It was apparently cold in Florida the past few days. It was 50 degrees and sunny. Since it was -13 degrees when I left Duluth, I was glad to venture to the "cold" Sunshine State for a few blissful days hanging out with my best friend. We've been talking about a Girls Getaway for years, and finally the stars aligned and it happened! Corrie and I spent a couple days in Treasure Island with a room on the beach and it was a fabulous Mama Break for us both. Eli stayed home with my boys and Corrie's husband stayed home with hers, and we were free to walk the beach, bike the neighborhoods, read our books, watch a movie, and sleep in. It was divine!
The beach is beautiful: palm trees everywhere, the bright sun reflecting off the bright sand, an expansive sky over a vast ocean, and blazing sunsets that demand attention. It was lovely to be there, and lovely to attempt capturing its beauty. (Key word: attempt).
We had the pleasure of staying with Corrie's grandparents for a night too. They live in a retirement community and have bougainvillea plants and drive a golf cart and play charades and eat loquats, so basically they're some of the coolest people I know :) It was a joy to see them again and take their golf cart for a spin :) Ahh, the pleasures of Florida!
More than anything, it was a delight and a blessing to spend a few days with Corrie. We grew up in Davison together and spent a lot of time becoming best friends. We went to camp and played soccer and sang in musicals and shared crushes on boys and went on mission trips and took driver's training and ate donuts and laughed our way through Mr. Zeller's chemistry class. Then I went to Minnesota for college and it was desperately hard to have so many miles between us. But our friendship deepened across the miles and we are still holding each other up. Corrie encourages me, makes me laugh, holds me accountable, inspires me, and points me to Jesus. I am blessed beyond measure to call her my best friend and to have created more memories with her these past few days!
While the rest of the Midwest and the East have gotten pounded with snow, we in the Northland have had relatively little snow all winter. It's been wonderful. Shoveling hasn't been an issue and the roads have been marvelously driveable. It's a remarkable and welcome change from the past couple winters that nearly destroyed all hope of Spring ever coming.
We did get a few inches of snow this week, however. It was beautiful. Everything was white and quiet and cool. It was the kind of snow that made you long for a winter walk down the middle of the street at night, or a snowshoe adventure by the light of the moon that breaks through the tree branches in the woods. But alas, our children keep us homebound after dinner every night so there'll be no late-night snow escapades for us this year.
We did, however, get outside the next day and trudge through the snow in our yard. It was crunchy and blinding and cold, but it felt good to spend time outdoors, which hasn't happened much this winter.
I asked Caleb if he wanted to go outside to shovel, and he said yes and ran to the kitchen saying, "Get my boots on!" Before I could remind him that maybe we should tackle getting clothes on first, he returned like this. I admire his enthusiasm :)
Caleb truly loves to shovel. It was his favorite thing to do last winter. During the summer he adjusted to shoveling rocks under the deck and now he's back to shoveling snow and loving it. Every time we go outside he asks, "Shovel few minutes?" So he shovels for a few minutes while I get Kai loaded in the car. That's our routine every time we go anywhere. But earlier this week we shoveled for the sake of shoveling, and he took his job quite seriously :)
Kai can't even stand in the snow, let alone shovel. Our son still isn't walking because he simply doesn't want to, which isn't a big deal except that it makes playing in the snow a bit difficult. He can't walk around in the snow, and he doesn't want to stand either because the snow is too enticing to play with. But the only mittens small enough to fit his little hands are a thin cloth pair, meaning that actually playing in the snow doesn't last very long because his hands will freeze. So, without the options of shoveling or sitting to play in the snow, we're limited to letting Kai ride in the sled. He likes it well enough and it lets him be outside with the rest of us.
Even though the winters are long here, we do love this season and know we will miss it when we move to Africa. We love the simple beauty of the snow, the icicles hanging from the eaves, the prevalent chances to stay inside and bake cookies and watch movies, and sleeping on flannel sheets every night. There are pleasures in this season and we will miss it when we leave the four seasons behind.
I didn't grow up with boys. I have two sisters, and we played School and House and the occasional Post Office in which we'd write each other letters and deliver them to pretend mailboxes outside our bedroom doors. We planned elaborate Barbie weddings and pretended to be the Little Mermaid every time we swam in a pool. We did other, less-girly things too, like stripping down to our undies and pretending to be lions at the circus, and playing Monster with our dad, and ripping worms apart so we could use them as bait. But we were still girls. And we only had each other's girly influence. It took me a long time to realize that boys can be quite different from girls - not only in their interests, but in their level of energy as well. Now that I have two little boys, I am receiving an education in the world of boys, even at their young age.
Our boys love to destroy things. I've even nicknamed our youngest "Kai the Destroyer" because the level of destruction that follows his wake goes beyond the developmental stage he is in.
Our boys love to climb. Last year I spent about a week trying to institute a rule that no one's allowed to climb on the back of the couch. It was a completely wasted effort and, I soon realized, a hill I didn't want to die on. Go ahead, be a dragon on the mountain. Be a superhero en route to save the world. Be whatever you want up there. We don't have nice furniture anyway. I give up the fight!
Our boys love to climb on everything. Kai the Destroyer was found on top of our dining room table last month, attempting to drink the remnants of Eli's coffee. We didn't yet know that he was capable of getting up there. That experience invigorated him enough to try climbing onto many other surfaces as well. He climbs on everything.
Our boys love to smash, destroy and "knock it over!" Towers, cars, boxes, the bad guys the superheroes are after...you name it, and it can be smashed.
Our boys love to roar like lions, stomp like dinosaurs, and "run so fast" like superheroes. (Kai has just figured out some animal sounds this past month, the lion being his favorite, and he's definitely discovered the joy of roaring.) In other words, there is a lot of movement and a lot of noise around our house.
Our boys love to "rhino" each other, meaning they ram their foreheads into each other while, apparently, being rhinos. (They jury's still out on what Kai thinks is happening, but he's a willing participant in this game every time.)
In short, although these boys are only 2.5 years old and 15 months old, they are already a bit different than I was as a kid. They are more energetic and more rambunctious. It means more bumps and bruises, to be sure, and more expended energy on our part as we keep up with them, but it's a lot of fun. Watching them wrestle and roar and chase each other around is a joy for us. We might not be playing School or House with these boys, but playing Dinosaurs and Construction Site and Superheroes is fabulous. And I'm learning a lot. I even know what a parasaurolophus is and I can tell you that Green Lantern's power ring can translate alien languages. It's an education for me, but a good one!
