A Cold & Snowy Indiana Winter

We have had an epic winter here in the Indy area, with two major snowstorms! The first being about 12 inches of snow with freezing temps...like, -40 degree wind chill for almost a week. It was insane. And cold. And really, really cold. It was so snowy and cold, most everything was closed not just schools, and two days where it was emergency travel only. Whoa.

Best part? Being snuggly warm in our house (although praying every second our pipes don't burst or our heater goes out). And Jon not being able to go into work and got an actual snow day! That was fun.

Worst part? Having a 2 and 5 year old who see mounds and mounds of snow, and LOVE being outside, and trying to explain to them that -40 degree wind chill is just a wee bit too cold to go play outside. I had to keep telling them, "The news told us we cannot go outside to play." They said you would get frostbite in under 10 minutes. Yikes.

Poor Jon was such a trooper...shoveling, and keeping things checked, warmed, and working, as well as checking the chickens every day in the freeeeeeeezing cold, and even dealing with their 15 gallon automatic watering system that exploded from the cold, leaving 15 gallons of water all over their lush chicken coop. Ugh. Dad's get the worst jobs ever.

Here's a peak at our world for almost two weeks.

I guess when you live in an old schoolhouse you get ice and frost on the INSIDE of the windows. 

 I was amazed at the ice crystal details on our dining room windows. Very cool. 

view of our backyard

 That's the mailbox way out there on the right, across the street from the road. Can't see any distinction whatsoever between yard and road. 12 inches of snow. Crazy. 

 I thought it was only fitting to make a new winter fireplace while stuck inside from the -40 degree wind child weather. 

Trying to keep our stir crazy kids busy for almost two weeks straight inside. Daddy and Mekonen working on his Lego sets. Meko was in heaven!

 We spent most days in our pj's and this one continued her love of scribbling and coloring. 

Busted out a lot of our board games these weeks. Mekonen LOVES getting the character cards in Candyland, even if it means he goes all the way back to the beginning. haha. We also found out he is quite skilled at the kids version of Rummikub. 

 And of course, flashlight tag in the dark. 

 And "tape" roads for matchbox cars

And lots of time working on writing letters and his name for school. 

Love, love his sweet handwritten name. Writing has been difficult for him and he's just recently been motivated to write and practice on his own. Love this curly-q letters. They make me smile.