Quite the evening

This week is ski-break, so week off from school. A is gone overnight tonight, working a few hours away. So I piled the kids into the van and brought them to a great sledding hill the remember from a few years ago, and have wanted to go to all winter. It's a 40 minute or so drive, so I promised them we'll go this week - so we did, and they had so much fun! N used sled, snowboard, and down-hill skis ... he's lucky to have escaped without injury. Two of the routes down in skis ended up in a tumble (didn't shake him up at all, but did shake me ... he did not get to try those 2 ways again! he found a good route tho' that suited both of us!) And we bumped into a family who we know well who was also sledding there, and ended up going there after our few hours at the hill. Great way to pass the day when the kids didn't have school and A wasn't home.

Well, we got home just before 11 p.m. and couldn't get the front door unlocked. I guess the lock was frozen, or something, but it wouldn't unlock. Eventually the key bent and twisted in the lock and then I knew we're not getting in there. The other two doors were locked (as they should have been, but drat that this time one of them wasn't left open!) So after several phone conferences with A, we decided there's no other option than to break a window. We thought of each window around the house, and decided that tho' the sauna window would probably be the best because it's not so large, and I can shut several doors between that window and the rest of the house, so we'll not feel the chill - it's pretty high off the ground and didn't know how I'd get up there to break it, so finally decided the window to break is the large window on the back door. Break it around the handle so I can reach in and unlock it, then tape something over it.

Okay - I've never attempted to break a window before, so I'm a little anxious about this. But I have 7 kids who, along with me, need to get into the warmth of the house and get some sleep. So I am then able to face what I have to do. Gulp! Deep breath! Bang! No give. Bang! No give. I banged (with tire iron), and then brave, helpful, oldest child N (will be 10 in May) banged and banged. But this is one strong window pane (or actually two panes, I think, but at least the outside one is very strong!) So as I'm discussing it with A, and then with N, N says there are several ladders behind the garage, so we go for the sauna window (after careful thought once again - yes, this is the one it makes most sense to break.) So N is brave (tho' he says 'I can't stand the thought of hearing the glass breaking!) and does some banging - he's actually the one who broke the first pane (of course he's in full garb ... thick ski gloves, a snow suit, etc.) We ended up breaking three panes - they are serious about their windows here! But anyway, we're in the warm house and all the kids are sleeping. I'd better head there, too. We'll deal with the broken windows tomorrow ... and that door lock. Sigh ..... For now, I'm thankful for being inside the warm house!