Snow Days

It's funny how my view of snow days ping pongs back and forth from pure excitement and anticipation to disdain about yet another interruption of our daily schedules... During the month of February, we have experienced a little over a week's worth of snow days due to school closings..... at first I was excited as I looked out the window and saw the opportunity to play with the kids in the newly accumulated snow (I think there is roughly two feet of snow blanketing our yard), building snow forts, having snow ball fights, building snowmen, sledding, etc. These are things that I took for granted growing up, but for my children are new adventures and things to be conquered and mastered if only on a rare occasion. Not only was it fun to cut loose and just enjoy the mounds of fun that we had, but the break from our hectic daily schedules and the gallons of hot cocoa we consumed were just what we needed. Regretfully, the mantle of being the guardian of our family schedule and the knowledge of how difficult it is to resume overcame my visions of delight which eventually turned to dread and admittedly even panic over the last day and a half of school closings due to snow - truly it was a test of my very being having all the kids home with, "nothing to do!" We managed however, to make a game out of shoveling the driveway for the hundreth time and found even a little time to enjoy some activities indoors that we haven't recently had time for and even got a little extra sleep. Needless to say while I have enjoyed the lazy snow days, I am hopelessly behind in so many things, but then I have to wonder if they were even that important in the first place. Score one for me for keeping up with all the winter attire laundry and for being able to find enough stuff for us all to be out in the snow for hours without freezing or getting frostbite! However, looking back, I wish I would have given myself over more to that pure childish amazement, wonder and pure delight and just enjoyed our snow days......I'm headed into a game of Settlers of Catan - the last activity of our snow day weekend and then it's back to our regularly scheduled program - wish me luck!!

Resolutions - Starting Again

I felt a little more justified in making one of my New Year's resolutions - to post to this blog once a month- since one of my favorite blogs that publishes weekly projects for parents and kids went to a monthly post for 2010...so here's to resolutions and the chance to begin again. I have to say that I'm happy for all of the times during the year I feel like I can start anew...like the beginning of Spring after a long dreary winter, or the beginning of a School year and the opportunities it brings. People like me need more than one shot a year to resolve to do better!

Another resolution I have is to be better in tune with my kids and those around me by acting on prompts I get to do a little something extra or lend a hand. As I was getting ready for Church today, I was quietly praying to myself throughout the morning that my worship would be meaningful and that I would be influenced by the spirit and just feel more in tune and find a way to keep that resolution. Well....right in the middle of the sacramental portion of the meeting my youngest, J, starts chanting "Perry, Perry, Dufenschmertz...Perry, Perry, Dufenschmertz!" I quietly looked around to see if anyone other than me had heard the absurd chant. If they did, they weren't letting on. So, instead of trying to quiet J, I found myself starting to laugh. I tried to hide it but, J, noticed, of course! He thought he was SOOO amuzing that he started chanting louder and faster in between giggles and prods from his brother to keep going (AHHHHHHHHHH!)

Needless to say the rest of my worship was not as meaningful as I had hoped....I guess I'll try again next week. Not all was lost, however. There was one redeeming thing about my worship today. I was able to substitute as a pianist in Primary for someone that was ill. I was reminded that there are signs and evidence of Christ's love for us all over the place, we just need to take the time to recognize them. I'll try that this week - taking time to notice.