A Winter Trip? Not So Fast!

Just after Christmas, while feeling jealous that all the relatives got to see my new nephew while I haven’t yet met him in person (I did meet him when he was still in my sister’s tummy), we planned a trip to Virginia to see their family. I even convinced my mom to fly there and meet us. We would have a grand time, my sister, my mom and me, along with the boys (her baby and husband, and my hubby and the two youngest boys). I was so excited! We made our hotel reservations and my mom bought non-refundable plane tickets.

In the meantime, we’ve been waiting for a few months for the judge to make a decision in our lawsuit against Amazon. We were alerted this week that the court has requested oral arguments from our side and from Amazon. And, the court is available during the days just before, during, and after our planned trip. Murphy’s Law, huh? The case is very important to us and we don’t want to cause any delays or inconvenience the court at all so we have canceled our trip.

We are getting pretty antsy since it’s been too cold to do much outside for several weeks now. I imagine cabin fever will be in full force under our roof in the next 3-4 weeks. I read an article last night about the local maple syrup farms and about how they start tapping around the end of February. That means temperatures might get above freezing within the next…5-6 weeks (ug!). As I’m typing this, it’s 5 degrees outside. We recently replaced our oil furnace with natural gas. I can tell you that, yes, it does work. The house is warm. However, it’s not as efficient. The heater has to run for a lot longer to keep the house warm, meaning higher electric bills, a greater use of gas than oil and, of course, wear and tear on the furnace. So, while natural gas does cost less, since we’re running the heater for several more hours a day, the cost is about the same. It might just be our furnace (the oil one was converted for natural gas) so I would still recommend others do it if they can, if only to cut down on the demand for oil.

This Week’s Maxism:

One of Max’s homeschooling assignments is to write stories. Max was sitting in his chair the other day, holding his pencil and staring at the wall. I said, “Max, stop dilly-dallying and write your story.”

He replied, “But, Mom, I have to think and make it grow in my head!”

Angela

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