Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Our Snow Day

By 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon, I was finally convinced that we'd get our snow day. And, as predicted, the snow began falling steadily at about 6:00 p.m. Ahhh...the joy of the impending snow day. Another glass of wine? Why yes, I don'thave to get up in the morning. Watch something on late night t.v.? Why not? There's no reason to go to bed early. I slept in on our snow day until 8:30. 8:30!!! Sleeping that late almost feels like what sleeping until noon felt like when I was a teenager. It was glorious.

We spent our snow day like most other Memphians - walking around our neighborhood, making a snowman, and making our bellies burst with hot chocolate. We enjoyed meeting several of our neighbors on our walk. I even have a few sore muscles from shoveling snow and essentially doing endless repitions of squats while building two snowmen.

Two snowmen? Yes. Two. The first we built in our front yard. While putting the last nandina berry-button on our snowman, our neighbor, a seven year old girl I'll call E, came by and asked if she could help. Bummer. We just finished. E looked disappointed, so we offered to help build another snowman in her yard. E lives with her mom and newborn brother, both of whom would not come outside because of the cold weather. So, we decided to help her build her snowlady in her own yard. We even had it face a window so mom and baby brother could see.

Next up, snowball fight. I don't think E enjoyed that too much since Charlie has horrible aim. And by horrible aim, I mean he would try to aim for your back, arm, or leg but would inevitably smash the snowball in your face or the worst of all of the terrible places to be pelted with a snowball - the back of your neck. Aghhh! I hate when that happens. Just writing this makes me cringe thinking about the feeling of ice cold snow smashing me in the neck and then trickling down inside my coat, only to melt leaving me wet and chilled.

I finally suggested we go inside when I felt the aching cold in my toes and realized our clothes were almost soaked. Into the warm we went for a little hot chocolate therapy. No lie - hot chocolate is my favorite thing about winter. That and watching my boys giggle and play in the snow, all bundled up in their winter gear. I LOVE snow days.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Simple Things

While discussing the new year with my husband the other day, I realized that I feel rather apathetic about it. Thinking back over the past year does not bring me much of a sense of accomplishment, and I really do not have anything to look forward to during this new year. Yes, I will watch my children grow and discover new ways that they can make me laugh. Yes, I hope to get more fit, read more, and more or less take better care of myself in both the physical and mental capacities. But I just don't feel like there is much around the corner in 2011. It's just more of the same. Now, I know that consistency is not a bad thing. I just really like change. I'm the kind of person who thrives on have something big to look forward to. I'm sure there will, of course, be all kinds of change in the coming year that I am unaware of at the moment. For now, though, I feel the need to reflect on all of the wonderful simple things that make my life happy.
  • My children
  • My wonderful husband who always forgives my bouts of insanity
  • A house to call home
  • A job with a decent income
  • Great friends
  • Good food and wine
  • A healthy family and health insurance
  • My new book club
  • A current library card with no holds on it
  • A (hopefully!) income tax return since we spent an arm and a leg on a new energy efficient furnace and air conditioner last summer (we have not had an income tax return the entire time we've been married)
  • Enough painting supplies to last me a while
  • Parents who love our children and will babysit them almost whenever we ask
  • Our YMCA membership
  • A possibility that we will be able to get out from under a large chunk of our debt this year
  • A Christmas Wii so I can play "tennis" almost any time I want
  • A newfound desire to write on this blog again (since summer, I pretty much felt compelled to write nothing for fear it would be a long string of complaints)
I am sure I am leaving things out of what feels like a What I am Thankful for Thanksgiving post. But I think it captures where I am right now at the beginning of this new year. Hopefully, next year, I'll be able to write about all of the wonderful unexpected adventures I have experienced in 2011. For now, though, I am more than satisfied.