SNOW!

It definitely fell in capital letters around here last week. It took local schools 2 days to clear roads and sidewalks enough to be able to get kids to school. Many people were stuck at home due to drifted in roads (like my hubby and at least one of my uncles), or because their workplace had no power (like my dad). 

This is the view out of our front door when we woke up that morning. That's a 3 + foot drift!

Front-of-the-garage drift compared to hubby's car.

 After a bit of digging. This stuff was packed solid!

And boy did the kids have fun playing in it!

End of our driveway. That's how drifted the roads were. 

Mailbox. Now that the plows have been by, you can ONLY see the box part. The pole has disappeared entirely.

Shoveled drift taller than C.

Finally got all dug out. It wasn't as bad as some got, thank goodness we were too far north to get the freezing rain. Ice is far harder to drive in than snow. But this was such fun for the kids! The yard looks messy but played-in, which is such a good look. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

I'm the first to admit that patience and creativity in parenting do not come easily to me. I struggle with the prospect of vacations, 4-day school weeks, and especially spontaneous days off such as snow days. I have to force myself to come up with activities for everyone on such days. Every day I find myself having to take deep breaths not to get impatient with their innocent, childish actions.

I read a blog of a woman who puts me to shame in this department. If heaven were based on our parenting abilities, she would have a seat at Christ's right hand, and I would be staring through the pearly gates. She is creative, patient, doesn't mind the little messes, takes 5 (5!) children with her to Target and the Post Office and inside banks (I don't even take my 1 kid inside banks with me if I can get everything done at the ATM). She has no problem with them jumping on her furniture and chuckles when they write on the kitchen table. Mommyhood comes more than naturally to her, she's a genius.

However. She is very transparent and also blogs about her marriage struggles. She is brutally honest about the fact that she and her husband have more than their fair share of arguments, and that she has left the house occasionally to escape the stress. Humbly, this is not an area my husband and I struggle with. We do get along well. He has stuck with me through, literally, sickness and health, rich and poor, in good times and in bad.

I won't go into it all at the risk of sounding like I'm bragging, but marriage is the area in my life that I have some strength. I don't know why God has blessed us in that area, but he has and I feel blessed. And I know this other mother would see it that way and be happy for me, just as I try to be happy for her that she is so blessed in the parenting department.

For her, she has to work on learning to love and submit to her husband daily. For me, my weekly, daily, hourly lesson is patience and loving my kids right where they are. Seems odd for a mom to say, huh? But there it is. We all have these weaknesses, right? I hope I'm not alone in this.

Tentative

Recently my hubby lost his job in a surprising, un-foreseen, over all very, I guess, ODD turn of events. He does have a new job already again, so we are okay, just confused about the whole series of events.

We were talking about it just a couple nights ago. A thought struck me as we talked. We have been through a lot. I don't delude myself that we have the most tragic lives ever, but I have to admit we have been through a lot in our lives.

Anyway, my thought went something like this. Everything that has gone on, especially the surprising, unexpected nature of everything, has made me a bit tentative about stepping into the future.  With this whole job thing I've had to consciously take my thoughts and hand them over to God. I've had to make myself think about the fact that God has us in his hands and he is bringing us to where he wants us to be.

But even as I think these things, I am nervous. I look ahead and I think, wow. Look at all he's allowed to happen in our lives thus far. What's he going to allow to happen in the future? And it kinda scares me. I realize that doesn't fit neatly into the 'I trust God' mold that we Christians are all supposed to have. I'm supposed to say I trust him in all this and I'm happy to go wherever he leads. But sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I just want to be able to stay in one place, going about my business, living comfortably where we are. 


I know we'll look back and think about how blessed we are to have lived this life. And I already see a lot of beauty in what God has brought us through. We have three gorgeous girls, and a strong, happy marriage. I hope we have touched some people along the way. But where I stand now, I am very tentative about looking into the future. It seems to have been one surprise after another, with scarcely a year in there since I turned 17 that didn't have something scary or unfortunate happen in it. We have a running list! :D It's made me a bit gun-shy. Can you blame me? Am I being melodramatic?