Tomorrow is a Snow Day!

Yippee! Hooray! Not only is it a Thursday snow day (a day I am usually at school) it is also a snow day when I am teaching Kindergarten! So now all the things I haven't been doing at my house, I can stay home and do. And I can finish some sewing projects and maybe Thomas won't have to go to work either!

Yippee! You know the best part of it is that it isn't snowing yet.

Thats not what I meant to do

How many times do I think that every day.

I spill my tea, I cut myself, I complain, I run into the table and bruise my leg, I forget to wake up, I say something nasty, I think snide remarks, I criticize, I spend too much time on-line, I forget to read my Bible, I spend more time imagining stories (not ones about fictional characters, but the type where I figure out how my life and conversations are going to go) rather than pondering the goodness of God, I worry, I mess-up, I color outside of the lines, I add wrong, I spell wrong...

But my intentions are good.

I intend to wake up happy and alert. Then make breakfast and lunches cheerfully. I intend to be careful and not accidentally injure myself. I intend to not be cynical, but only say things that are helpful for everyone. I intend to say loving things, be more diligent, and practice my spelling and grammar.

It's the thought that counts, right?

No, what counts isn't what I have done or what I meant to do.

What matters is that Jesus Loves Me.

Leaks

Our kitchen ceiling leaks.

Whenever we get a big snow and then it begins to melt, we get drips into our kitchen. It usually is just a bit by the door, but this time it is more extensive. Thomas has put a fan up in the ceiling to try to dry it out and shoveled all the snow off that roof, but there were new leak spots this morning. So now my tiny kitchen that is filled up with dirty dishes and general mess has the lovely addition of leak spots and being unsure whether or not the tiling will fall down over everything.

Our landlord is coming soon to fix it. Yay for landlords!

Snow Day

You know the quiet sound of snow falling? When all the sounds are deadened into the hush of the snow? When you feel in your inner ear the sound of the snowflakes touching the ground or dancing with each other? Today was like that.

When I woke up and saw the snow, I felt very alive. The chilly air invigorated my mind, and though I climbed back into bed, I was awake (and pesty, but nevermind that bit). I knew it could be a creative day. So I sewed all morning. I am almost done with a dress for myself. Then I will begin a project for my sister-in-law. It was relaxing and beautiful to see the dress take shape under my hands. I haven't sewn for a while and it was thrilling to feel the skill come back. I didn't use my new machine, which is really my grandmothers 1950 Singer, Model 99 - such a beautiful machine!

Instead I used my more modern machine that is mostly plastic and shakes like it is going to fall apart sometimes, but it still worked well. (One of the most amazing things about my new old machine is the button holer. Wow, it is so easy to make a button hole now. I love it. I could rave for days about the beauty and simplicity of this amazing little contraption.)

I didn't finish the dress yet because I have gotten distracted by other things, like the internet and dishes, but I might be able to get the sleeves on before I go to bed. Tomorrow's classes are already canceled so maybe it will be another creative snow day.

When I woke up, I planned to write a poem about the snow, but all I could think of were the words of "The First Snowfall" by James Russell Lowell.

The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.

Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.

Oh What a Day!

Watching my grandparents is a very interesting opportunity. Grandma is very forgetful, but she knows it and can be reminded every 6 minutes of the most urgent things. This can get tiring and it is very sad to see her this way, but she is very sweet and can easily be distracted. Grandpa on the other hand gets these notions. They don't make sense and he cannot be reasoned with.

Yesterday, Thomas and I had the opportunity to spend the day with them and my sister. Oh what a day! Until around 3:00 everything was just fine. That was when Grandma decided it was time to go home, and Grandpa decided he was going to take her there. After a little bit, we distracted Grandma with a puzzle and had a lovely time, but Grandpa sat by the window and stared out. We explained that Mom and Dad were coming back, but that he couldn't take the cars that he saw anywhere, and he wasn't going anywhere, and that it wasn't Sunday, or Monday, or any other day but Saturday, and that he lived in this house and that his son was taking care of the farm, and that he could get the mail, but not go anywhere in the car.

We explained this periodically for the next three hours, but we couldn't get him to not look out the window, which was making it worse. We tried to distract him, make him comfortable, explain to him, hide his boots, but no, but 5:30 he was so positive he needed to go out to the car, he tried to push my sister out of the way.

We locked the doors and told him we didn't know what was wrong with them.

In the meantime, we also needed to make pizza. We had started the dough around 3, but it hadn't risen very much at all. So we thought we would try to roll it out anyway, but it wouldn't stick together. So by 6:30, when we thought Mom and Dad where going to be home, the pizza wasn't made, Grandpa was trying to escape, Thomas was making sure he didn't, we couldn't get ahold of Mom to see what we should do about supper (to see if she had anything else in mind, or if we should go find something at a store, or what), and Kate and I were at the end of our wits. We just sat down on the kitchen floor and began to laugh.

That must have helped, because after that I got the idea to make biscuits, one thing I am really good at making. Shortly after I started to mix the dough, Mom and Dad came home. Daddy took care of Grandpa, Mom helped me with the pizza, Kate laughed with Grandma who was happy so happy to see her long awaited daughter, and Thomas played Pac-Man on his computer. We ate supper late, but it was very yummy and everyone was happy.

By the way, we made pizza with a biscuit crust. It was really good, but next time, we will remember to put a little garlic in the dough.

Narnia Quote

“Once and for all,” said the prisoner, “I adjure you to set me free. By all fears and all loves, by the bright skies of Overland, by the great Lion, by Aslan himself, I charge you—“

“Oh!” cried the three travelers as though they had been hurt. “It’s the Sign,” said Puddleglum. “It was the words of the Sign,” said Scrub more cautiously. “Oh, what are we to do?” said Jill.

“It was a dreadful question. What had been the use of promising one another that they would not on any account set the Knight free, if they were now to do so the first time he happened to call upon a Name they really cared about? On the other hand, what had been the use of learning the Signs if they weren’t going to obey them? Yet could Aslan have really meant them to unbind anyone—even a lunatic—who asked it in his name? Could it be a mere accident? Or how if the Queen of the Underworld knew all about the Signs and had made the Knight learn this name simply in order to entrap them? But then, supposing this was the real Sign? . . . They had muffed three already; they daren’t muff the fourth.

“Oh, if only we knew!” said Jill.

“I think we do know,” said Puddleglum.

“Do you mean you think everything will come right if we do untie him?” said Scrubb.

“I don’t know about that,” said Puddleglum. “You see, Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the Sign.”

~The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

Sometimes we need to stop worrying about what might happen and start doing as much as we know we ought to do.