Do they call this Indian Autumn?

You know how in the fall, you get the cold snap, then you get a few days where the weather is beautiful and you start thinking that maybe, just maybe, you might be in for a beautiful fall, then the ax falls again?  AKA Indian Summer    Well, we had Indian Autumn this weekend.  On Saturday, the temps rose to 40, the snow was melting, it was gorgeous outside (relatively speaking, of course).  I was just starting to think that maybe winter wasn't so bad after all.  Then today.   -13 when I got up this morning.  Yeah, that's a negative in front of that 13.  Yuck

We made good use of the beautiful weather though, burning tons of garbage that had been building up in the barn- no one wanted to go out and burn it before because it was too cold, windy and snowy out.  So, that got done.  The four of us also took an hour roadtrip to Weyauwega to check out a friend's new restaurant, Land of Ahhhs.  Very good food an awesome looking place and it was great to see her again.  We tend to only see her when Angel #1 is home on leave, the two of them have been friends since birth basically, and spend a lot of time together when they're able.

Yesterday, someone else was also making good use of the beautiful weather while we had it.  In addition to the snowmobiles out on the trails, we also saw a guy with a dog sled team.  WE has wanted to have a dog sled team forever and got all excited watching the guy mush his 8 dog team along the trails.  You don't see a whole lot of those here in Wisconsin.  WE's girlfriend told him she'd get him a team for his birthday, though I hope she waits for a birthday after his stint in the Marines is over, I really don't want to be responsible for a bunch of hyperactive dogs for 4 years while WE's out doing his thing for Uncle Sam.

We've had a quiet Christmas vacation.  The older and fewer  kids we have in the house, the quieter the school vacations are.  It doesn't seem that long ago when this place was complete chaos, with kids, mine and other people's, running all over the place, building amusement park rides in the basement and stealing my kitchen stuff to make science experiments.  Now they're off with friends, going to sports practices and events or just chilling on the computer.  Angel #4 and her friend started painting a wall in her bedroom the other day, but got about halfway through when her friend had to leave.  I've got the feeling she's going to have a white primer wall covered in blue painter's tape diamonds for a long time.  Oh well, at least she started it.  When I lived at home, there was no way in the world I would have been allowed to just impulsively paint my bedroom, one of the ways I drastically veered from my parents own parenting techniques.  I guess I don't see any harm in letting them do something like that and personally, I really don't give a rip what color their bedroom walls are.

But, since my kids don't really need me mothering them much anymore, I've got to focus my maternal instincts somewhere, so I just finished making snacks for my chickens.  The poor girls are out there in sub-zero temperatures, still faithfully laying eggs for me, so the least I can do is give them a treat once in awhile.  So I mixed up a delicious chicken cake of lard, cracked corn, dehydrated tomatoes & zucchini from last years garden with some leftover popcorn and eggs shells to top it all off.  It's hardening on the porch right now and I'll take it out to them this afternoon.  They're going to love me.

I think things are going to slow down a bit finally

It's been kind of crazy around here.  For me, busy = crazy    This week alone, I've gone to 2 basketball games (I HATE basketball, but I needed to haul kids there so I stayed and hung with my friends), a wrestling meet, a work party and I did some contract office work for a neighboring school district one evening.  Tonight, we stay home.  YAY!  But, tomorrow, we head out early for an all day wrestling tournament.  WE's been doing pretty good wrestling.  He's lost more than he's won, but all three of his wins were pins, which is pretty good.  Last night, he pinned his guy in 31 seconds, he was pretty stinking proud of himself.

Unless things warm up considerably in the next couple days, we're definitely having a white Christmas here in Wisconsin.  There's a dumping scheduled for tomorrow night and into Sunday, which may cramp our Sunday plans a bit.  We've got an all day church meeting, but under good conditions, we've got a 45 minute drive, if there are crappy roads, we'll just stay home where it's safe.  I don't know how God thinks, but I can only assume that he'd rather we stay home and miss church rather than drive around endangering ourselves and others on icy roads.  We'll see what the weather brings and go on from there.

Though I've been busy, I haven't really been doing anything exciting or interesting.  I seem to be spending a lot of time in high school gyms watching sporty stuff, which is better than huddling on freezing cold bleachers outside watching sporty stuff, so I look on the bright side there.  School's out now for the holidays, today was only a half day, so we can all be bums until Jan 2 when we head back to school/work.

That's about it, I guess.  I just thought I'd post so you all knew I was still alive and kicking.  :)

There's a bit of a learning curve

Last night we went to WE's very first wrestling meet.  I know zippo about wrestling besides what I saw Hulk Hogan do back in the 80's, so I'm pretty lost.  It just looks like 2 kids rolling around on a mat to me, but everyone else in the crowd seemed to know what was going on.  WE lost his match, but at least he wasn't pinned, so that was good.  He also surprised his opponent with an unconventional jumping move.  One of the few advantages he's got over the other kids is that because he hasn't been wrestling (besides on the living room floor with his brother) since he was a little kid, he doesn't know all the regular ways to wrestle, so he's got his own little spin on things, which may help keep the element of surprise in his favor.  We'll have to see.  There's an all day tournament on Saturday we're  going to, we'll see how he does.

Things are chilling out around here, it was 5 degrees this morning when I got up.  yuck!  And it's only the beginning of December, we've got a good 4 months of this ahead of us yet.  I do NOT approve.