Last night I was playing with the kids in the downstairs guest room. John would go out, close the door. Then, he'd open the door, come in and say "He burst into the room!" Ha.

Hanna likes to refer to herself as "Mommy" sometimes. Like, she'll say "Let Mommy have it" when she wants something. Can't remember if I said this already, the other day I was playing with her in her room. She likes to make supper for me on the little play kitchen set in there. I sit on the floor, and she gets me things like pizza and fruit. Something new though, she wanted me get her attention by asking "Mommy?" and then she'd say "hmm?" while busying herself with the kitchen set. Funny.

Last night I asked John to spell some things. He can spell his name just fine. He tries and does a good job with other words too. To spell Daddy, he said "d-a-d-i". For other things, he was the right idea. For cat, he said something like "c-a-mprs". He's quite a sharp little boy. Hanna is sharp herself, she doesn't miss anything. Lately she'll sit down and "read" her dollies a book.

At bedtime I've been reading them stories from the children's bible we have. They both like the story of David and Goliath, and always want me to read that one. I'm going to have started reading new ones first before that one, or they'll never want another one. John likes the one about the walls of Jericho, too.

The bitter cold has started to descend. Temps are on their way down below zero, and could stay below zero till Monday, or perhaps even Wednesday. Sigh. Last night I went out and got the driveway shoveled and chiseled up the tire tracks, before all that would freeze real solid. In the online StarTribune today, in an article on the weather, there was a photo from Minot! Looked like the highway intersection on the south side of town.

Question of the day: Why do so many baddies in the Middle East wear ski masks? Where do the masks come from? The Middle East doesn't strike me as a region where a lot of skiing takes place.