Status Update

Last night Margot had a sleepover with her cousin Riley. As we drove north to pick up Riley, Margot asked me, "Do you think we could stay up late tonight? Could we stay up until 9?"

Now I know that there was no way the girls would go to bed at 8, which is Margot's usual bedtime, so I took advantage of the chance to look like a great mom.

"Sure," I answered. "You can stay up until 9." (Note - they were up until 10. But they were in bed by 9:20, and just had girly-girl chatting until 10, so it wasn't a big deal. The pre-dawn awakening and subsequent chatting, though, was another story.)

"Really!?!" Margot exclaimed. "We can stay up until 9? I can't wait! This is great." Then, the clincher: "I am going to put this on Facebook."

True Love

Tonight Margot and I visited one of her school chums for pizza and a movie. The kids settled onto the couch - Margot, Quint, and Quint's little sister. I headed into the kitchen to make popcorn and Quint's mom started setting up the movie (Shrek) in the living room where the kids were sitting. Margot and Quint have been good buddies since school started last year. He's the prince to her princess games and, once in a while, she obliges and plays Transformers with him.

Margot: (Audible sigh.) "Quint S., I am going to marry you." (She actually called him by his whole name.)

Quint: (Covers his ears.) "Nonsense! That's nonsense!"

Margot: (Smiling.) "But I am. I AM going to marry you!"

Quint: (Hands still on ears.) "Nonsense!" he hollered.

Margot: (Turning to Quint's mom.) "I told Quint I love him."

Quint: "NONSENSE!!!!"

Skating in Jackson

Coach Margot

My Lenten resolution has been to exercise every single day for 30 minutes minimum. Some days I can squeeze in more than that, but between work and home, it can be hard to find even 30 minutes on a weekday. So far, so good. I am hoping that the 40 days of Lent will be enough to help me shake my lazy winter behaviors.

Since there is still a good deal of snow outside, most of my exercising is done in the living room, in front of the TV. I bring out my mat, some weights, and do a workout video.

Margot loves to join me. She changes her clothes into a t-shirt and yoga pants, gets a glass of water, and uses the remote controls as weights. She curls her biceps and does jumping jacks right alongside me. (She usually skips the sit-ups though.)

She's not such a great coach, unfortunately. When I'm panting and sweating she tells me, "Just take a break, Mama. Pause the tv. Get some water. Don't work so hard."

I need to retrain her to be a better drill sargeant!

Getting Ready for Vancouver

Brodie says that she stuck this landing every time until I showed up to record it. I can't say if she did or not, since she wasn't interested in doing this again after her wipe out.

Long Winter

I was impressed when we got 20 inches of snow in December. Then we got 27 inches over the weekend. My daffodils had just started to sprout in the front yard; poor things are now buried under feet of snow. It's going to be a long wait until Spring.

More is forecast for tonight, but this is what it looked like around here on Sunday: