Having a garden pays off in January :)

I like to play this game at our meals where I point to different parts and say "that's from our garden and that's from our garden and that's from our garden", always seeing how many things grew in our yard. It's a lot of fun to be able to come up with a meal by just going to our "grocery story" in the basement. Our menus include lots of spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, salsa, and frozen veggies. Matt and I joke sometimes about how if anyone were to look at our grocery receipts, they'd wonder why we didn't eat many fruits, vegetables, or meat (the side of beef we got last summer also lasts a LONG time).

Having food on hand definitely paid off last week when we really couldn't (or shouldn't) make quick trips to the store. We were in the midst of the deep freeze covering most of the Midwest from Wednesday through Saturday morning. Schools were closed on Thursday and Friday due to the -30 (or greater) degree wind chills.

I tried to get out a bit on Wednesday with Anna because I knew we'd be cooped up the rest of the week, but it must not have been enough. Thursday was a LONG day for the two of us; we didn't leave the house once. Of course, it didn't really get to 0 degrees either.

Friday morning I decided that we would just have to brave the cold and get out of the house to preserve our (especially my) sanity. After calling around to some friends, we planned to meet Sadie and her dad, Peter, at the Madison Children's Museum for a bit in the morning. So I got Anna bundled in a fleece full body suit with warm boots, hat, and gloves. Then I slathered her face with vaseline before we left the car to make the 3-4 block walk to the museum. Well, as we got into the entry there was a sign that says the museum is closed whenever the Madison schools are closed ... hmmm ... change of plans ... new destination being the downtown Madison libary. We ended up walking another 3-4 blocks to the main Madison library. When we finally made it in the building and upstairs to the children's section, I was feeling like a terrible mother who had been out in subzero temperatures for 10+ minutes with a toddler whose face was a very bright red!

It all turned out fine, though, and by the time Sadie and Peter arrived about 10 minutes later, Anna's face was no longer cold and she was having the time of her life in a place with lots of toys and books (that wasn't home). Definitely worth it for all of us to get out of the house for the morning!

On a different note, Matt is learning that when Anna is having a lot of fun with him, it's hard to get her to stop whatever the activity is, even if it's very tiring for Matt. He's had to deal with ending piggy-back rides, tractor rides, games of chase, etc. before Anna's quite ready simply because he's too tired to continue or it really strains some part of his body :)

Here's one of the games they were playing the other night. Anna put the monkey around her neck and plopped down into the toy wheelbarrow while Matt pushed her around and around the basement. Not the most comfortable for Matt, but whenever he tried to stop Anna would shake her head furiously and say "sit, sit" then "daddee!" while pointing at the wheelbarrow.