Snippets

Snippets: that's the word I'll be using when I don't really have one subject around which to create a whole post. I think "Snippets" is more catchy than "Random Ramblings" or just "Randoms" or whatever other phrases people use. Here goes:

* The big talk of the weather news is the storm that's hitting the Midwest. We are just below the line of the snow and ice storm, but it's been raining all.day.long and is supposed to continue for the next day or two. The temperature is really supposed to drop tonight and not rise above freezing for the next couple of days, so I suspect that ice is in our near future anyway, and I'm really not looking forward to it. Maybe I will call in at work ride to work with Nathan.

* Nathan and I recently started The Love Dare from the movie Fireproof. We haven't seen the movie yet, but we will soon...I hope. We are on day 5 of The Love Dare, and it's going well. We've both completed the dares every day. We haven't had as much discussion as I would like, but I think that will come with some later dares. It seems like we've both been happier since starting the book, and I hope that we continue to remember the important lessons from the book once the 40 days are over.

* We've been sleep "retraining" with Natalie at bedtime. Nathan and I were getting tired of sleeping in her floor every night (thus going to bed by 8:30pm), and she's in a toddler bed, so there's only so much we could do to keep her in bed. We felt so guilty shutting/locking her door, so we brought the baby gate up from the storage room, and it's working like a charm. She cried for about 6 minutes the first night, and then only a matter of seconds from then on out. Hopefully soon Natalie will be telling us "night nigh" and putting herself to bed at 8:00pm again, just like she used to.

* We (well, mostly Nathan) built Natalie a wood table and chair set at Christmas. It's still not painted, but hopefully soon. I'm definitely not a cold-weather kind of girl, so the woodworking was primarily up to Nathan (it was done on Christmas Eve), and I will get around to painting it when it warms up a bit. Warm weather means more appropriate weather for me to do some DIY building projects. I'm going to make something for our family reunion auction in June, and I'm going to get started on Natalie's Christmas present for this year. Pictures of both to come later.

* Natalie's daycare class is doing their Valentine's party on Feb 11th. I signed up to do treat bags. I went to Big Lots to get some things and found the cutest little character cups with straws for $0.80 each. I got one for all of her classmates, only to really think about it when I got home and realize they are Easter cups, not Valentine's cups! Doh! I think we have to make Valentine boxes, with a prize going to the most creative one. I have something in mind; just need to see if we can pull it off. AND it's something Natalie do a lot of (since it is her project and all).