! It's a good thing...because I wouldn't be able to make it out if they did have class. I've heard prediction that the public K-12 schools in the area may be closed all week. Of course that means no work for me either...but we shall see what happens, they may go back Thursday or Friday.

In other news:

• I attended my first tractor/truck pull on Saturday. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. Even though they tried to control it, there were alot of fumes in that building. It was also REALLY loud. The beau and I wore earplugs the whole time. It was quite an experience. I think I would prefer to watch my next tractor/truck pull outside! We also went to the National Farm Machinery Show to look around, before the pull.  
  
• The weekend before last I tried The B.O.M.B. at Sonny's barbecue. I read an article on Facebook that Miss Ellaneous' sister had shared about a man from Richmond creating a sandwich for the Annual Pitmaster Showdown. The sandwich has a patty of macaroni & cheese, brisket, onion straws and sweet barbecue sauce, all on a bun. It was an unusual sandwich, but it was very tasty!  



You can't see it very well here, but this is the only photo I took

• I'm sorta getting the hang of the whole substitute teaching routine. I've now substituted for two kindergarten classrooms (once as the regular classroom teacher and once as the teacher's aid), one middle school special education teacher and one elementary school special education teacher. Each day presents new challenges, but I haven't been too overwhelmed with any of the classrooms yet. 
• It's Girl Scout cookie season!!

I know these as Samoas...they're my favorite!  

Adios for now!
The Farmer's Daughter