Christmas Break

It's been a while. The kids have been out of school on winter break, and Chris has been home most of that time, too, so there hasn't been the quiet atmosphere here that is conducive to writing.

Every day, Zivah has been asking me if it is a school day. She is excited to get back to class, a testament to how fun kindergarten must be and how awesome her teacher is. I didn't spend much time teaching Zivah letters and sounds, although she managed to have the basics down by the time school started. Now she is sounding out small words like a pro, and I caught her the other night reading Green Eggs and Ham to herself.

Zivah might not get her wish to go back to school Monday, however, as a winter storm is supposed to blow through Sunday night bringing sleet and snow. Temperatures are to drop to the single digits at night, a rarity here. In spite of my new, favorite pair of long johns, I am dreading it. The low last night was 13 degrees, and I woke up to a 60 degree trailer. Who knows how cold it will get in here on Monday with its predicted low of 4 and high of 12. I have to remind myself how good we have it these days. At least I am not going to wake up to freezing indoor temps and have to stoke the fires of a wood-burning stove for warmth.

A few days before Christmas, we had a thunderstorm come through, complete with straight-line winds. At some point, a gust blew our leaning pine tree over onto the run of our little chicken coop. We are sad to lose the tree, but it is apparent it wasn't in the best of health, the root system was pathetic, and it didn't take much for the tractor to push the stump apart from the few remaining roots.

The two chickens we had in the coop survived the crash, though I wouldn't have cried if the rooster had been taken out. He has always been a bit of a spaz, and has taken to jumping at my arm when I bring them food and water. I have no patience for mean chickens, so am already plotting his demise.

The kids and I decorated gingerbread cookies again this year. Next year, we should be in the new house by Christmas, and I think we should upgrade the baking as well to include a gingerbread house.

Christmas morning was spent with my family, and the afternoon with Chris's. By the time the festivities were over the kids were exhausted. Joe and Z fell asleep head to head in van.

When we got home Christmas evening, there was a bit of a stink in our bedroom. At first, we blamed it on Chris's immediate trip to the bathroom, but when a candle and several minutes did nothing to dispel the odor, we concluded that there was a dead animal somewhere in the vicinity. We couldn't find anything that night, and since I couldn't handle the stench, slept at the other end of the trailer in Reanna's room.

The next morning, Chris crawled under the trailer to see if anything was under there. Not finding any carcasses, he figured something might have gotten into the duct work. He pulled the air handler out of the HVAC located right outside our bedroom door, and, sure enough, right beneath the fan was a freshly-rotting mouse.

In the mean time, work is progressing on the house. I helped Chris finish hanging the drywall on the ceiling and upper walls upstairs last week, and while I've been fighting a cold the past few days, he has almost finished the rest. This picture was taken in the upstairs rec room looking toward Finley and Joe's rooms. It won't be long now! (Or so I tell myself.)