A picture to tantalize you of the wonderful seasons to come: spring and summer.
There’s a new four-letter word in the continental United States: snow. Many parts of the United States haven’t just been affected by snow; they’ve been deluged. To paraphrase a scene from Forrest Gump, we’ve had fried snow, snow jumbo, snow fricassee, snow scampi, and baked snow. In other words, there’s been so much snow and ice around the continental forty-eight that no one wants to hear about it anymore. So what am I doing? I’m writing about my family’s snow day. That is quickly becoming a snow week.
Four kids, one roof. There are some general truths about adulthood. Once you graduate college, people tend to look at the ring finger of your left hand. Is there someone special in your life? Are you engaged? If so, who is that special someone? If not, why not? Is there something wrong with you?
Then you meet that special someone and the two of you announce your engagement. The questions change. When are you getting married? The stories change. Once an engagement ring is slipped on your finger, everyone starts regaling you with stories of his or her wedding. Oh, I remember the time. It goes by so quickly. It goes by so slowly. You hear joyful stories, but you also hear the horror stories. His cousin twice removed got plastered. The dog ate my cake. I got jilted.
You get married, and you think you’re in the clear. The questions change yet again. When are you going to have children? Once again, the stories change. Maybe you’ll be in the break room when you get assaulted with the question followed by anecdotal stories. When I was married for a year, we had our first child. Oh yeah, we had twins. Oh yeah, we had quintuplets.
Then you have your first sweet child. That sigh of relief is almost palpable. Everyone will now get off your back. You’ll be in the clear. Soon you’ll be the person asking the questions instead of being on the receiving end. Nope. The questions only change again. When’s the darling little baby going to have a baby brother or sister?
It’s only after the second child, the questions stop coming. There are those of us, though, who didn’t stop at two. In case of my WH and myself, we went for a third and lo and behold, we had twins. The questions started all over again, but this time there were preceding snips. You have a boy and a girl. Why’d you go from man-to-man to zone defense?
Usually I shrug the questions off with a grin. I love all of them. Even with lots of love in my heart, I know snow days are hard and sometimes try my patience. So what to do?
Movie night. I’ve told them all that tonight I’m introducing them to one of the greatest joys in life: Bringing Up Baby. Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Asta as George and a leopard. It’s age appropriate for all of them, and it’s one of the best movies ever made. This morning, I bought extra popcorn specifically for this purpose. Tonight there’s no Scout meeting, late practices, or any other excuse for us not to sit together and watch a movie (unless the power goes out and in which case, I have my laptop).
Books. I have a great slate of books. I just finished Jill Shalvis’ Forever and a Day and Tanya Michaels’ Mistletoe Mommy. Those are two romance novels that will definitely steam up your winter days with some fun and sassy characters. I recommend anything by either of those excellent romance authors. I’ve just started Debby Giusti’s The Officer’s Secret. After two chapters, I’m enjoying this romantic inspirational thriller. I can’t wait to read more of it.
Food. One good thing about six people under one roof is that each of us has different favorite foods. On the way home from picking up the twins at preschool yesterday, I stopped at the grocery store with the four of them, telling them they could each pick out a snack. I’m a chocoholic and I knew I had enough chocolate at home. My WH told me today he picked up queso dip after work yesterday because he wanted that. At the store, Kath asked if we had popcorn. MJ picked out his favorite type of yogurt. Chunk picked out a cantaloupe. And, believe it or not, Cupcake wanted celery. So we have enough food to last a while. Plus the good news for Cupcake is I don’t think we’ll all be running to the refrigerator for an extra stalk of celery when our snack cravings take over.
How have you made it through winter in your neck of the woods? Let me know.