Whatever

Yesterday, the children went back to school. After two weeks of Christmas vacation, we were all ready for it (except for Firstborn; he feels it's a waste of his time). Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, and they are good kids and in general, well behaved. But, by golly, they are loud! And I thrive on solitude and quiet. I could easily take up residence in a convent and uphold a vow of silence.

So imagine my surprise when at 5:30 this morning I got an automated call telling me that school is closed today due to weather! Some kind of cruel hoax? No. There was ice during the night, and I'm sure the roads were slick at 4:00 am when they made the decision, but by the time the bus would've come, they just looked wet. Whatever.

So, what did we do today? We stayed in our pajamas. No showers, nothing. They watched a fair amount of tv this morning, until I turned it off. Then, we made playdough.

Combine in a pot:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
one packet of unsweetened koolaid (optional)
Add:
1 cup water
1-1/2 Tbsp oil
(If you are not using koolaid--we didn't have any today--put food coloring in the water before you add it to the dry ingredients.) Stir over medium heat until it begins to form a ball. Knead with a little flour if necessary.

Playdough kept these two busy for a good hour.

Then we needed some lunch. There wasn't much in the house, so we ended up making pizza. I tried the Self-Rising Pizza Crust from Hillbilly Housewife since it was already 1:00 and we didn't want to wait for dough to rise.

Looks good coming out of the oven!

The crust was slightly biscuit-like, and not quite as 'done' as I would like. I usually par-bake my crust before adding toppings. But it was pretty good for being so fast. In fact, the kids liked it a lot. Best ever! Better than we usually have! Yes, meaning better than the crust that takes about 2 hours from start to finish every Friday. Whatever.

I've got chicken and dumplings in the crockpot for a cozy cold weather supper, using this recipe. Except instead of canned soup, I used homemade condensed cream of chicken soup from Tammy's Recipes. And instead of refrigerator biscuits, I'll just make some biscuit dough. I've used the chicken and dumplings recipe before, and it's good, and I've used Tammy's soup before, and it was good, but this is the first time I've used them together.

And what are the kids doing now?

They're playing school. On their day off. Whatever.

Mr. Crackalakin spent literally hours preparing his lessons and writing textbooks.