Snow!

It is a strange thing to see snow in the desert, roses with snow piled on and palm tree fronds peeking through drifts. The kids are all sick with Libby fighting pneumonia and the boys struggling with croup, but I just couldn't keep them from playing outside because, really, how often does it snow in the Mojave desert?

I took a bunch of pictures of the boys throwing snowballs and moving snow with their tractors only to realize later, after the frozen shoes and wet clothes were put away, that I didn't have the memory card in the camera. I'm really smart!

I asked Daniel the stereotypical mom question "What do you see out there?" and was told a snow leopard was prowling the neighborhood. Again, maybe we need to cut down the Planet Earth viewings... By the way, this is the window in our bedroom where the kids like to hang out and spy on the neighbors. They also like to fall from here and 9 out of 10 head injuries at our house happen right here!

On an unrelated note, we did some painting the other night. I gave them red and green paint and asked them to paint a Christmas tree. Jake kind of went for the Jackson Pollack approach.

Dan was a little more of an impressionist.

And I think Libby was shooting for a Rorshack while she destroyed my artful trees. Apparently she doesn't find my work "tasteful" and felt it had "no aesthetic basis for appreciation." I am devastated, demanded an apology and may never paint again.