Happy March! One month closer to Springtime...

March is finally here and we have at least a foot of snow on the ground.  The snow this time is beautiful.  It is  perfect building snow; you can easily roll it together to make a fort, a snow person, or simply throw some snowballs at your unsuspecting children as I did on Wednesday.  It was a snow day for us and Groovy Girl and I played in the snow for like 2 hours.  When teenage boy came back from snow blowing the neighbor's driveway we pegged him with a few hand packed, triple stacked snow balls.  It was the most fun I've had in weeks!  Laughing and playing in the snow is what winter is all about, that and the delicious hot chocolate we drank after.

I've been listening to a fantastic audio book, The Secrets of Happy Families by Bruce Feiler, on my phone as I go back and forth to school.  We already have a pretty happy family but I'm always of the mind that things could be better. If I could find some good parenting tricks to get my sweet Groovy Girl to remember her chores without CONSTANT reminders or for her to clean her room BEFORE it became a hazard zone - my life would be more "chill".  This book has many great tips and one that has already left a lasting impact on us has been dinner time conversation.  We already make a huge effort to eat dinner together, and we do talk and ask "what was the best/worst part of your day?" but Bruce encourages you to discuss family history at the table.  Last night we had the best conversation about where all the grandparents went to college.  Research says that kids who know their background are less likely to get in trouble, this seems like an easy first step for us.  Over the next couple of weeks we plan to implement more of Bruce's suggestions.

I found this title on Audible.com while I browsed for a birthday gift for Teenage Boy's Grandpa Dean.  I picked out two excellent fishing titles that I knew he could listen to on his phone or iPad.  If I joined Audible I could get a huge discount on both books and it seemed like the thing to do.  I'm not as thrilled about this monthly fee now as every time I scroll through their sight I don't find books that stand out and they are rather expensive.  If I'm already paying a monthly fee why would I want to pay $22.00 average for a book?  I'm probably going to cancel but it still saved me money on my original purchases.  Anybody else have experience with this website?

I'm computer-less also (sort of) as my Dell laptop died a few weeks ago and I'm now left with (just) my Kindle Fire and my iPhone.  I'm feel blessed to have those two to keep me connected but I have yet to be able to truly blog successfully using either one.  Does anyone else blog from phone/tablet without a backup computer.  I can't get pictures to my Kindle and neither are very easy for extensive typing or adding links.  Thoughts or suggestions on this process?  For now I am using my work laptop on the weekends.  I don't want to rush into buying a new laptop and I don't want to order from Dell again.

ready for Spring...

That's all the news here...
Happy March...