It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that we have received a ton of snow in Charles Town. The kids have been out of school since the 5th, and Bill has been home for a few days here and there.
1. I had no idea that Parker and I had a routine until Stewart and dad interrupted it. I knew that I liked to go to the gym after we got Stewart on the bus. But I didn't realize how disruptive it was to not be able to maintain that same schedule. I get up in the morning and I go. I don't need to sit around and drink a cup of coffee, and read the newspaper (does anyone still do that other than my dad!?) or watch the news. I like to get up, get dressed, and go to the gym. I usually don't eat or drink anything. I just like to go. But the weather has caused the kids' clubhouse to be closed at the gym so I'm forced to go in the afternoon, when it opens at 4:30 or not go at all. I don't like the changes in my schedule - especially when I do not necessarily want the change.
2. I stocked up the fridge and the pantry. I feel like I have been cooking for an army - three meals a day, every day. I'm kinda tired of cooking. I'm tired of having to think of something to make. I hope I am not burned out (no pun intended!) because I think cooking is my one hobby, the one thing I think I am good at. Buti am just a little fatigued from all of the cooking that has to be done when four people are trapped inside a house for days and days and days and days. Today we got some sandwiches from Jersey Mike's. I don't know if it was because I didn't have to cook or if I really wanted a sandwich - but that was the best damn sandwich I have ever had. It's one of the few things that everyone in the house will eat. Parker has become the most picky eater - he's a non eater. He hardly eats anything. I have started giving him a nutritional supplement. He eats cheese, crackers, sometimes cereal, sometimes scrambled eggs, rice, noodles, and chicken tenders. I remember Stewart went through phases where he wouldn't eat hardly anything, and then he went through a phase where he would eat anything, and he's back to being a picky eater. Sometimes I just want to say, "Just FN eat! I'm not a restaurant!" I am so tired of making 3 dinners or trying to customize dinner in hopes that they will eat what I make.
3. Parker is a very funny little boy. He is trying soo hard to talk. Sometimes he just rambles on and on and on - and you know he thinks he is talking. He thinks he is saying something but it's not real actual words. Its sounds - and it's really cute. It's cute because he has that adorable little baby voice and because you can see that he is trying so hard. Holly said she has decided that Parker is an old man trapped in a baby body, and he doesn't like being trapped in this baby body. It's true. This is just another example of him being an old man in a baby body.
4. Shoveling snow sucks. I don't think it's ever really a good time but it sucks more when you are trying to remove 40+ inches of snow from the driveway and the walkway and porch. It's made more miserable when it doesn't stop snowing. When you are outside, shoveling your little heart out and when you get down to the end of the walkway, and you look back at your work and you can't tell that you did anything, when everything is still covered in white - that sucks. I have some stupid shoulder pain that is aggrivated by this class that I like to take at the gym. It's also aggrivated by shoveling snow. But when you can't get out of the house to go to the gym, shoveling snow is exercise.
5. Part I - Knit loungey pants are not adequate for spending an hour outside shoveling snow. I don't really have proper snow attire. We don't go skiing and I just know that as soon as the entire family gets suited up - it will never snow again. So i don't have snow pants. But it doesn't stop me from joining the boys outside or from aiding in the snow removal. My favorite lounge pants are cropped black knit pants. They are loose and soft and I love them. So I tucked them into my rain boots (because I also don't own snow boots) and I threw on a hat, a scarf, gloves, and a jacket and set off to try to shovel off the deck. I had a few things motivating me. #1. I needed to get out of the house before I went crazy on someone. #2 I also needed to get some exercise. #3 Bill and I were starting to get concerned about the weight of the snow and how it would affect our deck. #4 (most importantly) I wanted Bill to grill a steak for me on Valentine's day. Some of you have been to the house and you know where the grill sets on the deck - as far from the door as it could possibly be! So me, looking cute in my hat and matching red and white-ness with my lame black knit pants on - i stepped out onto the deck. It was deep. You've seen the pictures. I shoveled and shoveled and I made a nice path from the door over to the section of the deck with the grill. I cleared off the snow from that whole section. I made a nice walkway to the grill. But it took me at least an hour. I remember thinking at one point that I was impressed with my lame knit pants - they weren't wet despite being covered in snow and my legs weren't cold.
6. Part II - The body is an amazing thing. There I am, out there in single digit wind chill temperatures, all proud of myself for shovling so much snow and for doing it for an hour. And I was surprisingly not cold. Until I went inside. It was really weird. As soon as I stepped inside I was freezing cold and my feet started itching like crazy (which i assume had something to do with blood flow) but my legs were bright red and numb. I put my hands on my legs - my hands registered that they were super super cold - but my leg did not feel my hands' touch. It was weird. It was a moment where I only knew there was a hand on my leg because it was my own hand and my hand was telling my brain how cold my leg was. Despite feeling so warm outside, my body was cold. My hands were cold, my feet and legs were cold - and my face was cold. It was actually my numb and cold face that signled to my brain that I should go in. Stewart was waving at me from the window and I was trying to smile back at him - but my face was numb and as much as I thought I was, I couldn't feel my face smiling at him. It took me HOURS - like THREE HOURS to warm up. My legs remained cold for much longer than my hands and face and feet.
7. Pay it forward - When we had the big snow in December, one of our neighbors got their 4dw truck stuck in the ditch in front of our next door neighbor's house. I volunteered Bill's big strongness to help get them out. And it just dawned on me today that you tend to help out your neighbors in extreme situations. And the other day, when I had the adventure where I ended up walking home before I got offered the ride - everyone was trying to help each other. No one seemed put out or irritated - it just seemed like the right thing to do. Another example, Monday we were coming home from going to the gym and getting some lunch - we were getting off rt 9, and there was a guy stuck at the top of the off ramp. So Bill got out and helped him. We could have easily gone around him - but it only took a few seconds for him to get out and help push the guy out.
8. Part I - I don't really appreciate things until I don't have them or until there is a threat of losing them. Our cable and internet was out all day Saturday. I never really think of us as a family that watches a lot of tv - but the tv is always on in the back ground. The internet - that's a different story. Bill and I are both enrolled in online classes - I can't turn in assignments or do research when i can't get online! How can I check facebook, email, upload pictures, download music????? It was kindeve refreshing. Sometimes I wish we would turn off the TV more - and I enjoyed not having it on. Had it been longer than 24 hours, I might not have enjoyed it as much. The biggest problem with our cable being down - I never knew what time it was. With cable box in every room, we don't have separate clocks in every room. The cable box displays the time front and center but when the cable is out - it read 12:00 until the cable is back up. I had a huge fear of the electricity going out. That would leave us with no light, no heat, no cooking, no creature comforts that spoil us on a daily basis. of course we would have survived, and it may have been a big fun adventure but I'm glad we didn't have to find out. Bill and I would have been fine - but I always worry about the kids. I'm always worried about them being cold, or thirsty, or hungry, or bored. Having no power would have left them very cold, hungry, and bored.
9. Part II - I don't like being stuck in the house. I like things like freedom and independence. I like being able to get in the car so I can drive up to McDonalds and get the kids a happy meal. i like being able to drive up to the gym, work up a sweat, burn calories, and then i really enjoy sitting in the sauna for 30 minutes and reading a book. But when the roads are crap and the weather is crap and the snow isn't stopping - I am forced to be housebound. I am trapped. I am a prisoner. i don't like having 5 gallons of milk in the fridge because I couldn't go up to the store to get more if we needed it. I just like being able to get out and I can't do so in this weather.
10. Snow is really pretty - up to about 14 inches. It becomes less pretty as you can see it STACKING up in strata against the windows. When all you can see when you look outside is pure beautiful white blanketing the neighborhood, the field behind the house, the entire landscape is covered in white. Snow is not pretty when there is so much of it that you become concerned with the integirty of your roof, of the deck - when someone tells you a story about snow sliding off the roof of their house and going through the windshield of their car. When the snow is too deep to walk to the sledding hill, when it's too deep for me to carry Parker out in the back to play, when each step is trying to suck my boot off my foot, when you take a step and you don't know how far you are going to sink down (a few inches in packed snow, 40 inches in unpacked snow). And there is no end in sight. The forecast shows snow on Monday and Thursday of next week. I need Stewart to get back to school. I need to be able to get out and go somewhere if I so desire. I's just too much!
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