I should supplement this post with pictures of the outside, but word pictures will have to do for now.

I have friends who’ve lost power and trees during Snowpocalypse 2010, but we’ve been fortunate to be snug and happy. The Virus has passed for the most part, and it looks as if the parents dodged this bullet. We’ve been in the house nonstop since Wednesday, so we’re a little cabin feverish, but we’ve also hit our stride, I have to say.

R took yesterday off so I could get some work done. There wasn’t anything pressing at the church, especially since I was almost certain that worship would be canceled, but I’ve had several writing deadlines looming. I finished my monthly article and supplemental study guide for Denominational Magazine in record time—only five days past the deadline rather than 15 or more, as is my custom. I still have one more article for Feasting on the Word, on Zephaniah, bleh, but I am all gung-ho after receiving this note from the section editor, a former professor who now runs a Th.D. program at Little Old Southern Divinity School:

I’ve read your first two essays–they are wonderful, as I expected. You’re done with them. I thought you might like to hear that as you squeeze in your work on #3.

I made only one change in wording that I wanted to run by you. [blah blah blah].

Thanks SO much for your great work in the midst of family challenges and a time crunch.

Now, about that Th.D. program in homiletics……

Heh heh heh. Not.

While I wrote, R played with the kids, did a couple of minor projects around the house, and made these:

They’re peach pies. The star-shaped ones are even better. For dinner I made a black bean soup that was awesome and basically consisted of sauteing some onions and garlic and then opening cans. My father-in-law calls that Maximum Impact, Minimum Effort, which is my favorite cooking philosophy.

This morning we woke up to another marshmallow world. J and I were the first ones up, around 6:45. The snow had stopped but there was at least 16-17 inches on the table on our deck, and varying depths elsewhere. It started again soon after waking and snowed until just a couple of hours ago, around dinnertime. We have easily two feet of snow.

The early morning was pleasant. The girls were snuggled on the couch under an afghan that R’s grandmother knitted for him so many years ago (that would make her so happy). Each girl had a Tinkerbell doll and were dreaming up some game…

M: [rolling a ball, singing a song] The moonstone is rolling away…….
C: No it’s not.
M: [reversing course, continuing to sing without missing a beat] The moonstone is not rolling away……

J requested his Bin O’ Vehicles and picked out a small plane to fly around. He would count before liftoff, which sounds like “Too, Fee, Fee, Fee, Fee!! [airplane sound that every boy seems born able to do]”

I made myself some chai and sat in the corner with my feet up, working on a knitted tank top I started for M two years ago. Thankfully I made it big at the time, knowing how I am. It was going to look like this but I cannot find the ruffle anywhere in this house and all I have is the body of the tank. So I’m knitting some i-cords to attach and tie over each shoulder. It’s the only way I get this thing done before she outgrows it. Her belly already threatens to pooch out a little at the bottom…

Speaking of outgrowing things, I knitted a sweater for C three years ago that she just now can wear… as a somewhat cropped style. Yes, I’m a knitter of splendidly imperfect projects.

After R woke up we had his homemade multigrain pancakes which are awesome. Then he went out to shovel which just happened to coincide with the kids’ first whiny/cranky moment of the day. ??? I had resolved that every time they got into that state that I would get them doing something physical—dancing, red light green light, whatever. This morning it was “YMCA,” “Greased Lightning” and “Jump Around” by House of Pain. This afternoon (after a long bath and lunch) it was energizers: “Istanbul” (which I have on video) and “500 Miles.” If you don’t know what energizers are, you’re either not Presbyterian or you’re over the age of 50 or both…

While J napped and R did some computer stuff, the girls and I watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was on my mind since we seem to be experiencing one hundred years of winter, albeit with no Turkish Delight in sight. I was a little worried that the girls might find it too scary, but R read the book to them and I was able to prepare them for some of the intense scenes. When we did most favorite/least favorite at dinner they both said the movie was their favorite thing about the day.

Tomorrow’s plan will be more puttering, playing outside (finally) and a couple of home projects, including moving my desk to the art room. I also gave R a gift of service at Christmas in which I offered to clean out our spices, throw away the old stuff (some of which is a decade old), and replenish his stock at the Penzey’s near Tiny Church. I’d love to really organize stuff too, but I’m not sure how effective that will be in the current cabinet, which is the only space currently available.

I said after the significant snow we had in December that I enjoyed the weekend at home together, just the five of us, so much that I’m tempted to schedule a “snow weekend” each year during which, regardless of the weather, we just lock ourselves in and enjoy one another with no outside distractions. That said, some of my teacher friends are predicting that we don’t go back to school until Thursday. Help me Rhonda.

BONUS CONVERSATION:
While tucking M into bed:
Me: I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be snowed in with than you three children and your daddy. You all are just so special.
M: But Daddy is the specialest because he shovels!