Tom with skis and soccer ball

I worry quite often that I'm not enough of a soccer mom. Don't set up playdates. Don't have Tom going to seven different activities a week to build his little brain and pad his mini resume. But have been heartened by a lecture I went to with Margo from a leading child psychologist who re-emphasised the age old wisdom.. they have to learn HOW to be bored and then how to GET creative all by themselves... overscheduling children can actually shortcircuit their mental agility... and then (perversely) heartened by Tom in the last two weeks learning to ski, playing his first chess game, going climbing with Kalli, and bringing home his first soccer trophy! Go Lister!

Actually, he was VERY sweet about the trophy - ran towards me yelling, "Mum Mum, I won a trophy for being great at soccer! - not noticing that the trophy was awarded for, er, turning up. Bless his cotton sox etc.

P

Snowed In

Sunday has been bright and sunny and the deep snow is really lovely. Our street hasn't been ploughed and is unlikely to be for some time, so there is no way we can get our car out just yet. Its under two feet of snow as well. Only a few streets have been cleared - although they are still pretty snowy, so Washington is the place to be if you are a smug 4x4 owner at the moment. There seem to be plenty driving about for Very Important Reasons, but I think actually, just to feel smug.  I ventured out and took these pictures on the way to CVS for some medicine for Tom, who has croup poor thing. He sounds like a seal, but he is his usual, chipper self. Bill and Fredda rang to see if we needed digging out, so we said yes and please bring some of your meatloaf Fredda...

Just a hint of snow in the air...

We've just spent a couple of hours wading about in a silent and snowy Georgetown. Its so lovely - and deep too. Tom was up to his waist in places. The only street we found that had been ploughed was Wisconsin avenue and even that was still an inch deep. There are a few people in their ski gear walking down the middle of the street and smiling at each other as they pass. The snow is still falling quite hard and due to continue until tonight.

The capital shuts down

0800 Saturday morning. It's SO quiet. I reckon about 15 inches of snow so far. We have stocked up on food and firewood, and cancelled every obligation. I plan to do some writing and make lasagne. Tom plans to watch movies!

Snowy Smithsonian Saturday

A lovely way to end January. Real fluffy snow flurries. So crisp and light that we can see the individual patterns of the snowflakes landing on us. Had a lovely day heading down to the Museum of Natural History, and on to play on the Mall.

Holy haikus

I've just become addicted to Twitter (at work, I think this means I'm a late adopter). I was musing on the art of compressing your thoughts into 140 characters. And when we drove past this church in deepest Maryland, I got Richard to pull a U turn and take us back for photographs. Great quotes! But also... do church boards sport the original Tweets?

Night all, P x

First snow of 2010

A long weekend at Wisp - near Deep Creek Lake in north west Maryland - only managed one days skiing, but we made the most of it, and holed up in a homely condo by the lake for three very relaxing days. Ahhhhh.....