Lenten Prayers

We have been saying a Lenten prayer that I cut out of the church bulletin every night at supper. Today at lunch, Clayton stopped me from saying prayers and said he was going to say the lunch prayer. He grabbed the little piece of paper, held it up like he was reading and then said, "A hunting prayer. Dear Lord, please don't let us get lost in the woods. Please let there be lots of deer to kill. And if we do get lost, please let the police men find us."

On Ash Wednesday, I was trying to explain the season of Lent to Clayton. I told him that I was going to try to give up yelling at him. (I'm also giving up the computer during the day and unnecessary phone calls while the kids are awake...) Later, we were talking about almsgiving. Clayton is familiar with us donating things to Goodwill, so I used that as an example. After a moment or two, he looked up at me and asked, "Are you giving your yelling to Goodwill, too?" Just for the record, Clayton is supposed to be giving up being ornery to Levi and disobeying. That should make the yelling a lot easier.

My New Camera!

Yesterday evening I got the Amazon package I had been waiting for. Inside was my brand new Canon Rebel DSLR camera. Of course, I had to spend today testing it out. What better subjects than the kids?! Clearly, it is much more fun to watercolor themselves than the paper.

Super Snow 2010

Clayton is helping Cyle shovel our driveway the weekend before we got the big snow. We only got a few inches then...

While our power was out, Levi decided he needed to wear his hat inside to keep warm!

Clayton is trying to figure out how he's going to get inside...

This past weekend we got hit with snow. Depending on where it was measured, we got between 20 and 30 inches. Our power was out from about midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. I'm so glad we have a gas stove, a generator and a fireplace. The kids were up early on Saturday and thought is was so much fun to play with flashlights. I fried homemade doughnuts for breakfast and we ate by candlelight. Cyle lit a fire in the fireplace in the afternoon and we all sat around (as much as the kids can) soaking up it's warmth watching the snow fall. By the evening it was 54 degrees in our house. After Cyle put the kids to bed (with two layers of pjs on under 3 or 4 blankets), I prayed that our power would come back on so they wouldn't get cold throughout the night. And it did!
The Canadian weather channel reported that Washington DC has gotten more snow this year than Toronto or Ottawa. Last night we got another couple of inches. Compared to Saturday, it's not too bad. The schools have been closed all week and so has the Federal Government. Cyle's gotten a mini-vacation and we've loved it! Although, he's spent a lot of that time shoveling snow...We are truly blessed to have great neighbors that have cleared our driveway for us and let us hang out at their house to break-up the time.