Friday, January 25, 2013

Rainbow Day!

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Today was "Rainbow Day" at school & the kids were encouraged to wear rainbows, tie-dyed stuff, and bright colors in general.  Nice and cheery for the middle of winter, don't you think?

We kinda got into it....



A close-up of that fancy hair!



Also, I maybe had a little fun with their bento-style lunches, too...  



Penguin's lunch on Rainbow Day!

Close-up of the fruit - dried cranberries, clementine sections, dried  mango, dried banana chips, kiwifruit, and blueberries!

They usually just have one rubber band holding their lunch box together, not 5 in rainbow order! :)
 

Sunday, January 20, 2013

My very own cold box

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Last year I decided that the amount of frostiness of the sides of the basement chest freezer had reached my tolerance limits.  It was time to defrost it.  So I figured I'd wait until we had a couple-days-to-a-week predicted cold streak, then unload the goods into totes and stick 'em outside on the back porch just long enough for the defrosting.

But last winter was rather mild.  Record-settingly mild, in fact.  So, no long-enough cold stretch for my planned defrosting. 

Fast forward to this winter.  THIS winter, which is much more winter-y that last winter!  Some snow, sure, but only (for us, at least) in two big storms.  But now we've got a cold stretch coming in.  Enough of a cold snap that I'm going to defrost that freezer!

...and then I realized...


...I don't have to put my frozen goods outside in their totes, risking animals and all.  No, my back entryway - through which I must travel every time I want to visit the washer/dryer, run on the treadmill, get to the freezer, access any storage totes - is below freezing.  It has been consistently 28F for some time now, and with the predicted high tomorrow of 4, and low of -11 (!!!!), with Tuesday's high/low predicted to both be 3F, I feel pretty confident it's not going to exceed freezing any time soon.

Hooray for an old house?!

Edited 1/23: Freezer was successfully defrosted & food reinstalled. I definitely didn't have to worry, 'cuz the morning when I went to finish up the job, the back hallway was at 12F.  BRRRRR!!!!!