Its a Marshmallow World

On Sunday night I was bemoaning the fact that my kids had to go back to school and was thinking how much I would miss them. I should have kept quiet apparently because today is the second day in a row that there has been no school, and therefore no work for M. Technically there was work, but it was spotty and difficult to squeeze in. On Wednesday we enjoyed the day at home and the kids played outside while I worked in my office and kept a watchful eye on them. They spent a good part of the day eating snow, laying in snow, throwing snow and apparently watching my espresso filled friend carve snow sculptures. With a screwdriver. We also walked to the post office to mail some items and deposit some pay checks. It was snowing heavily and I could not get over the volume of snow while we walked. A pizza dinner while watching a movie (for extremely good behavior) rounded out the day.

Today we woke up to a beautiful white, blindingly sunny day. CKNW kindly informed me that once again there was no school for my kids. I checked in on the weather back east and discovered that the rideau canal hasn't even frozen in Ottawa. They are pumping out fake snow so that the Winterfest coming up can actually take place. Weird. It is like we've traded places or something. The kids were slightly less interested in going outside today so we baked instead. We made whole grain muffins for breakfast so that I could freeze some for lunches... that is if my kids ever return to school. I then decided to be ambitious and make some whole grain bagels. A bit time intensive but therapeutic nonetheless. Good too. Almost achieved that perfect chewy consistency but not quite as much as I would like. The recipe claimed that it was an authentic Jewish recipe. I had to laugh as it warned that using a circle cutter or doughnut cutter to make your bagels would make them "protestant". Banana and I stuck to the proper way and made them delightfully imperfect. As the recipe writer said "just as no two snowflakes are alike, no two authentic bagels should be alike." Amen to that sisstttaaahhh! When I finally do burn out and leave this job (ha ha ha) I think I will consider becoming a baker. Either that or a sommelier. Perhaps both. But none of that cake baking and pastry making for me... I'll be making whole grain, rye, sourdough loaves, bagels and croissants.

Around 1:20 I began to feel extremely stressed that I was not getting anything work related accomplished. Occupied the kids with homework, workbooks and reading and snuck in a bit of work in the afternoon but have sadly resorted to having to work tonight during the hours of 9:00 pm and midnight. Not so good. I am now officially behind in my work and the week is almost over. If there is another snow day tomorrow, I may have to actually turn on the tv for the kids or assign them some manual labor. Perhaps they could shovel my walk!