Photos and videos and SNOW, Oh My!

I knew there were a few photos and videos that got sort of squeezed out lately based on what I was writing about at the time, so I figured it was time for a catch-up post.  And then I realized I hadn't pulled photos off my phone since Christmas, so I knew it was definitely needed!  January's usually a slow photo month, and this one was no exception, so I guess the motivation to pull off a handful of pics wasn't there until I took a bunch this weekend.  So, let's enjoy what we can until things pick up a bit more, shall we?

I took this picture near our town hall right after Christmas.  It was snowing like crazy and I had to drop books off at the library.  I looked across the huge parking lot and could see this tree lit up so pretty in the snow.  I just couldn't resist.  I chalked it up to savoring the last bit of Christmas while I could.

One of Carter's gifts was a marble run, and figuring out how to set up the "expert" run in the instruction book was a challenge!  Eventually we figured it out, and had to document it on video!

As a whole, January was a blur of basketball and snow.  The MLK Day storm was annoying but well-timed to avoid having to deal with work and school in the middle of the mess.  The kids still wanted a snow day, of course!  Craig took this picture of Carter, who loves being in the snow!

One of the first decent days after that storm I went out to widen the driveway and get rid of the icebergs formed by our tire tracks and the sidewalk plow.  While I shoveled, Carter was creating his own sledding hill.

 The snow and cold over the last month have not been particularly kind to us.  One day our kitchen window cracked (and it continues to lengthen--working on a replacement), and a week later we noticed this giant crack on our backboard.  We're not sure what caused it--it's an acrylic backboard, not glass--but we're pretty annoyed.  It's not that old and should be able to stand up to the weather.  I am not savoring the prospect of more hoop assembly, whether it's a new backboard or an entirely new hoop.  This one's initial assembly and then the subsequent wind damage repair were traumatizing enough.

Jacob has been dealing with the ridiculousness of modified basketball all month.  He might finally be quitting because he's essentially alone on the team now that a couple of his buddies got pulled up to JV.  He did, too, but can't play because of the reclassifying issue, and the team is now so bad that he scored 22 of the team's 27 points in a 72-27 loss last week against a team they barely lost to a couple weeks ago.  It was rough, and I promise he tried to get his teammates involved, but there just wasn't much finishing happening.  Here was a three-pointer he scored in another game before everything went down the tubes:

 

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend had one bright spot.  Despite it being in the teens on Saturday, Carter and I decided to go over to his school around the corner.  He had been talking about wanting me to see the "wall", which was a giant pile of plowed snow, and I figured while we were there we might be able to find somewhere to sled.  Sure enough, we wandered over to a hill near the playground, and figured it might suffice.  Well, unfortunately, the fresh foot of snow from Thursday and Friday was rather soft, so the sleds were just sinking right in.  We just kept trying, though, working through our respective runs by going down over and over again, and trying to move the paths a little further and compressing the snow more with each run. I definitely got my exercise walking up and down.

We started making progress...

And eventually we got the hills in pretty good shape so it was time for some videos!  First up is my run, which was actually pretty fun!

Carter's was a little shorter but ended up with some curves!  He tried this run but the start was giving him trouble...

Then he wanted to try it backwards instead!

We had a blast but it was so cold!  Not only were our faces cold, but our gloves were getting pretty snow-covered, and since Carter's weren't waterproof (working on it--he lost one of his old ones), his gloves were literally freezing--the fingers were frozen shut!--so it was time to go after maybe an hour.  He was very proud of our runs, though, and gladly showed them off to his friends when they had outside time on Monday!

When we got back to the house, I wanted to do some cleanup on the driveway and ended up wandering around the yard.  We are really snowed in.  Snow is up past my knees, the shovel piles are as tall as me, and the icicles were getting big.  Luckily on Sunday, between roof raking, knocking them down, and really warm weather (a balmy 40--haha), we made some progress.  But the snow was crazy.

Looking from the top of the tallest pile across to the mailboxes, which are barely above the snow.  After a couple days above freezing I think the snow has gone down an inch or three now.

Also at the top of the pile, my eye level was even with the gutters!  So much snow!

The backyard is sort of laughable.  Check out the patio chairs in the back, and the Dali-esque snow coming off the table is thanks to snow that melted and slid prior to the latest round.

Saturday night there was a lovely sunset--layered sherbet colored skies.  I will say the bright skies lately have been nice (although quite blinding), but I'm still eager for spring! 

In other news, I think I've decided that my funk is in part driven by a lack of things to look forward to.  We have Carter's birthday next week but I am terribly unprepared right now so that is actually only causing me more stress.  But without a set schedule for travel basketball (aside from one game, apparently?) and not much in the way of family or other events between now and like, Easter, things are feeling pretty blah.  Craig's schedule doesn't allow for a lot of big plans in the meantime anyway, so I'm feeling a little trapped by snow and cold and weeks of nothingness...as if COVID challenges weren't limiting enough.  I'd love to go tubing or something, and hopefully have more excuses to see family, but I know this time of year can be a challenge once we get past Carter's birthday and there isn't much in view past that.  Easter itself is really late this year, too, so it's going to be quite a stretch.  Maybe I can use the time to be productive on the home front, but we shall see!