Wait, what?
Snow? Nooooo!
With the freezing cold temperatures of yesterday still embedded in my bones, today is not only equally cold but it is also snowing.
Who called for this? It's still, generously speaking, mid-November!
It's not really the snow that I mind. It's digging out all the snow related gear my four kids have to strap, snap and lace on before heading out the door, the cold-nosed kisses they bring back home with them and the puddles they make because they somehow always fail to remember to take the boots off on the mat.
It's the snow-shoveling and having to remove ice from the windshield because my van is too long for the garage, though I confess that for about an hour this morning I tried to pretend that it wasn't. This means I drove it in and left the rear end hanging out, even went so far as to partially close the electric door before I realized I felt way too guilty to leave it that way. I mean imagine the amount of heat that would get sucked out!
So I trudged back out, yes in this cold! Backed the van out onto the driveway, slammed the door and went back inside to boil the kettle, damning my conscience all the while.
Today I don't have the ability to grab hold of my gratitude. I am in a warm house, sipping tea and working on my computer while watching the snow swirl outside the kitchen window. The flakes themselves are beautiful, really, as are the first snow falls during which the neighborhood is seemingly transformed into a picture from a child's story book.
Other than to drop my younger two at school (only because I absolutely refused to walk the two blocks to the bus stop and I had pictures of my 6-year-old rebelling against walking in the toe-numbing -19 degree temperatures and then my 11-year-old having to figure out how to manage this moral dilemma), I didn't leave the house.
I encouraged the older two 17 and 15, to make the 20 minute walk to their bus stop. Other than a surprised Oh, you're not going to drive us?, there was no resistance. They're hearty, I told myself, even as I mentally rearranged my day to stay at home.
Now it's mid-day, the snowflakes are getting bigger and falling a little more frequently. Soccer practice was cancelled (how could it not be, unless the coach was some kind of sadist, it was meant to be an outside practice) and I'm hoping my daughter will forget that today is the last day of acro class. The day they do their mini recital and parents have to, I mean get to watch them somersault and back bend their way around the room.
I should pick up the little ones from the bus stop, anyway, I guess (I know the older ones will get a ride from the father of a friend who is constantly mortified that I actually expect things of my kids). Once I'm out and in the car it might not be too bad to go to acro. I also have to go to the mall to get boots for a pair of I'm-never-stop-growing-15-year-old feet.
Let's see, that would be 5,6,7, times in and out of the van, however quickly I run and rush I will get cold and the van will need to warm up again. If I just pick up the kids and go to the mall I can cut that down to four times including leaving and arriving back home which may be doable.
A new bean filled toy ($6 - max) for the 6-year-old will help her forget that Mommy forgot to take her to acro.
More than worth it!
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