It has been snowing all day, and I count my blessings to live in a place where it snows this much, even if these amazing storms are the result of climate change. But that is not where I am going.
I am just beginning this thing called blogging on the eve of my 46th birthday. My neck aches and my ears ring and I am tired, but I needed to begin this process tonight, since I have neglected it for the past 355 nights. I am not going to go into the details of my life tonight. They will unfurl themselves as they occur to me and right now , I am just concerned with the small things of life, like my mittens.
I am a mom of 3 kids, 2 with extra ordinary needs, so I am good at putting on mittens, boots, jackets, hats, snowpants- you name it. But I cannot figure out how I am supposed to get that final detail- the second mitten - onto my own hand; more precisely: how do I get it pulled over the bulge of my jacket to avoid that ring of pink frozen skin at my wrist.
I tucked, I wiggled, I stuffed the bulky fabric. I then got my teeth into the action and bit the mitten and pulled it back up over the jacket. Success came slowly and incompletely, but enough to tromp the snowshoes down to the site of the snow emerging snow tunnel, and plunge my hands into the white froth to "unstuck" a kid who doesn't quite have the coordination to pull themselves out of a face plant.
Dad has the building project well in hand, so I am off to snow shoe a ski path in the 2 feet of snow.
As I write this, I count 8 pairs of boots, both ski and pac, some lined up , some tossed in front of the fire. Coats and ski pants draped over the drying rack and socks and mittens not quite cascading out the the other drying rack above the stove. One dog moans in his sleep at my feet;the humidifiers hum as they coat the windows with ice and my eyelids begin to droop. It has been a long day-- the snow still falls. Should I flush an icicle down the toilet as Miss H asked me to? (a sure fire way to guarantee a snow day) I think not. I have had enough of being awake. for this day. The second so much to be discovered learned celebrated laughed cried explored sweated loved grown begins tomorrow. Thanks to my mom and pop for seeing fit to bring me into this world. It is a crazy ride. Good night
