The calendar says it is now spring. The weather this week says it is still winter. I went out to get the paper the other morning and it was sleeting. One evening I went out to dump some table scraps in the field and it was spitting snow. It all reminded me of a deep snow we had exactly 10 years ago. I remember it closed schools for the whole week. We lost power and it was so cold we went to Aunt Mar’s where it was a bit warmer. What really sticks out in my mind was the deep snow drift just past Aunt Mar’s driveway. It defeated quite a few overly confident drivers.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Aunt Mar celebrated her 91st birthday on Tuesday. We all ate together at Pauline’s Monday night to celebrate. What was really special was the number of people who called or visited on Tuesday. When I went by to visit after work I could tell it had been a special day for her.
My birthday present sort of backfired as I had planned to do a couple of home improvement projects for her. One project was to replace the light fixture in her laundry room as it shoots a light bulb about once a month. When I unscrewed the fixture from the junction box I discovered that the insulation on the wiring and the wire nuts were so brittle they crumbled at the slightest touch. I taped up what I could and we have called an electrician to rewire the circuit. I hate she is still without a light but I’m glad I found it.
PAULINE’S RECOVERY. Pauline is doing very well. She says that with the exception of being a little sore she feels fine. We are all really thankful that she is doing so well. Thank you for all your prayers.
STRANGE READING HABITS. School has created a reading monster out of Jenna. She loves to read and read and read. This week she has finished Sarah’s Unicorn, B-E-S-T Friends, Mallory on the Move and Camp Sink or Swim.
I’m not mentioning this to imply that it is a bad thing. It’s not. And she does have a life outside of her books. But what is so strange is that she has had all these books going at one time. And she is still in the middle of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Trouble with Tink and Eagle-Eye Ernie Comes to Town. She’ll read a chapter in one book at one sitting and a chapter from another later--just whatever she feels like reading at the moment. And to beat all, she never uses a bookmark.
FOR THE LOVE OF CHOCOLATE. If I am going to eat ice cream I usually wait until the kids have gone to bed (some things are just meant to be enjoyed without kids around). The other night Vicki and I were watching TV and I had finished a bowl of ice cream--the empty bowl with the dregs of chocolate still sitting in the floor by my feet--when Nate comes wondering in the room because he can’t sleep. He goes to Vicki and then spies my bowl. In a whisper he says to Vicki, ”Daddy’s had chocolate.“ After Vicki told him he was right he asks with those big, puppy dog eyes, ”Can I dip my finger in the chocolate?“
WRESTLE MANIA TURNS SCARY. I mentioned a few weeks ago that the boys like to wrestle with me. Jenna is spending the night with Mom and Aunt Mar tonight and Vicki has to go to church for a while so the boys and I had an evening to ourselves. After cleaning up from supper we started our play time by throwing a rubber frisbee down the hall. This turned into another wrestling match which then turned into a ”daddy stalks boys around the house“ game. I’d give them a good scare and when they would run off I would hide in order to ambush them later. It got to be really hard to keep quiet in my hiding place after listening to them try to decide who would ”go in“ first when they were trying to find me. At one point I seized an opportunity to sneak up on them in their room. In the bedlam of my roaring and their screaming Nate headed for the closet, opened the door and started throwing shoes out to make room for himself inside. Right behind the closet door sits an old wooden school desk. A box of Legos happened to be sitting on top of it and an airborne shoe hit it with just enough force to knock the box over. The avalanche of Legos scared poor Nate so bad I was really kind of glad he was wearing a pull-up!
Joe
