My Sloshy Walk Through a Winter Wonderland

Happy Snow Day!!!

  Does anyone else get a bad case of the “blahs” on snow days???  It looks all glamorous and fun in the photos, but after a little while I get the need to get OUT of the house.  I just have this constant desire to be left alone.

  Isn’t that kind of hilarious?  I want to be left alone, but I have a baby, a toddler, two boys, and a talkative husband.  Actually, they all like to talk.  I’m a woman.  This should be wonderful to me, and it IS wonderful, but oh barnacles, it’s winter, you know?

  I finally had the opportunity to sneak out of here for a walk in the snow this afternoon, so I zipped up my winter coat and my cowboy boots and fled the premises.  

It was such a RELIEF to be walking on the freshly shoveled sidewalk, while there was a lull in the “wintry mix”.  It’s really not even that cold; it was something like 30 degrees.

  I noticed a car drive by, and it sort of looked like they were laughing at me….but who knows.  I looked down at myself:  misty glasses from the weather, giant coat, yoga pants, tucked into cowboy boots.  Ha!  Right.  While I feel like an adventurous young woman, to others I must look like a crazy suburban housewife, out walking in the rain.

  I’ve decided to just be okay with that, and I was getting some good thinking done, so I trudged on, quite convinced I could at least walk off some of the Valentine treats I’ve been pigging out on…..until I realized one of my feet was suddenly very wet.  I was only a little over half a mile from home.

  Drat.  I turned around, and that’s about when the sleet started, which suddenly turned into a hard snow, and at this point I felt quite amused with myself.

  I do hope that no matter how beat down and covered in children I get, I will always be the crazy lady out walking in the snow in cowboy boots.

  Too bad those boots aren’t water proof.  Remember when I posted that photo of Joshua with the white finger?  (Click here to see that photo)  Well, I had my very own white toe.  Kind of neat.

  When I got home, I stood in the driveway and just watched the snow for a few minutes.  

This is it.  This is the weather that’s keeping me from the weekend away that I had so looked forward to.  That’s right, my flight was supposed to leave this morning at 9:45am.  I was going to visit my parents,  hold the latest baby in the family, and just un-clench, you know?  The daily grind here is S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L.  I can’t explain just how stressful this phase of our life is.

  Just thinking about this vacation has made me giddy, but it just isn’t to be.  A very kind person said to me this week, “Whatever is meant to happen will happen,” and at the time I was like, “No way!  I am leaving town somehow!”

  Denial.  I was living in denial.

  The airline could not accommodate me this weekend, and they had a rule against just booking me for next weekend instead.  I’m getting a refund, which is nice, but now my getaway feels even further away.

  Ah, well, what is meant to be will be.  I’ll make it down south soon, Mom and Dad, I promise!

For now, at least I have my boys.  Here they are, just being boys:

Dan loves being out in the snow so much, it’s hard to get him to come inside!

JD and Daniel, playing in Daniel’s room.  If you can overlook the mess, just look at the wonder of it.  Kids at play.  I love it.  These are my happy thoughts.

Oh, Dan….  Toddlers don’t actually need parents to bend over backwards finding intricate activities for them.  They make their own science experiments just fine.  This one involved playdoh, water, and a water bottle, and the moment Mom wasn’t looking.  Ha!

my darling little mess-maker

The first footprints in the snow this morning were Joshua’s.  

He couldn’t wait to get out there in it.  Our neighbor, Patti sent him back home when she realized he wasn’t wearing any gloves and his coat wasn’t zipped.  Oy.  Thank you, Patti!  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Don’t knock suburbia.  We look out for each other here.  It’s a great place to be.

I was amused, looking out the window at these footprints (of Caleb’s) through the backyard.  It reminded me of those Family Circus newspaper cartoons, where he’d always draw the little boy’s footprints all over the yard.  This is Caleb’s version.

This made me laugh.  The “Keep out.” sign is Joshua’s creation.  At the bottom, it reads, “If letter slide under door.”  haaahahahaha.  So apparently, he wants us to keep out, but if you have a letter for him, he wants to be sure to get that!  The blue character was drawn by Caleb.

Tomorrow Alan’s planning to take the boys sledding.  I’m looking forward to that.  No, I’m not going.  I’m just looking forward to the quiet house.  ; )  Actually, I’m considering making snow angels…..