Winter Shows Off

I've never seen so many kinds of precipitation fall from the sky in one winter. It seems as if winter is showing off: "Look how many ways I can complicate your life! Look how many reasons I can give you to cancel school!" But there is also this: "Look how beautiful the trees are when God flocks them all in white frost!" And: "Look how pretty the icy trees are back-lit by the sun!"

Ok, ok. We see the beauty, we appreciate the fact that we have no control over the weather, we give credit to the One who does have control, we take extra precautions when we venture out, we reschedule our lives and accept that we will be spending part of June at school. BUT ENOUGH ALREADY!!! My husband jokingly told Victor and Dennis this morning that we were going to have to send them home- we can't take any more of this and whoever we have offended is going to get them back! I'm glad they laughed.

Dennis was delighted to see the sun Sunday morning- we all felt a tiny glimpse of hope. But alas, by the time church was over, we were back under an overcast sky, the wind had switched, and by nightfall the snow had started again. Almost every day he asks me, "When is the snow going to melt?" All I can say is that each day we are closer to spring. I'm not sure he believes me anymore.

One good way to boost our spirits is to serve others. Both Victor and Dennis are always willing to do that, and last week was no exception. We organized some other kids and picked up branches- casualties from the ice storm- and chipped at ice for elderly folks in town for 3 hours in the cold and wet. (see picture) They were real troopers! And it helped that the kids were having fun throwing snowballs by the end of the day.

Victor has been wanting to walk on frozen water, so on the way home from our clean up project (since we were already wet and dirty), we stopped at a nearby lake to walk on the water. We took a quick picture to record the event and hastened home to get out of our wet socks!

The snowball fight (and our wet feet) signaled the end of our ice storm day home from school. But not the end of winter, I'm afraid. Good to know the sun is still there, even though we can't see it!