I’ve lived in different states all over the United States. North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, Idaho, Arizona and Oklahoma. I have to say Oklahoma has the strangest weather.
Yesterday morning, we could wear shorts and by afternoon, I had on two pairs of socks, a turtleneck and sweater and yeah, I even carried around a blankie. (Go ahead and make fun—get it out of your system.) I love chenille throws. I can never have too many.
The sleet started last night and turned to snow this morning.
We converted our gas fireplace to a real one and we’ve had wood burning since the cold moved in. We have a full pot of something cooking in the kitchen. I’m not sure what you call it, but my husband got the recipe from his stepmother in Virginia. I’m not one for beans most of the time. Love fresh green beans but despise pinto beans since my parents used to cook up huge pots of the things that would last for days and days… No offense to them, but I burned out early.
These are huge, white lima beans and you let them soak all night, then put them in the crockpot with a ham steak, chopped onion, two cans of tomato soup and enough water to cover. Oh, and pepper. Looks just awful at first, but as the day passes, those few items blend together to make something that smells pretty damned good. Tastes good, too. I also just slipped a chocolate cake into the oven and started a pot of hot, cinnamon cider and yet another pot of coffee.
OMG, it smells good in this house.
So, while the kids keep going out to play in the snow (and not for long stretches since the wind chill, or windshield as my son called it, is between 0 and 6), I’m trying to work on my book despite the constant interruptions.
Blurry from the force of the snow coming down.
I’m working in front of the fireplace, next to this big window in the family room. Snow is falling in buckets outside. It’s stunning, really. My cat is asleep on the back of this chair but every now and then, he sits up to chatter and slap his tail at the cardinals. With the trees bare and a still yet thin blanket of snow on the ground, they make nice, fat, red targets. I get up to take these pictures and he runs into the kitchen to sit in the window and chatter louder. They keep flying close to the window, taunting him. They know he has no intention of going out there.
On the news, they’re saying this is going to go on for hours, not to go out if you don’t have to and I can’t help but think how wonderful it is to have my entire family home on a beautiful, snowy day with nothing but time together. It’s like the best early Christmas present.
Update: I totally snarked on the Scene from a Pic and we had writers this month! I’ll be posting the stories from the last one tomorrow, so if you know why that mysterious white van is parked in the dark, feel free to let us know! Click on Scene From a pic in the topics to the right and it’s the first one. 🙂