Eternal mysteries of life, part 1

It's cold here in Indiana. I think that we forgot that it was winter for a while, because ds12 was running around in shorts as late as last week, but now it's in the 20s -- not frigid, mind you, but not shorts weather.

No snow though. My theory about winter is that, if it's cold, by golly there'd better be snow. The snow gods aren't listening around here, because we have only had one snow -- enough to make people drive like idiots, but not enough to get the kids out of the house.

I've always enjoyed winter, and the kids are no different. They like to hook our two dogs up to the sled and have them pull them down the street. It's a pretty funny sight. And my dogs are so dumb, they seem to actually enjoy it.

I remember the first winter we homeschooled. The weather was really cold, but they wanted to go out and play in the snow. Who am I to argue when the kids want to go outside and leave mom in peace for a while? So we bundled them up, and out the door they went, happily trolling around in the white stuff for probably at least 1/2 an hour.

Then suddenly, they all came flying in the house, and ds (now 17) was sobbing hysterically. Figuring he'd taken a snowball in the face, I asked what was going on -- then I realized that he had blood all over his chin and the front of his snowsuit. And his tongue was hanging out.

Yep, you guessed it. My "gifted" child had decided, in all his brilliance, to see if that eternal mystery of life is indeed true: does your tongue really adhere to metal when it's cold outside?

The answer, in short, is YES.

He paid a bloody price for that one, and couldn't eat for days after he yanked that poor tongue off of our metal front doorknob. I ended up laughing, bad mom that I am, and calling my friend. She sold first aid supplies at the time, and any time we were out, if someone got any type of injury, she'd say "I have something for that," and magically the necessary supplies appeared. It was kind of a joke between us. I called her and said "I want to see if you have something for THIS," to which she just started cracking up and saying, "nope, I can't carry popsicles. They melt."