Snow and the Pleasures of Winter

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.