Walking from my Winter Wonderland

Ten days into 2014, and I am ready for spring.

I've spent the bulk of this year so far not working on my resolution, not cleaning my house. Instead, I've been prepping and surviving a massive winter storm that hit Indianapolis. Not just stocking up on milk, bread and ice melt...it was managing employee and patient communications for a major organization in our community. All while juggling kids who were trapped indoors during -30 wind chills and unable to go to school, let alone play outside.

Friday's here. And I'm tired. And so ready to walk from my winter wonderland.

Thankfully we're blessed that warmer temperatures are on the horizon. The 30 (positive!) degree temperature today were such a blessing; and even with rain, I'm embracing this weekend in its entirety. No time on the computer; instead, we'll be coaching and playing basketball games, stomping in slush to sell Girl Scout cookies and hopefully enjoying the warmer weather and a less hectic time together (one that doesn't involve the phrase "Please be quiet! Mommy's on a work call.")

I'm ready to start my resolutions, and I'm refusing to beat myself up for these last days I couldn't make the time to taking the steps I needed to do. Instead of being upset I didn't exercise or read my Fitcee email of the day - let alone execute the day's goals - I made the decision to put it on "hold," and start fresh when I could commit to it.

So tomorrow marks my unofficial start to 2014. As the winter weather is behind me and the kids are starting to head back to school, I'm ready to refocus on taking care of me and my family. After a few good night's sleep, I'll have the energy to begin.

How are your resolutions coming along?

Winter Olympics Party Ideas for Girl Scouts

Looking for more Girl Scout ideas? Visit my new scout leader resource site, Use Resources Wisely. 

The Sochi Olympics are just a few weeks away, and we're planning to celebrate it and help our Brownies kick off their Fair Play badge as well!

A Winter Olympics party has been on my must-do list for this Girl Scout year. It's a great way to take advantage of being stuck indoors.

Some of the great ideas I've found online for our Winter Olympics party next month:

Learning about Olympic Traditions

• Sochi and Winter Olympics Trivia
• Sochi Mascots
• Games Go Global Patch - World Association of Girl Guides & Girl Scouts
• Winter Olympics Sports

Games

• Olympic Ring "Snowball Toss"



• Indoor speed skating and tabletop curling
• Olympic ring torch toss



• Tabletop ice hockey

Quick Crafts to Go

• Snowboarder



• Olympic ring bracelets
  
• Edible Olympic Torches

The challenge? Narrowing our ideas down to an hour's worth of fun!

Looking for more ideas? Check our my Winter Olympics Party Board on Pinterest.

Easy bird feeder "cookies"

Our Daisy Girl Scout troop has been working on the 5 Flowers, 4 Stories, 3 Cheers for Animals patch series this year, and the other leaders and I are always on the lookout for creative ways for the girls to express them selves, while staying frugal and not creating a lot of excess for parents to store!


The robin is one of the animals we've talked about this year. Most of our work around this has centered around the suggested activity of building a "bird nest" and papier mache bird, which the girls have loved. But finding something that translates into taking action, especially in the dead of winter, is challenging.


I found this activity on education.com. Technically it's for "Christmas Cookies" for the birds - but you could easily make it using any shape or cookie cutter - or even cut circles with the lip of a cup. We beta-tested it at home with a first-grader and preschooler, and the project took less than 15 minutes with clean-up. (Plan accordingly with the size of your group!)

Supplies needed are bread (they recommend slightly stale, and I agree - ours was too soft to hang), peanut butter or shortening, birdseed, sunflower seeds and/or raisins, cups or cookie cutters, straws (1 per three girls), knives to spread peanut butter with (1 per 2-3 girls) and yarn or twist-ties from garbage bags.

Simply put, you cut out bread into shapes, poke a hole in it with the straw, slather it with peanut butter and cover with birdseed. (We used raisins and sunflower seeds.) Setting these up on cookie sheets made for easy clean up!

To finish it, we used trash bag ties (which had been in my drawer for years) pulled through the hole. We're letting it dry before we attempt to hang it outdoors, so you may want to consider sending the projects home on scrap pieces of cardboard so projects don't break en route.

Messy, but fun!

Looking for more Girl Scout ideas? Visit my new scout leader resource site, Use Resources Wisely. 

Snowman kits

Winter weather on the way means my kids will be begging to build snowmen in the dark tonight!

It's time for us to dig out our snowm an kit we received as a gift years ago, but it's simple to put one together for gift-giving or to have ready for eager children. Check out simple ways to convert unused items into a fabulous, frugal Frosty.

More snow on the menu

Snow is once again on the forecast for Indianapolis, and I'm grateful the temperatures this time are warm enough to send the kids outdoors!

But I'm sure they'll want to enjoy a winter treat as well.

I found a few interesting recipes that you can make with fresh snow! We may be trying this for an afternoon snack today:

• Snow ice cream with powdered sugar
• Snow ice cream (from Paula Deen)
• Snow candy (Please note: You will want to use real maple syrup, not the cheap kind, and warm it over the stove, not the microwave. Seriously. There are no 21st-century shortcuts on this.)
• Molasses snow candy

On second thought, maybe I don't want to sugar them up again...

Snow

As her mother has been doped up on Robittisum and DayQuill the last few days, the Green-Eyed Monster offers up a post...

I like to play in the snow. Then we go inside after we play in the snow to have hot chocolate. We drink the hot chocolate then we eat the marshmallows in the hot chocolate.

We feed birds with pine cones. We put peanut butter on the pine cones for the birds and we decorated the pine cones with food: raisins and seeds and nuts. Birds like raisins a lot. And then me and mommy hung up the pine cones. And then one bird ate all the food off one pine cone. Maybe that bird was hungry.

Waiting for snow

Silent night. The kids are in bed. The husband asleep. And the countdown begins.

Yep, we're waiting on another winter storm tonight.

After nearly nine years in Indiana, I still haven't gotten used to Old Man Winter. Particularly when he comes before his time.

I've decided I'm fine with snow. When it's still white, fluffy, and only covering the yard. I'm fine with cold temps, as long as it doesn't broach the teens or come with it a hefty wind chill.

I am not, however, fine with sleet. Or ice. Or more than a few inches of snow.

And so the anxiety begins.

I pray for the safety of those who, like my husband, have to venture on the roads before daylight and the salt trucks have struck.

I worry about getting my kids to school and day care, safely, the curse of a working mom and primary provider.

And I pray for those who are trapped out in this cold, wet night.

Snow!

What is it about snow?


The allure that ensures that, even with a dusting, the kids have to stop and rub their hands in it on their way out the door to school.


That makes them actually stop for five minutes to watch it fall from the sky.


That makes them declare, just minutes after complaining that one's stomach hurts, that she is not that sick and trounces back out of her bedroom, snowpants on, talking about a snowball fight. Before 7 a.m.


Yes, this morning, we woke up with our first real snow of the season. At last check, we're expecting to get about 4 inches of the fluffy white stuff. So, barring any health disasters today, we'll be bundling up, dusting off some items to decorate our snowmen, and, if my daughter has her way, making snow candy a la Laura Ingalls Wilder.


Thankfully, we don't have much for holiday plans today, so we can keep things simple and enjoy the season!

Baking snow

Laura Ingalls Wilder, I ain't.

Sewing more than a seam or button doesn't happen here. My baking endeavors are here and there. And I bristle at the first sign of snow.

But the other day, when we were once again blessed with a lot of snow, we opted for an unusual afternoon activity. Making "sugar snow."

For those of you not well-versed in the Little House books, a wintertime treat was taking the maple syrup, boiling and pouring over fresh snow until it hardens into a candylike consistency.

The Hungry Reader describes how it was done:

Our favorite moment comes when Laura and her cousins scoop up big plates of snow
and Grandma pours a ribbon of steaming syrup onto each one. The syrup hardens
into candy, which is devoured immediately. The children go back for again and
again another helping, for "maple sugar never hurt anybody."

I figured how hard could it be to recreate? I had a recipe in a cookbook I'd been meaning to explore, and decided there was no better time than now to play a little.

If I was a smart woman, I would have followed more conventional instructions. Maybe even used a candy thermometer. But no, in my arrogance, I poured syrup into a measuring cup and stuck it in the microwave.

All good until the first round boiled over, leaving a sticky mess in its wake.

The second round was more contained, but clearly didn't get hot enough. Still, I pulled out a bowl filled with snow from our backyard, poured the hot syrup over it, and ended up with a taffy-like consistency.

The kids were intrigued, though weren't pleased that the candy was nearly permanently stuck to their teeth.


Still, the experience was an interesting one. "We're baking snow!" my daughter declared to her dad.

Thinking green when it's all white

While the red branches of our blueberry bushes make a gorgeous contrast against the snow, I admit that I'm too the point that I feel like winter has won.

I miss seeing the ground. I miss not slipping and falling in my work parking lot. I miss being able to go outside without 17 layers of clothes and my parka on.

And while I want to see "green" outside, I admit I struggle to think it.

The fact I've battled bugs and exhaustion for three months (whether it's parenting, stress or health remains to be resolved) doesn't help. I stare at the grocery ads, wondering what I quickly can do to make it through the week. I shelve out for mac and cheese microwavable bowls because it's a good deal (and thankfully could cash in when I was barely able to stand). I go through roll after roll of paper towels while cleaning up after my suddenly clutzier older child and my toddler's tantrums. And I wonder, as I'm lugging bags of bottles, cans and newspapers home from the office in the snow, what am I thinking?

While I've admittedly cut back on my green adventures for now, another season awaits. Sometimes we can't put our whole effort into everything. And this is one of those times.

Not every moment of our lives is - or should be - about doing. Sometimes we need a little quietness in our lives. I was reminded that today by a friend of mine, and while she was talking of her faith, the same concept applies. No matter what the aspect of our lives, we cannot keep going at 100 miles an hour. We have to rest. We have to recharge. We have to reflect.

So these recent weeks, while I've been passing the environmental buck, I've been taking baby steps to plan and consider the coming spring and summer. I've been researching how we can make the most of gardening in our small lot, from companion gardening to making the most of our seasons. I've been trying to rework the contents of our home, like reorganizing my children's closets, really looking at our hand-me-downs, and offering to charity what we truly cannot use. No child needs 15 shirts.

And, most importantly, I'm being forced to finally listen to my body and recharge myself. I hope you are able to do the same.

This is my contribution to the February APLS carnival on Winter Motivation. It’s not too late to join us! E-mail your posts to goinggreenmama at gmail dot com by Feb. 22. We’ll post the highlights here on Feb. 24.

Winter motivation?

If there were no winter, spring would not be as grand.

That sign I passed on the way to work this morning was far too true. But frankly, I’m tired of waiting. For me, it’s tough to stay motivated on things in the winter months.

Single-digit temps and tricky roads make it challenging to get to our winter farmers market to get what’s left of the seasonal produce.

Stacks of garden catalogs and seed packets lie in wait for the snow to melt and the ground to unfreeze. Here in Indiana, we often have to wait until May to plant.

Longer commutes from snow-packed roads mean we tend to slack on the eating, too, relying on a diet too often of boxed macaroni and cheese and more processed foods so that we can just feed the hungry kids.

Spring seems too far away. So how do you stay motivated?

Join us for the February APLS Carnival on staying motivated in the winter months. It’s not too late to join us! E-mail your posts to goinggreenmama at gmail dot com by Feb. 22. We’ll post the highlights here on Feb. 24.

Snow day

Friday afternoon, we began to get the first of what would be about 9 inches of snow. Not much when you consider what was to hit the D.C. area, but it was one of the biggest snowfalls of the year.

When weather hits, you have a few choices.

1. Panic. Join hundreds of your closest friends at the grocery store (as if you couldn't make it 24 hours otherwise!). Fall to concerns that it may be slick (hint: it's that way when it rains, too) and drive home from work early.

2. Go with the ride and enjoy the beauty of the day.

First snow

Magic.

When you're little, the first snow of the season in particular is just magic. The dusting of snow sprinkled over the leaves, the grass. The allure of stomping in fluffy, cold flakes. The dream of snowballs and snow angels.

I confess that our morning delays weren't 100 percent due to the roads (though Hoosiers' general ability to forget how to do winter driving the first snow of the year always amazes me). No, it was watching my two little ones' amazement at the world around them.

They stared out the window. "It's Christmas Eve!" my oldest declared. Boy, we have a lot of Christmases to contend with then, I thought.

The little one said nothing. Instead, he seriously pushed and pulled their chairs so the two of them could sit in front of the window and watch the world. I don't know when it is that our thrill of that first snow wanes, but sharing their moment this morning brought it all back.