Snow Day!

Once a year, Austin gets covered in white icy stuff. The residents get excited, call it snow, and throw it at each other. Once in a lifetime, Austin gets "thundersnow," and real white stuff comes down for over 8 hours, covering everything with a beautiful blanket of REAL SNOW! When that happens, you take full advantage of a snow day. And we did! We had cotton gloves, rain boots, and other poor excuses for snow gear, but out we went.

Spencer, Reggie, and I were the first to venture out while big sibs had virtual religious school.



Next, it was time for Daddy, Gabi, and Ethan to have snow much fun.




Back inside to warm up by the fire!

The children decided that a special day warranted TWO special snacks. Who was I to argue?

As we stayed inside resting in the afternoon, the snow kept on coming and coming.


After nap, we went back out back for more playing in the snow. And I got to smack my children with snow. Definitely a win.



We moved out front to see what the world looked like on that side of the house.


After a full day of snow play, we headed inside for a warm bubble bath to end the fun.

Reggie

Remember that time a full year ago when we had a simple life with 3 children - all of whom left the house for school 5 days week, 2 beautiful and calm kitties who rested peacefully (we'll ignore the fact that one of them whines all the time to communicate), and I moved about my life enjoying exercise classes, engaging in volunteer and part-time professional opportunities to better the community as I was able? That was such a nice, calm time.

Well - fast forward to January 2021. All kids are home all the time. Two more kids now join us 5 days a week. I go nowhere but still commit to the volunteer and professional opportunities. We rehomed a third cat in August and a hamster in December. It's like The Little House proverb, except the opposite.

And for fun - we just adopted a 10-week-old puppy, having never ever owned a dog before. We are working closely with a trainer who assessed this sweet girl and decided she would be a great match for our family. She is a Pyrenees/Lab mix who is sweet, cuddly, and playful. We have named her Reggie, inspired by raguah, the Hebrew word for CALM. So yes, Team Cohen now has 5 humans, 5 fur babies, and hopefully just a little bit of calm. But goodness gracious, this puppy is cute!!!

meeting the sweet girl at her foster house

"They" said to spend the first few days focused on bonding and to show her she's safe and can trust us. Meanwhile, this is Reggie:


How did the cats respond, you ask?

Dewey meets Reggie

Maggie meets Reggie

Daddy came home from work late at night and met his new baby for the first time.

We all fared our first night together with surprisingly little stress!

It's a good thing we didn't adopt an anxious puppy because in the morning, we introduced her to the rest of the pod when TCDC and Team Gilden arrived.



Reggie will take time and patience to train, and in the meantime, we'll enjoy all the emotional support we can get. After all, we could each use a little more raguah in our lives.





In case you needed sleeping puppy pictures (and who doesn't?) -

And yes, the cats are fine.


The hamster has not noticed.