Snow and its Many Facets

I have had an unusual craving for chocolate lately.  This almost always happens when it snows.  Oh, and by lately, I mean within the last few days.  I baked brownies on Monday, and now they are gone.  I am writing this on Wednesday night.  Does it sound less dramatic if I tell you that I only baked them in a 9x9 inch pan?  Okay, I realize my attempts to justify my mass consumption of brownies are futile.  But, Casey ate almost half of them with me!  Almost...

Realizing that I was completely out of chocolate (I needed chocolate in the form of cake or brownies.  Texture is an important aspect of my Chocolate Snow cravings.  I almost always want chocolate cake and/or brownies.  At work I found myself wanting a chocolate brownie or piece of chocolate cake so badly that I could literally smell a chocolate cake.  Focusing on work was becoming rather difficult as my thoughts were rapidly being consumed with triple chunk brownies, chocolate cake, and even marble cake would have been warmly welcomed.  I texted Casey about my dilemma and he told me that he had just eaten a delicious brownie.  "Thanks, but how does that help my situation?" I thought to myself.  It didn't.  At all. In fact, it only made it worse.  So, he agreed to take me to this new cupcake shop right across the street from my office after work.  These cupcakes are absolutely delicious!  And I am blaming the snow for my consumption of these cupcakes!  The shop is called Scratch Cupcakery: http://scratchbakery.com/  If you haven't tried it and you live in Iowa, I would highly recommend trying these cupcakes at one of their three locations.



So, back to the snow.  This week has given us a little...well, actually, a lot more snow than what had previously been anticipated.  The unexpected snow was exciting for a few reasons:

1.) We need the moisture
2.) It is fun to play in
3.) Casey was able to use his snow blower
4.) It makes everything look absolutely beautiful.  Especially views such as this:

(I did not take this photo, I grabbed
it off of the Internet)

Unfortunately, snow seems to create more work, whether you live in the city or the country.  Not only do I spend more time keeping the floors cleaned; I have to be conscious to make sure our gloves, hats, coats, scarves, and boots all are dried and ready to go for the following day.  Not to mention, it takes a lot longer to get home when the roads are bad. Now I am beginning to understand why snow always irked my mom. 

Still, I find snow absolutely beautiful, even if we have to work a little harder.  When it is snowing, and I don't have to go anywhere, and my family is safe at home, I love curling up with a good book, or spending time in the kitchen cooking.  It almost feels like I am inside of a really pretty snow globe.

Instead of leaving the horses out like I do most nights when the weather is nice, I decided to bring the horses in.  Remi shredded Ty's blanket earlier this week, so poor Ty was cold, wet, and shivering when we got home.  I brought the horses into their stalls (they love staying inside when the weather is crummy), gave them hay, grain, and water, and put a fleece cooler on Ty so her coat could dry and she could keep warm.  She loves her cooler.  I don't have a picture of that because my phone was almost dead and I didn't have my camera with me.  Oh well.




Sam was ready to play in the snow until
Casey started the snow blower. 

Here, Sam was ready to take on the
snow blower.
"Let me at it!"

I'm just thrilled Casey wanted to do this,
and was excited about it.  This
task is all his!  It just doesn't give me the
same excitement that it does for him.

By the time we got around to the chickens they were already in their chicken coop, ready for bed.  Casey gathered the eggs, the chores were finally done, everyone (except us) was inside, ready for bed, and the snow had been plowed.  After dinner I was able to curl up with a good book.  All in all, it was a good day with the unexpected snow.