PJ Day

Our Back Yard Today

This post is for all of our American friends who follow our blog. We follow your blogs too. We hear all the stories about how after Christmas your kids are outside quadding or learning how to ride their new bikes. I look at your pictures...the sun is shining and the birds are singing....there's not a speck of snow to be seen. Must be nice! Up here in the frosty north, we have been experiencing one of the longest cold snaps that I can remember. I think we are going into about week three of temperatures consistently below -20 degrees celcius. Today it was -30 (about -22 degrees fahrenheit) On top of it, there was a windchill that made it feel like almost -40. I hope all of our friends in the US experiencing "cold" weather feel alot better after reading this!

Today we declared it to be "PJ Day." We decided it was far too cold to even think about leaving the house. It was a great day to stay home and watch some movies and play some of Emma's new games that she got for Christmas. We also indulged in some yummy snacks despite our goal to lose some weight in the New Year....that can wait for Monday, I guess. We have so much junk leftover from Christmas, we're trying to eat it all up so there's nothing left to tempt us. I've also declared 2009 to be the "Year of Clean House." For those of you who know me well, I'm sure this doesn't surprise you. I admit, I am a bit of a neat freak and many out there are thinking...what's left to clean? Well, you'd be interested to know that the house we're in is officially the place we've lived the longest since we've been married. Over the past eleven years, we have moved seven times (five of those being in our first five years together) I found every time we moved was an opportune time to get rid of any excess junk that we've had for too long, so quite often we were getting rid of unnecessary clutter. We've been in this house for four years now, and plan on being here for many more years. I love it here. BUT I've found that over these last four years, we've collected alot of stuff. Especially since we brought Emma home. Many people brought over boxes and bags of toys, clothes, etc. that their kids had outgrown. It's time for me to go through the entire house and weed out all the "stuff" we don't need and prepare for a major garage sale come the summer. I hope to have the house in tip-top shape before I have to go back to work in May. :(:(:(....shouldn't have even brought that up...makes me sad.

I've totally enjoyed my past two weeks with Emma not being in school. I feel like it's really the first time we got to spend some quality time together. We only had three weeks between getting home from Ukraine and Emma starting school, and those three weeks were very hectic. It's been nice to have some cuddle time everymorning and be able to make special breakfasts. We've played dress up and tried different hairstyles on Emma (she loves it!) We've watched many movies with mama's famous buttery popcorn and played lots of games. It's been so wonderful. Emma has attached to us very well, but I feel the last two weeks has really strengthened the bond between us. Emma is such a good kid. She is getting better everyday. When I look back to what we saw and how I felt when we first got Emma home, I can't even believe it. My worries and fears fade away more each day as I fall more in love with her.