This evening we decided that not only does Lex love to read, but he can’t even resist the sweet lure of words on paper. In the car on the way home this evening he suddenly said, “Uh, why am I reading the manual for my car seat?!” His eyes had fallen on it and suddenly he couldn’t stop himself from reading. It’s a tough problem to have. :)
So, I picked up a Nissan Leaf on Monday. If you are like me, and 90%+ of your trips are less than 80mi, If you have a second car for trips over 80mi, go get one now. Nissan Dealers have end of quarter numbers they have to meet to get a big bonus which usually puts them in the black, and the lease deals are sick right now. Even Consumer Reports recommends the lease on these which is nearly unheard of.
I got the Leaf S, which is the lowest trim level. I was surprised it did not include cruise control, but not a big deal for my use of car that does <80mi on a round trip anyway. There are a few other things in the SV and SL models I’d like to have, but nothing worth the extra money to me. Overall, the S is a super nice car with plenty of niceties; certainly it has everything I really need. If you are interested, feel free to give me a call and I can break down the options for you and probably answer most of your questions. =) I have been studying these for years and watching the lease deal for months, waiting to get enough equity in my Prius, and just the right timing. It all finally came together!
[Start boring details.]
If you are interested, find some where with some 2013 still in stock and they are very likely to make you a great deal. I traded in my 2005 Prius for a Leaf S with the same monthly payment ($226/mo). With less than $2000 in equity (trade value minus amount remaining on the loan) on the Prius, I paid absolutely $0 to the dealer up front and they cut me a check for over $1000 to cover the VT taxes. All I had to cover is a registration fee of about $41. After 35 payments (that’s right, they even covered the first payment), I can buy it out for about $12.5k, trade it in for something at the dealer, or pay $395 to walk away assuming no significant damages beyond normal ware and tear. Miles over 36k is only cost $0.15 but I don’t expect to do more than 24kmi in 3 years. (They have a 45kmi option if you need it.) All that on a car that has an MSRP of almost $30k.
This totally cash-flow positive for me. Same-payment, only I get to skip one. The electricity to run it should be less than 3/4 the cost to gas a 45mpg Prius at today’s prices (we will be lucky if it only doubles in the next 5 years) and maintenance is practically nothing: rotate the tires every 7500mi (which I do myself) and get the battery checked once a year. Full manufacturer warranty on everything else for the life of the lease, and then some on most of it. Sure beats the expect maintenance on a Prius (which is very low relatively), not to mention the unexpected issues of a car over 8 years old (again, relatively low on a Prius, but still.)
You could pay up to $2000 to have a charger installed at home, but it can be done cheaper. Maybe more to come on that some day, but for now, the 110v cable that comes with it is sufficient for my needs since I’m just topping off each day for the most part and the land lord at my office said it was OK to plug in there as needed too. I do want to get something dedicated at the house though since it is becoming tedious to pull out the cable every time I get home, and then pack it up again when I leave. It will be much nicer to have something I can just leave behind and keep the cable that came with it in the car for occasional charging at work, etc.
[End boring details.]
Tessa finally had a chance to drive it Saturday and is pleased with it. The basic function is pretty much the same as the Prius, so there is no learning curve to just get in it and go. Of course, the kids love it! Lex says, “Yeah, a brand new Nissan Leaf? I sure would like to set the clock in that thing.”
In conclusion, As the song the kids want to hear every time we get in it says (and yes I count myself among the “kids” in that statement), happiness resides in an electric car. =)
Dear March,
You have done an excellent job coming in as a lion. Thank you for the wonderful snowstorm. You gave us a day of dense, packable snow that we used to make snow balls, snowmen, snow penguins, and snow bunnies.
My little snowmen
Lex made a snowman for the mailbox.
Eve wanted a penguin, so we all worked together on that one.
Then you gave us a day with light fluffy snow that made the world look beautiful. You gave us over two feet of snow that provided me with an excellent workout each day, especially shoveling Wednesday’s heavy snow and then walking through very deep snow to dig out my heat intake thing. I learned, fortunately not the hard way, that it’s important to keep that thing clear.
This snow bank greeted up Thursday morning when we went out to shovel again.
Lex had to climb over the bank just to get out the door.
Notice something different about that car Lex is clearing off? More to come later…
Eve brought Bitty Baby out to play. I’m such a mom (or dork) that I had to stop and put her hood up and fix her jacket.
Eve took a few minutes to recline on the giant snow bank by the tree.
We’ve got a bit of snow out there!
Lex is getting pretty good at helping with the shoveling. He doesn’t love it, but he does it. Sometimes Eve helps too. Today they worked hard to get the end of the driveway clear.
I tried to go out the back door today, but no luck. This is what happens when we don’t shovel.
The intake thing is in there somewhere.
Our propane tanks are buried in that mountain. I figured it would be good to dig them out as well. I got the tops cleared off and found we had plenty of propane so I stopped. It was COLD today!
The district canceled school for two days, which wasn’t the best timing since this was my first solo week in kindergarten, but we’re all taking advantage of the break. Tuesday was a tough day at school and I was ready to lay low Wednesday. The kids both have colds and we were facing a very hectic week, so your lovely snow provided a forced slow down. They are both feeling much better this afternoon.
Now that we’ve had this storm, your final hurrah, could you please show us the lamb. Just last week I taught my kids the saying, “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb,” and as much as we’ve all enjoyed the lion, we are ready for a little lamb.
Winter and Spring table decorations. We just can’t decide which one is appropriate!
Sincerely,
Tessa, ready for some sunshine.
Do you think March reads my blog?
Spoiler alert: if you have not seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture, what’s wrong with you? No, I mean, this will ruin the ending for you if you keep reading. So, correct yourself by going and watching it now. It is not the greatest movie by any stretch, and not the best of the ST movies by far, but it gets better as it goes and has a great ending… if you are a space geek. Plus, it is fun to MST3K some of the effects and excessively long fly-by sequences. Of course, it helps if you are a fan of the original series. That said, if you are still reading, you do so at your own risk. So, Lex and I cuddled up on the couch and watched it Saturday night, and when the big reveal of V’Ger comes at the end, he nailed it! I whispered, “There it is! Do you recognize it?” “I don’t think so,” he said. “You’ve seen it before,” I assured him quietly. After many seconds of silence, but well before they showed the tarnished label, he said, “maybe they are just mispronouncing Voyager.” My bursting geek pride almost launched him across the room! All the pains of parenting are worth it for moments like this. Of course, you have to be a space geek to appreciate this particular moment, but both of us are, so such things work out well. =)
Eve was sick today (cough, low fever) and I took the day off to stay home with her. Alan was with them Monday and Tuesday while I was doing parent conferences. She started feeling bad on Tuesday and Alan said she kept going to the window and asking if mommy was coming home yet. He said it started around 10am and he promised her I’d be home around 3pm… then I got lucky she fell asleep because I didn’t make it home until 4:30pm! But I was home to wake her up at 5:00. Anyway, she wasn’t up for school today and I wasn’t up for leaving her (and Alan wasn’t up for a third day off from work) so I stayed home with her.
We have been reading really stupid fairy books that she loves and she promised me that when we finished the series she would let me pick the next book. Today I chose Little House in the Big Woods and she protested. She argued and refused. I was annoyed, but tried to be patient with her. This evening she basically put herself to bed and when I went up to read to her I found her in bed with the lights off. I asked if she wanted me to read a few pages of the book and she agreed, granted I let her lay down and if she got bored we could stop.
Turns out she loved it! Also turns out I either have not read this book or completely forgot the entire first chapter. The whole thing is about them preparing for winter, which means killing and slaughtering many animals, and it goes into great detail! They even describe in detail how to roast a pigs tail and how delectable it is. Yuck! I kept asking her is she wanted to stop and she said no. Either she liked the book a lot or she liked seeing my yucked out face! When we finished the first chapter she said we should read more tomorrow.
I bugged her so much to read it I can hardly say no now. Note to self: preview books, don’t rely on memory from long ago.
“Holy mega coolness!!” said a boy in Lego Robotics class when Lex brought in his EV3 Everstorm robot to share. I think Lex is making friends today! :-)
While I had to work today (so… many… parent/teacher conferences!) Alan was home with the kids and they did all sorts of fun things with Daddy! First they went to vote, then they went out to lunch and the grocery store (where Eve spent all her money on Easter junk), and then they came home and did some science!
They have been talking about doing this experiment for a few days now and I encouraged Alan to have the kids write up the experiment. Get some academics in there! He thought it was a great idea. I also asked him to write up this blog post, but he was less excited about that. :)
The experiment was to test the level of electricity generated by citrus fruits, and they decided to compare to non-citrus things as well. I would love to give more details, but I really don’t know them, so I’ll have to let the photos do the talking. When I left this morning I said, “I’ll leave the camera here on the counter, just in case you guys need it today!” They clearly picked up on my hint!
This looks yummy!
See the little bulb lit up?
Some 9v cells make it brighter!
Eve’s notes
Lex’s notes
The back side of Lex’s notes.
“All they want is money! That’s all they care about! That’s why I want to buy things from them.” said Eve, while looking through an American Girls catalog. 3/3/14
“I want to be a famous artist so I can make a lot of money and buy lots of cats!” said Eve. Moments later she amended it to “pets” because she wants dogs, bunnies, and hamsters too. 3/2/14
jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped her head. I didn’t get that on video though.
Alan and I got a new mattress and the kids were breaking it in. We need to get rid of the old one, but for now we just stacked the new one on top. Now we have a huge bed! My bedroom looks so small and sparse in this video. I seriously need an interior decorator! :)
I also added videos of the kids playing in the snow and our super fun sledding outing. You can reread those posts for the videos if you care to.
This is the final day of February vacation week. Last year we spent it in Florida, and this year we spent it with the stomach virus. Good times! Seriously though, it was a pretty low-key week. Mema and Grandpa Tom and Uncle Greg all came to visit. We played out in the snow, played inside, flew helicopters and flying eyeballs, and generally had fun.
The RF devices set off our smoke alarm. Lex insisted on taking it down himself by piling pillows on top of pillows. Mema supervised.
See the helicopter?
Eyeball!
One day Eve decided to do some math, just for fun. She wrote it right next to a drawing she’d done of herself with her face painted like a butterfly. She got all the way up to 4096+4096 when Alan decided to teach her some stuff. She promptly lost interest. I guess math is only fun on her terms. :)
Multifaceted Eve with her art and math.
When Alan tried to teach her math, she lost interest.
We’ve had lots of snow this week, but we’ve also had a few beautiful sunny days!
It was a beautiful day!
It was so warm the snowman melted by nightfall, but we enjoyed making it. :)
These days the kids wake up early on the weekends (well, that’s how it has always been!) and they come down stairs and play computer games. I don’t love the amount of time they get, but I do love sleeping in a bit on weekends! A little give and take. Usually they are on separate computers, but the other morning I found them like this.
This is how I found them one morning. Cuddled in my chair, sharing a cracker-snack breakfast, and playing on Highlightskids.com together. Sweetness.
We are getting more and more use out of our nearly finished basement. I’ve started exercising down there on the twice broken elliptical, the kids have some toys down there, the guests report that it makes a nice bedroom (just wait for the mattress topper we just ordered!) and Eve decided to set up an art studio. The basement is the place to be.
Eve set up an art studio in the basement and worked on her drawings while I exercised.
I think we’ve hit the beginning of the end of the pet discussion. On Friday I took the kids to the humane society to visit the animals. I told them we should make it a research project. Eve promptly grabbed her notebook and a pencil. On the way down we discussed what kinds of questions we should ask them about having pets. Eve took notes. When we got there we found three cat rooms that were open for visiting. Apparently if you want to visit the dogs you need to go through the adoption interview process first and meet the dogs one-on-one. We weren’t ready for that so we just played with cats. Eve asked questions and took notes on the answers. She even found the cat of her dreams, or so she says. I think what sold her was the tag that said, “a cuddly little grandma whose only wish is to curl up by your side!” Eve thought that sounded just perfect. The discussion continues…
She had lots of questions for the lady.
Petting Smores, a pretty kitty.
This is Cookie, the “grandmother cat” that Eve has her heart set on.
Playing with Sheldon, the somewhat skittish cat that had them both laughing.
Tonight is our final night of vacation before school starts tomorrow. Thankfully we are all feeling healthy, happy, and relaxed. We spent the day building a new Mindstorm robot, teaching animals about math and science, and going to a birthday party at the aquatic center. A nice mix of busy and calm. Happy Sunday.