Never, never read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder while in the midst of a ND winter. I made that mistake as a pre-teen and was considering putting together something similar to a Y2K survival kit (in the 1970's) to assure that we wouldn't have to burn the furniture to keep warm for the remainder of the winter. Wilder paints such vivid word pictures that you can't help but feel the snow on the beds when they wake up, the bone-chilling cold, the ache from not enough food. Wait, I have to stop before I consider burning the couch.
The kids and I just finished another read-aloud - Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. Great book. It is another childhood favorite. It was sitting on the shelf and hadn't called to me in a long time. The appearance of the exterior of the book is rather unassuming - an old green/gray cloth cover, the title written on the spine in a sprawling font. I thought the kids would pick it up on their own, but they hadn't even taken it off the shelf. Now we are off to find the next book that discusses the Woodlawn family - Magical Melons.
Our day should be exciting. There is talk of cutting down a large cottonwood tree. This will be a whole family effort, after schoolwork is done. Hopefully it will be completely uneventful (aside from having to take it off of our driveway before anyone will be able to leave).
