This Moment

Sharing a moment from our week- a simple, special, extraordinary moment that I want to capture and share... Henry's recycled robot, Jeff. Made with minimal help and full Sissy approval.

Snow Magic

We had one of those wonderful moments this weekend where all the weather people and weather apps were promising a slim chance of "frozen mix" with the warning that it probably wouldn't stick, we all went to bed with our fingers crossed, and we all woke up to this. Sleet first, fine flakes second, and more than an hour-long finale of big, fat flakes that took us all the way into the lunch hour before it was over. It was pure magic.

We had two rounds out in the cold- one with Mama and one with Daddy- then we came inside to thaw and marvel at the continuing downfall. We had a fire, we had hot chocolate... we checked all those snowy-day boxes that we haven't been able to check for quite a few years now. Our first significant snowfall in what Henry described as "all the years that make up forever!"

Most of it melted away within an hour or two, but surprisingly there was still little patches in the shady places the next morning, which was almost as magical as waking up to it actively falling. It really was amazing.

And the best part was the roads stayed clear and safe, which is this Texan's favorite part of our brand of winter weather.

Pure snow magic.

The Piggies

I am growing to regret giving my Littles guinea pigs for Christmas. Yes, they love them, and yes, they are cute and their "weats" are adorable and they're fairly friendly. But y'all, they stink. They make so much waste and have such a strong smell... they can only go about 3 days before the entirety of upstairs starts smelling like rodent.

Now I did do my research and reading before I adopted these guys, and I am aware of the fact that the males have a stronger smell than the females. However I'm not talking about animal smell. I'm talking about how gross they get, and how fast it happens. (Also, in my defense, I couldn't find any female guinea pigs for sale when I wanted to make my secret purchase, so I went with the boys en lieu of forgoing the gift idea completely.)

My original plan was to have the kids care for these guys 100%- all the feeding, all the grooming, and all the cleanup. Unfortunately like so many other things that is not how it's turning out. Because we have the pigs stashed in the playroom (upstairs), it's a complicated process to clean out their cages in a timely manner without making the entire house a nasty mess in the process. My kids just haven't proven prudent enough to get this chore done without creating exponentially more mess spread everywhere. They do still help when it's cage-cleaning time of course, but I can't remove myself from the process completely, and so this has become my chore as well.

And then there's the issue of time. I hate it so hard, but it's our routine now- we're not home until after 5pm and sometimes 6pm four nights out of the week. On those nights we touch down, do dinner as efficiently as possible, do our homework check, rush to bath time and drying hair and brushing teeth and getting things ready for the following morning... and then it's basically bed time. There's just not a lot of time for them to hang with their creatures aside from poking a carrot stick in there in passing and talking to them when they walk through the room.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall that to say I've been floating the idea out to them here recently that maybe we should think about finding Charlie and Wilbur a home with a family that can give them more attention.

My suggestion has not been well-received.

Funny thing, though- every time I mention re-homing the piggies, this happens...

...and their interest lingers for a few days following the fear that my suggestion seems to bring.

So maybe at this point there's still hope? I dunno... all this cuteness doesn't make them smell any better, and I am getting kinda stuck on that.

It sure is cute, though.

Goofballs.

I'm beginning to suspect that one never truly outgrows the appeal of an empty box.

Make that boxes.

Goofballs.

Fish

We went to a local bait shop last week and bought a big bag of guppies (they said it came out to be about 5 pounds of fish) for our ponds. The guy at the bait shop threw in about 14 goldfish for free, which was super exciting, and we ended up bringing home enough little guys to give all our resident mosquitoes a run for their money!

We've wanted fish down in the previously-existing pond for a long time, and I'm really looking forward to watching the new addition to that little ecosystem settle in. I'm pretty sure I won't want anything bigger or any more high-maintenance in the little kitchen window pond- at least not for now- so we stocked both in one go. Henry has the best view of the pond from his bedroom window, and since we got a few goldfish in the mix you can actually see them swimming around from time to time. It's really coming along out there!

Now all we need is to get the waterfall working...

Happy New Year!

Big Fat Charlie (and the rest of us) would like to wish you a very happy New Year- may the oncoming days bring you all the happiness of a guinea pig with a grape, and may you always find that joy in those little, simple pleasures. Cheers!