Fe-brrrrrrrrr-uary

Last week our co-op resumed. Here the girls in my class are writing up little essays about what we learned about colonial cooking. They did not seem to enjoy the flavor of any of what we cooked or sampled except for the store-bought spiced wafers.

Today Pearl and I whipped up some Lovely Pavlova, a dessert from New
Zealand named in honor of a Russian ballerina. It has lots of egg white and sugar, so it is very sweet. We mostly ended up eating the crunchy meringue top and the strawberries. 

The Pavlova looks an awful lot like the terrain around our house right now. The snow piles outside are tempting to climb, but the girls never stay outside for very long. The sledding is a little too dangerous for them too. 

Snowy Snowy Days

Our family made a brief trip to Port Jervis, New York over the weekend so that my husband could take his master's test.  This is not a spot I ever expect to return to, but we did enjoy the salt water pool in the hotel. The girls swam and swam.

I did learn that it is considered bad form to ask if you passed a karate test or not, so he didn't get the official word and won't for some time.  We're pretty hopeful.

We have continued with our studies. Here Pearl has created a galaxy out of Styrofoam.  She and Sapphire are also working to memorize the books of the Bible for a church fundraiser, so if you would like to sponsor, them, just send me a line. Their deadline is Palm Sunday.

Then the storm came. We've been without electricity since Wednesday morning in below freezing temperatures. The coal stove is heating the house and our soup!  We are very fortunate, since all of our town and many of the people from our church are also without power, and some are living without any heat.

Today I popped into the library to upload another audio book onto the kindle so that we will have something to listen to when the sun goes down.


And, meanwhile, we wait to hear about my niece who will be born very shortly.