oscar the grouch and snow cream!

i'm all about being honest, but sometimes when i write i come off sort of grouchy.  like my new year post; i wrote and published it without much proofing early in the morning.  when i finally re-read it the next day, i thought, "ugh, i just unleashed my inner complaint goddess on the rest of society!"  so, sorry.  like i said, i am good with honesty, and sometimes that's where this blog goes.  i tell the good, the bad, the in-between.  i don't sugar coat and i try not to highlight only the good parts to our life, because in every life some rain must fall.  i really try to find the rainbows through that rain, but there are times it's damn near impossible.

perhaps i should take a cue from my sixth grade english teacher, mrs. fenton.  as we entered her classroom, we would know if she was having an off day by the appropriate placement of the oscar the grouch poster taped onto her door.  we would know as students to maybe tread a little bit lighter.  i loved (still do) mrs. fenton.  for many other reasons, too, but mainly because she taught us a life lesson by telling us like it was.  no cover ups, just the facts.  here it is.  i'm having a bad day.  let's air it, deal with it and move on.

so perhaps next time, i'll preface my blog post with an oscar photo of my own.  i thought about what made me grouchy, and came up with a few reasons...

1.  i hadn't had my green smoothies in over a week.  i think my body has truly come to depend on that drinkable nutrition, even if i eat like crap the rest of the day.

2.  i haven't taught spinning, or exercised for that matter, since last weekend because of my surgery.  and this friggin' cold weather- forget walking outside.

3.  i told myself i was going to do another 365 project for this year, but just one as our family, as well as a 52 week project with my big camera.  i felt i needed to pull it out more and use it.  i look back at pictures and i love them.  but i had already given up on that latter project week 1.  it's just not something i can maintain and i know it will create undue stress.  learning to say no, even to myself.  but, still a failed goal even before i started.  true grouchiness.

4.  i had been cabin fevered for 4 days straight, recovering from my surgery and with the falling snow and dropping temps had no place to go but where i was.

but then, as i took a deep morning breath into my coffee cup the next day after said post, realizing it was another snow day and i still had a hundred items on my to-do list, i decided to attempt to enlist little soldiers who reside in my home.  i asked harper if she cared to help me do some chores and she happily agreed.  together, and mostly on her own because she independently wanted to take charge, we washed and folded 3 baskets of laundry.  we watered all the indoor plants.  we changed her bed sheets.  we purged and organized and straightened up her room.  we she emptied the dishwasher.  we picked up toys.  she helped put her sister down for a nap.  and the miraculous thing about it was that her spirit never once dwindled, and she was eager to find out the next task.  she made that to-do list fun (even though we didn't nearly cross off everything i hoped, but it didn't matter.)  the sun was shining in our house that day.  i was a happy mama.  she was a happy girl.  we were learning together this huge life lesson.

my favorite part of the day was when she and i were together in her room, changing her bed sheets, and she heard the dryer buzz, signaling our load was ready.  without any prompt from me, she ran screaming from her room, down the stairs, yelling "wait, dad, don't touch the laundry!"  and up the stairs 3 minutes later, lugging a full basket of clean, dry laundry, back to the task of making her bed.  my heart swelled that very moment.

***

moving on with some asterisks, because i have no other way to transition this post, to the famous snow cream.  this recipe went viral in a matter or a day, and i sat down that first snow day evening to see posts about it all over pinterest, facebook and instagram.  i had never even heard of snow cream, but we were going to give it a try.  and shockingly, it was pretty tasty!  if you find yourself surrounded by inches upon inches of snow you just don't know what to do with, give it a try.  recipe found here.  and if you need some snow, let me know and i can ship.