Olympics Fever!!!

It's been snow, snow, and more snow around here!  It snowed so much it filled up the cattle guard and the cows thought they'd traipse right out of their field this morning to look for forage.  My neighbor's son called and gave us a heads up, so I thought I'd just roll out of bed, wash my face, get dressed, and see what's up out there... Or what's out up there... hard to say when I've just woken up.  Aaaaaanyway, I'm not packing... I'm procrastinating because I'm trying not to think about moving when the stupid Bank of America won't hurry up and tell us if we can have that house or not!  (Ranting... anger problems, apparently).

Instead of packing, I'm planning a unit study for the Winter 2010 Olympics.  It's fun!  I've found that my kids are rather weak in Geography and so the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to get those world maps out and start learning about countries and where they are while we watch the competition!  Also, my oldest is studying Ancient Greece right now and so we're working in the Ancient Olympics, too.  Also, Canada, snow, and, if I can manage it, engineering a snow apparatus outside, while there's still snow to push around.  I think the Little Engineer will enjoy that.

We've really been inspired by the Olympic Motto and Creed.  I guess I'll just go ahead and post them ;)

Motto:  Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter, Higher, Stronger)

Creed:  The most significant thing in the Olympic games is not to win, but to take part.  Just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle.  The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

Soooo, we've been setting ourselves some goals for this Olympic period, which is, as of now, 20 days.  I'm going to work on my abs... by working them out 4 times a week on our pull up bar.  Also, I'm going to try harder to work out, yoga or pilates, 4-5 days a week.  Aaaaand, I'm rereading Raising Godly Tomatoes

Finally, on my pursuit to challenge myself for this 20 days, I've decided to compete in the Ravelympics 2010, which is a competition on Ravelry, one of my favorite ever sites, where one can get almost anything a fiber freak like me needs for inspiration.

I am competing on the ClubFoot Ravelympics team in the Giant Slalom-ghan event... which means I'm going to try to crochet an afghan in 20 days... 20 days.  The rules say you can't start your project except for swatching before the Olympic flame is lit in Vancouver, and you have to finish your project before the flame is extinguished, 16 days later.  It's sort of a fun way to compete and make projects and enjoy the Olympics all at the same time!  Jeremy drove me to AC Moore yesterday to get more yarn for my brown sweater which is wet blocking right now in preparation for seaming and knitting neck ribbing and button bands.

While we were there, I spotted a sale on cheap o acrylic for an even cheaper price of 2 for $5... I thought about that and overcame my acrylic aversions when I realized the whole afghan would cost less than $30 to make and my kids will ensure that it needs to be washed repeatedly anyway, so acrylic would be a good idea.  So here's a sneak peek of the colors:

I'll be posting updates!!!  The Olympics starts in 3 days!  Are you getting swifter, higher, and stronger?