A snow day, aged one year.

Written on January 18th, 2022

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In the wee hours of yesterday morning we received at least 10 inches of snow. It’s the biggest snow I can remember and certainly the biggest in our children’s lives.

This snow conveniently fell on Martin Luther King Jr. day and Brad had the day off. He spent much of it shoveling. Shoveling our drive, shoveling the walk in front of the school, shoveling my dad’s drive, and then back to help shovel some of the students get out of their spots. He was fairly exhausted after that but still took the opportunity to go pick up some snowed-in friends so they could sled with us.

“I’m going to build a fire,” he said. With a few pieces of dry wood and tons of cardboard, by golly in that 10 deep inches of snow Brad got a fire started. It made my dreams come true, to see kids out there sledding down our big ol’ hill and warming their paws around the fire when they needed it. Next year it might be the time to turn the little cabin into a hot chocolate shack.

It takes two to make a dream life, and I’m grateful for this husband who sees opportunities to make it beautiful and dreamy and old fashioned for us. In his exhaustion from helping everyone else (on his day off no less) he still spent time starting a cozy fire in the snow.

I went out to enjoy the scene and realized Solomon only had knit gloves on and his hands had become red icicles. I told him to come in for a bit to warm up so we could look for better gloves, and realized he had missed lunch when he was helping Brad shovel. Needless to say the cold hands, exhaustion, and hunger made for quite the momentary dramatic mess. I made a pitiful hot dog, wrapped in a still frozen falling apart bun that he was able to dissect and eat. I then threw in an offering of broken chips and a cookie. That seemed to help him feel quite better.

For dinner we all ate bowls of sausage and potato soup that had been simmering on the stove since lunch.

Brad said he would hold down the fort while we went back out for dusky sledding. I tended the fire and hiked back up the hill after a few great runs down. Maggie still does not seem to like sledding and cried most of the way down the hill. It seemed a waste of fun to have taken her down only to have to carry her bawling self back up again. The sky was still slightly pink after we all decided enough was enough.
After showers to warm up, and a show or two, some very tired kids were in bed.

It was one of the most memorable snow days I think we’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was the10 inches, Brad being off work, the fire, or perhaps a combination of all, but it was a January day well spent.

The joy I felt yesterday rivaled that I feel on a beautiful spring or summer day, and we know that feeling is often hard to come by in the middle of an Ohio winter.