Winter...Finally

It’s a snowy, cold, stay-in-your-pajamas kind of day around our house. I didn’t get up and cook an elaborate breakfast (although, chocolate chip pancakes came to mind.) I didn’t have my bed riddled with children wanting to snuggle. I didn’t even sleep in. I woke at 7. For no reason at all.

I debated going to work. Jason checked the road conditions and explained to me that it just wasn’t possible. He checked again an hour later, and no change. It wasn’t worth it, he said. Plus, we have Kelin. Jason has to go to work tonight. It would have tested him to the limit to stay home with Elijah alone…but Kelin, too. That’s a whole other ballgame and he’s not playing. Kelin is stuck here. Jason promised him he’d get him home today. Kelin told me last night that he could think of worse places to be stuck and gave me a hug. A hug! I love hugs. We hug a lot in this family and Kelin rarely (actually, NEVER) adapts to that situation. But last night, he did. For the first time EVER. But he balked when Jason said he wanted a hug, too. You can’t just hug one of us. Jason playfully picked him up and squeezed him while Kelin playfully fought him off.

The boys played last night in the falling snow. I could hear their giggles coming from the make-shift hut they had created out of a tarp, the frame of a shooting target and a four-wheeler parked strategically close. I waited until almost dark and I made them some hot chocolate and carried it out to their hut. When I asked what they were playing, Elijah stared seriously at me and said, “we’re just trying to survive.”

Today, things are going differently. The boys went outside at 9. Came in 20 minutes and decided that was a bad idea. It’s super cold. The snow isn’t falling. It’s all ice. Not much fun. They were out just long enough to make a wet, cold mess by my front entrance. I’ve cleaned the house. Finished my laundry. They are quietly playing the Wii while Jason catches up on his sleep so he can leave the house by 2, take Kelin home and go to work.

All is quiet and peaceful on our home front on this beautiful, white winter day. I am so blessed and thankful for the simplicity of my life at this moment. No complications. No limitations. Happy, loving, sweet and almost-perfect.