The 'Jonas' Snowstorm Makes A Virginia Winter Fun

Sledilicious!

This morning broke clear, cold and sunny. Winter storm Jonas had worn itself out apparently and it was snowtime at the Sabo house. Church had been canceled because we didn't want anyone driving on icy roads -- a snowplow didn't make it down through the main street into our neighborhood until 10 o'clock this morning -- so we launched "Operation Bobsled Run" at 0955 hours EST.

It was a bit of a challenge. The snow around our house consisted of about an inch of ice, a few inches of powder, then another layer of thin ice. Not exactly the type of snow with which you want to undertake highly technical engineering efforts such as building a sled hill. Fortunately it started warming up enough to get the snow kind of "melty" so we could work with it to build the min-bobsled run.

It's become something of a tradition when it snows at our house to make one of these little hills in the Sabo back yard. Living basically at sea level presents a certain lack of sledding options. So we make our own hill in our back yard and it's very kid friendly, as you'll see.

I made a video of our efforts that you can enjoy right here: Operation Bobsled Run

Ezra and Seth were the first to chip in, then it became a total team effort with the reinforcements of Eli, Gabe and Olivia. We built that monster hill in no time and enjoyed literally hours of sledding fun. I call our little snow engineering effort the "Jonas Bonus." It was a decent price to pay for a little more than a day's worth winter misery.

I have to say I'm thankful we're not closer to D.C., where they got more than two feet of snow. That's a bit excessive, but hardly out of the norm when it comes to D.C., where a little is never enough. Those politicians and government bureaucrats up there always have to have more, you know? They say D.C. will be socked in for days. Hopefully that means they can't spend our tax money while the government is shut down. That's what happens, right?

The Government Estimates The Costs of Raising Kids. We're In Trouble!

                                          Seth, aka the `Quarter-Million Dollar Baby'

My friend and former Daily Press colleague Peter Frost, now with the Chicago Tribune, wrote an article recently on the government's estimate of what it costs to raise to the age of 18 a child born in 2013. The figure the government came up with was $245,340. You read that right. Two-hundred-forty-five-thousand-three-hundred-forty. Dollars.

Um, we're in trouble in the Sabo household. Now you know why I'm always scrounging around for change in the couch! I'm still trying to wrap my head around a quarter-million bucks. Per kid. Some quick math tells me that with 14 kids, my tab is/will be in the vicinity of 3.4 million. Dollars. I'm thinking my kids are going to have to pull their own weight on this one. I'm going to start charging rent. For everyone. (Pause.) I just broke the news to Seth. He looked ... puzzled.

As I'm trying to digest this news, some thoughts ran through my mind. For starters, I didn't know I am supposed to buy my kids a Ferrari when they turn 16. Another thing: My house that I bought earlier this year cost less than what I'm going to fork out for the latest edition of the Sabo family. At least, according to the government's estimate.

There is some good news, though. As I read the article more closely I saw that the $245,340 is for middle-class folks pulling down more than $61,300 a year. So raise your hand if you're "lower-income" folks making less than $60k a year. (My hand just shot up. Actually both hands. I guess that means I surrender.) If that's you with one or two hands up, then you're only on the hook for $176,550! Sweet! I only have to buy my 16-year-olds a Lexus now!

As I probed further into the article, going to the very depths of it, I found this gem of a paragraph: "Expenses per child decrease as a family has more children, the report said, as children share bedrooms, clothing and other items." True dat! We stack them up four and five to a bedroom in the Sabo house! I noticed last winter we had a kid's coat in the closet that we've had since Brenton was 2! That was 1991! Seth pretty much uses everyone else's toothbrush! Anything to save money in the Sabo household! (Just kidding!)

At the bottom was a link to the government calculator to calculate how much it's going to cost to raise your kids. I clicked on it. One problem cropped right up. You could only calculate 6 kids. So I had to do 2 calculations since now we "only" have 10 kids under the age of 18 living at home. Some figuring revealed I'm in it for $72,086 in child-rearing expenses. This year. Which could be a problem since that's waaaaaaayyyyyy beyond what I make.

There's some explanations of how the numbers are produced, but I can't help but think it's the same office producing these figures that comes up with the federal government's budget. All I know is that my kids are fed, clothed, bathed, taken care of and generally nurtured. How does it all work in the face of these frightening "costs" the government says we are forking out? As I say frequently, the Lord provides. We are in very good and capable hands. Even if the government might not think so.