Snow Days & Family Time

Well, I finally decided to acknowledge the existence of my blog! I have a lot to catch up on, I'm sure. I just put new pictures on my computer and have plans to turn some of them into blogs.

The most immediate news is that we have had snow ALL WEEK. Now for some of you that is the norm, but for here it is very irregular. The amazing thing is there's no end in sight it seems. We really don't know when it will let up. I will post pictures of my family playing in the snow. For the most part I've enjoyed this weather. My biggest concern really has been what our energy bills are going to look like after this. Which leads to some other news...

I was going to save this for it's very own blog entry, but it really is a part of this blog, sooo.. Matt got laid off last Friday. The construction business is really slow right now, and they just didn't need him on the job anymore. We are trying to be as up beat about it as possible, and trust in the Lord. It seems like that we are doing ok so far. Matt especially seems to be taking it really well. His last layoff he didn't deal with it so well. God has always taken care of us, and we are really trying to trust that he will continue to do so.

One thing that we have thought of is with the weather this week, and then Christmas and New Years the next couple of weeks he really might not have made that much more money working than getting unemployment (he doesn't get paid Holidays). He's been looking for odd jobs or something, but so far hasn't found anything, but this week people have pretty much been hibernating at home as much as possible; which takes me back to my original subject...

Christmas break was not supposed to start until next week, but because of the road conditions Christian has been out of school all week, and Matt has been home all week too. It has actually been really nice to have the family time that we've had this past week. It seems like it's been a long time since our lives had slowed down enough for us all to just enjoy each other. We've spent more time doing fun things with the kids. Matt has got an amazing amount of things done around here too. It has been really nice to have him here each day to help me.

I think it helps him to see what my day to day life is like too. There's always so much to do. Today he was really getting restless and tired of being at home, but for the most part it's been really nice. Matt has actually been the one to run the few errands that have needed done in the last few days. I have actually never drove in these kind of conditions; so he's been doing the running around. So he hasn't been holed up at home as much as me, but then I'm used to it.

Today it snowed quite a bit. We haven't been letting the kids play out in it too much because they've had colds. Plus at the beginning of this weather it was in the 20's or below, which was way too cold! If the snow is still there tomorrow we might let them play in it some. I've also been considering making snow ice-cream. Yum! My aunt told me how to do it today, and it sounds simple enough, and I'm sure the kids will like it.

Anyway, there's a little update on our life. I better get to bed so I can enjoy more snow and family time tomorrow! There isn't going to be church in the morning because of the weather, but I might see what Matt thinks about us at least having a little family Bible reading or something.

I will try to blog again soon, and take the time to visit everyone else's blogs. Enjoy these pictures: