Week 15: Snow!
It’s here! The snow is finally here!
“Flakes, flurries, swirls, crystals—whatever form it comes in, I’ll take it.” – Lorelai Gilmore
The kids were so excited when the snow finally arrived. Up until this point all winter snow had been a no-show.
In recent years, I have not been a fan of winter. When I was a kid you could find me bundled up on every snow day building forts, tunneling in the snow banks, stock piling snowballs readying for the inevitable snow war, making designs with my footprints, snow angels, sledding… it was a magical new world. Then I got older and tensely drove several times without my tires finding any dry patches. The wind seemed to grow more intense and find its way through the seams of my clothes. Indoors under a blanket was so much more inviting than the scene outside my windows. My kids had friends to meet them out there everyday so I let them have their time to play while I got some things done inside.
Win-win right? Well, two things happened simultaneously. Over the last year, several of our neighborhood friends moved away. They were some of the kids our kids grew up with and played with every second they could. We as parents grew up together as well. We had similar philosophies about raising kids and giving them the freedom and responsibility to play, and when to intervene or let them work through their issues. Their absence was difficult to fill. At the same time, my baby was going off to school. Life was changing and suddenly instead of having two little ones at home, I had two school-age kids. My roll, my favorite I’ve ever played, as stay-at-home mom was changing. I had to be an adult and let a piece of both of my boys go while they were given over to education by someone else. I felt this deep. It resonated through my bones, because I knew the moment they were born, one day they would leave. I was to prepare them for that, and myself. This was a major step in that direction and churned in my belly. I began to see all the moments I was missing. I started seeing how the neighbors moving, while we still miss them all the time, may have also been a bit of a blessing. My boys became better friends to each other and I got some of their time when they normally would have been racing out the door.
So when the snow came, we shoveled the driveway as a family. We had a snowball fight with our neighbor friends down the street. We built a tiny snowman with acorn eyes and a funny hat. We sledded down a small hill between the neighbors’ houses. And I began to fall back in love with the snow. It is really beautiful when a cover of white crystals makes the world look clean and new. It is worth the effort to get out from under my warm blanket and bundle up to spend the time with those I love. I didn’t freeze. Memories were made.
