Happy Northern Hemisphere Winter!

I thought about turning the Blog over to somebody else.  I have had the worst case of writer's block, thinking I have nothing to tell you about when in truth, there is so much.

My sister bought my sons a hamster with a fabulous abode yesterday.  I thought we had outdone ourselves back in my day when we submerged my old "My Little Pony" castle into the giant wire and wood enclosure we had for our rodentia.  This new creation has tubes, a loft and a curly slide up to a fantastic wheel that doesn't squeak!  No sooner had the hamster and ultra fancy house been un-crated, built and hamster made at home when one of the kids started making remodeling designs.  A new tube section here, a new houses added here; you get the picture.  Though there was no mention of a roommate for the hamster, just more square inches of living space for the lone rodent.

That started me thinking, I've been doing the same thing.  I've been thinking about hydroponic solar powered radiant heat flooring added to the garage and converting it to a game room or maybe radiant heat flooring added to the patio.  Either way I could extend my vegetable growing season or take back my living room from my children.  More square feet; remodels; more space for more stuff that we don't need!

Why are we so focused indoors though?  I get it, it's cold out but when it's 100 degrees we find ways of adjusting and still go outside.  So, it's time to bundle up and go outside.  After all, it's not Grand Forks, North Dakota where the average temperatures for January are -9/-19.  So, I bought a crazy hat over the winter break on a special trip to my favorite crazy hat store.  My kids have new dinosaur hats their Nana knit for them.  We have coats, mittens and we have the will.  Now, what are we doing outside?

Things to do in the cold of Boise:

1. Check out the new cross walk flags around Whitney Elementary School brought to you by the Whitney PTO.  Grab a flag to alert cars that you are in the crosswalk and deposit in the container on the other side.  Why did we do this?  It has been observed that while cars usually stop for adults we have witnessed cases where kids wait at the crosswalk in vain for cars to stop.  Holding a flag, they clearly signal to the cars their intent to cross and cars are stopping to let them cross.
2. Bare tree peeping.  Trees are interesting during every season.  For example, you can see nests in trees when the leaves have fallen.  In fact trees are a very interesting math lesson.  It may look like branches spindle out chaotically but nature is an accomplished mathematician and engineer.  Everything from trees to forests and mountains to rivers are shaped into geometric shapes called fractals.  It's a type of symmetry that uses "iteration" to grow larger and balance itself.  For every branch on one side of a tree a twin grows on the other.  Your veins do the same thing.  It's the way things keep from collapsing as it grows. 

3. Walk with wildlife.  During winter deer from the upper foothills traverse the dangers of civilization to get to the Boise river.  If you are up to some nature, take the Greenbelt East of Municipal Park.  Take caution though, it's rare but the stray moose and small bear have also retreated into the city when they cannot find food.  Moose and bear are best viewed at a great distance with animal control between you and the animals.  Cap off  your visit to the MK Nature Center.  The Nature Center grounds are always free from sun up to sundown and provide a different landscape in winter.

4.  Take a neighborhood walk and see if you can pick up the following for the TerraCycle program at Whitney: candy wrappers, chip or cookie bags.  Keep your eyes peeled for stray change for your own piggy bank.  Back in my college days there was something called the Found Money Fund started by Dr. Terry Anderson.  No, you won't find a fortune in lost money overnight but like our TerraCycle program it's the stuff that is forgotten and tossed aside that really adds up.  Since fall 2010 our "garbage" from TerraCycle has earned the school $373.

5.  Go star watching; you don't even have to go as far as Los Angeles or Sun Valley!  Drive just outside the city lights to experience a winter sky, it is different from a summer night sky.

6.  And for the inside types, the Boise Public Library always has something going on at one of their branches: http://www.boisepubliclibrary.org/News_and_Events/Events/

7.  Since I went down the path of indoors, did you know that both Lowes and Home Depot have free workshops for kids: https://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/ and http://www.homeimproverclub.com/kidsworkshops.aspx

8.  Explore the Yes! For Boise Schools site http://yesforboiseschools.org/ and talk to your kids about what it means to have small class sizes.  You can print a sign for your car or home window: http://yesforboiseschools.org/levy_facts_pdf/WindowSign.pdf and talk to your kids about the importance of voting on March 13, 2012.

9.  Take a family trip to the Ada County Landfill: http://www.adaweb.net/SolidWasteManagement/SolidWasteandLandfill/Location.aspx  Open Monday through Saturday and closed Sundays, the landfill can spark a discussion with your family about your own home's waste management.  Always think about other uses for things you are about to throw out.  Waste not, want for not.

10.  Do you have perfectly great fantastic things taking up space in your house that you haven't touched in many years?  What about art supplies?  The school is currently taking art supplies from your stash.  As a recovering professional crafter (I once sold crafts online at www.etsy.com, the online hand crafter's paradise), I acquired an enormous stash of fabric.  Over the weekend I "de-stashed" or what my husband would characterize as "de-crazied".  The PTO requests art supplies by January 26, however, talk to your kids' teachers and find out what their needs are.  

11.  I know, lists are usually in 10's but 11 sounded like fun.  Check your families ancestry and involve your kids.  There are free internet searches and you can use ancestry.com for limited periods for free.  I always had an idea of who my family was.  It turned out to be completely wrong.  Yes, some of my family recently came to the U.S. from Sweden and some were Irish immigrants via Canada (believe it or not a few nuns as well) and there were still some scalawags and scoundrels but that was just a handful of my family.  The deeper I dug, the more surprised I became.  Dive in with your kids and make history relate.