Packing

Our moving date is two weeks from today! We have been packing little by little and the place looks wrecked but we should have it all done in time. Peter's birthday is also a week from Today and he will be 30! I have big birthday plans for him but for now we need to stay focused on the tasks at hand.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

My husband Peter received an instrument in the mail this week. It was hand made by my dad and is serial number #5 in his arsenal. You should read my Dad's blog theolderyouwillget.blogspot.com to find out what the other ones look and sound like. I also added a link to the right in case you want to keep up with my dad as well. Peter is still working on the sound aspect of things but for now it looks really awesome.

The resonator is made from an old Cafe Du Monde coffee can I assume because Peter speaks French. The head stock design is one of his newer ones and can double as a weapon if you are jammin' with a rowdy bunch. I'll post some tunes once Peter figures out how to make it sound good but it did stay mostly in tune traveling half way across the country in a cardboard box so I think my dad's construction is quite sound.

No snowpocalypse here

True we did not get the snowmageddon of two years previous but it was a hefty amount. Peter got a snow day last Tuesday and we both got to sleep in. On Weds we took the school kids sledding and it was a blast. Not having grown up with sledding I feel like I have to make up for a LOT of lost time.

The most exciting news is over the weekend Tallgrass Sudbury (the school Peter is a teacher at) hosted a conference titled "Freedom in Education". The event was well attended with 114 total participants and counting myself and Peter nearly 30 volunteers. I only was able to attend one presentation but it was about video gaming and how it is not as evil as parents tend to think. I'm of the nintendo generation and have never really thought that video games were a major problem but I did learn a lot of useful information about how children can and do actually learn from them. Mostly I was impressed by the feelings of self reliance, advanced problem solving, and that through failure we learn best how to solve problems. Gamers are not afraid of failure but they see it as a way to try again and do it differently this time. That's a very hard life lesson to learn and one that usually takes a long time. A very informative and eye opening presentation indeed but there were many different panel discussions, speeches, and open forums that I missed because I was a volunteer. Fortunately someone was filming a lot of them so I will be able to receive the information none the less.

I spent most of my day caring for the 2-5 year old kids. They are (with Adlyn's help) quickly becoming my favorite age group. Their lack of verbal filters and immediate ability to trust someone are completely joyous things to experience. Each kid I cared for that day didn't leave with out giving me a hug goodbye. It feels so nice to be needed and loved so unconditionally by so many in one day. Especially when that day is extremely exhausting. Hopefully the conference will result in more awareness about alternative education and Peter's school will come away with a few more enrollments.

look out hedgehogs

Today Chicago is in the middle of a winter storm warning. Supposedly we are going to get 12 inches of snow before midnight tonight. I'm of the opinion that I will believe it when I see it. Winter did not show up with his pants on this year and only the last few weeks has decided we are going to get snow. The snow is usually starting to melt by this time of year. So far this is the scene outside the window in our stairwell. 

Pretty standard snow fall so far. Nothing out of the ordinary. Two years ago we had the whopper snow storm where some parts of the city had 20 inches. That's nearly two feet ya'll! And the build up in some areas was as much as three or four feet.

This was Lakeshore Drive after that whopper. I hear some people were stranded in their cars for nearly 6 hours. Peter and I had snow days and went urban sledding around the city.  Stay tuned for more updates.