Oh the weather outside...

...I love it. I love winter. I actually really love snow. I love the squeaky sound your shoes makes when you walk on packed down snow. I don't love the freezing cold temps we are experiencing, but it is much better than being hot, so I love it.

It is snowing about every 3-4 days - a lot. My dreams of being snowed in are closer to coming true everyday!

Last night Brynn and I went out to shovel. Well, I went out to shovel and Brynn went out to sled down the 40 degree, north facing incline we call a driveway. The driveway was so good for sledding last night that Brynn kept ending up halfway across the street before my better judgement kicked in and I made her stop. She then proceeded to build igloos with the help of the pitcher from my kitchen. How did that find its way outside?

I shoveled and shoveled and managed to clear the whole driveway and our sidewalks by myself. I was one row up the neighbors driveway when Chad came home. "What are you doing?"

"Shoveling. {duh}"

"How long have you been shoveling?"

I waved my hand toward the clean driveway and walks, which is snow mime for 'a while.'

"Why don't you let me finish with the snowblower?"

Now I don't use the snowblower because:

a. Try as I might, I cannot turn it on. I also cannot turn on the lawnmower or start a boat. Something about that pull up really hard motion doesn't work for me.

b. I do not like the vibrations the snow blower sends up your arms. It feels icky and wrong.

c. The snow blower, my limited upper body strength and the 40 degree incline of my driveway make for a terrifying combination. The sheer mass of that machine once pulled me all the way down the hill and I lacked the strength (or traction) to push it back up.

d. I like shoveling.

But when Chad made his kind offer my right index finger had already gone numb from the cold, so I let him finish for me.

Once inside, I checked the weather and realized it was 10 degrees out there! No wonder I was losing feeling in my fingers, I gave the kids 10 minutes and then made them come in. When 10 minutes was up I brought them in and threw them in a hot bath. They didn't even fight me when I called them in. It must have been really cold or they took me seriously when I warned "Come when I call, or you will go straight to bed." 

I warmed up the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner and supervised as everyone sat around and finished their homework. It was a lovely evening.

I'm enjoying winter. It is clearly going to be long and cold, so I feel like I should embrace it now. So bring on the soup-making, the baking, the layering, the hat wearing, the shoveling. Come on Mother Nature, we're so close, let's see if we can get the mailbox buried by Christmas!