Snow Day

My red-cheeked family just stomped thru the backdoor after playing in the backyard in the dark for awhile. Smart Guy decided to clear-off the snow from my van windows before the ice coated it and became hard as a rock before he came in. Bee is sitting on D.K. gleefully proclaiming "I'm kissing you. I'm kissing you." as her rather unhappy brother is trying to get away from her. I have buckwheat, pumpkin-pecan pancakes and sausage cooking on the stove with the time set for every three minutes to go in and flip 'em. We were supposed to have these for breakfast this morning with Smart Guy's little brother and his wife, but they called last night and said they weren't coming because of the snowstorm coming in, so we had our usual Saturday morning donuts this morning and now the pancakes on this cold, snowy, and icy evening!

I have to tell you guys, when you're upset (ticked) about something, life can have a way of turning around, looking you straight in the face, and saying, "You think this is bad? Someone else really has something to be upset about, so just move on." It's all about perspective people. The person I called today to cry to about my "issue" was kind and didn't say anything about it until I brought it up to her that I probably should have chosen another friend to cry about this issue with. You see, I'm very disappointed that my family didn't get to come in this weekend for our Christmas dinner together because of the snow. So, who did I call? Well, yesterday I talked to Ruby. Today, I called Inkling! Duh! Stupid move huh! Yah, the very person who is spending another Christmas 40 hours from her family! I do feel for her. There have been times when we've lived hours away from family that long periods of time passed between visits, but I've never lived that far away and it was never such long periods of time between visits! I'm sorry Inkling!

I talked to an old friend today. It's probably been two or three years since I've talked to her and it was fun to catch up a little. She's the mother of the two little boys whom I've always referred to as "my first children". Back in 1994, Smart Guy and I took our first ministry in Lexington, KY, and I looked in the ads for a job babysitting or in daycare. There in the Sunday ads was a family looking for someone to "care for two small boys". I called, had an interview, and was hired. It was the end of July that summer, I was twenty, the boys were five months old and newly three and barely potty trained. I fell in love immediately. I became a part of their family. They helped me thru much of my homesickness being a newly married, young woman living away from her family for the first time in her life. They gave me a family away from my family and a great job all rolled into one. I can remember watching them and thinking if I loved these two little guys who weren't mine, so much, how much I would actually love little people of my own! I left them in the summer of '96 after almost two years. I went on to start a new nanny position in Atlanta when we moved the next month. I quit after two months. After working for my Lexington family and being part of their family, I just couldn't get used to working for a family that treated me like the hired help as they did. When I mentioned to her why I was quiting, her response was, "well, you are the hired help." I've wondered many times if she ever did catch on to treating the caregiver of your child with love and respect as my Lexington family did with me! I cherish all of them! They aren't small anymore though! The oldest one, who was three when I started with them, is now 16 years old, 6' 4" tall, and weighs in at 200 pounds. So, he's now 14 inches taller and 70 pounds heavier than his Miss Grace. That makes me feel so old! He's looking at med school to follow in the footsteps of several generations of his family. Wow, the pride, I mean, I know he's not mine, but I do hold some claim on him, very small, but some.


Well, we've now finished dinner, the snow has turned to freezing rain, and D.K. is complaining of the shivers and a sore throat! NOOOOO! We do not have time for a sick child this week! I'm still not totally over my nasty cold yet. It's been over three weeks since I got sick. I'm ready to be done with it already! I've been working on getting all of the goodies packaged up to give out tomorrow and Monday to friends and teachers! My dining room table is covered with little, red goodie boxes full of sugary goodness ready to be closed up and handed-off. I tried to take a picture of the yummy stuff, but apparently my camera has decided that the new batteries I put in aren't strong enough to power it, so you'll just have to imagine it. So far today I have made gooey-butter bars, 7-layer bars, and scotcheroos. I have the filling for dirt balls chillin' in the fridge awaiting their bath in melted milk chocolate just before their dive into a pot of "dirt"!! My children have been drooling all day just smelling it all! We've had to keep a close eye on the beast today as he's been walking around with his nose pointed straight up in the air and occasionally puts his chin on the table to try to snatch what he considers to be his rations of the Christmas goodies! He actually ate a loaf and a half of banana bread right off the counter where it was cooling a couple evenings ago, while we were at swim and basketball practice. The basement door didn't get shut when we left and he decided that he'd just waltz upstairs and help himself. I was furious with him of course and he knew it. The next morning, he still wouldn't look me in the eyes, and everytime I asked him if he was "bad", he'd get up and walk to the other room! He truly is a pain in the bahooney, but we love him. So goes life with a dog the size of a moose!

I'm gonna post a few pics of our Meals on Wheels route so you can see just how far out in the sticks we go. BTW, thanks for the prayers last week while we did the route in the snow, sorry I never got back to you guys about how that went. The snow was deep and it was slick in many places. We got slightly stuck a couple times and really, super stuck one time. I thought for awhile that we were gonna have to spend the night at the house we were at, but Smart Guy finally got it out after about 10 minutes of trying and we got thru the route safe and sound. Most of the people were surprised to see us, assuming that with the bad weather we wouldn't be able to get to them way out there, but we made it to them all. I don't like the idea of these sweet, older people out there in the cold with possibly nothing to eat. If it's possible to get there, we will get there! One of the ladies had hot, anise seed pizzels (sp?) waiting for us just in case we got there! Another one said, "Kid you need some boots on your feet," and jokingly gave me a hard time about my feet being cold and cute instead of warm. (I do not own boots. I think I need to go get some now that I live in northern OH) I'm amazed at how I've come to love many of the people whose homes I walk into each week. They fill me up with their smiles and their compliments. One of them calls me a "Pretty, young thing." They love it when one of our kids walks in with me. Of course, Bee talks their legs off when she goes in with me. The boys are a little more reserved. One of them reminds me of one of my great-aunts. I told her so the other day.

Well, anyway, I must go finish my goody-boxes! Later!


BTW... the room below is in our basement, which was totally full of boxes as of last week. After much work between Smart Guy and myself we finally got done what we've been intending to get done since we moved in over the summer! Unless, you had seen it beforehand, you have no idea exactly how much of an accomplishment this actually is. Eventually we're planning to paint the nasty paneling white and put in some type of carpeting, but for now this will do the job!!