No More NaBloPoMo!

I made it! I don't know when I have been more relieved to see the last day of a month*. This exercise in daily blogging has been more of a challenge than I anticipated. It seems that every night at around 11 pm I would jolt with the realization - I still have to post! I thoroughly stretched my creative & writing muscles, though, which was the point.

In other news: My new MacBook arrived today! Any wagers on when I'll actually pry it out of Allan's hands and get to play with it myself?

Still no news: My dead phone is still...dead. In order to use a fantastic 25% discount on a replacement, I had to have it shipped. It has made its way from China to Alaska and is catching a dogsled from there.

And finally: We in the Northwest are gearing up to be slammed by a trifecta of storms this weekend. Snow! Wind! Rain! Cold! It should be a fun one.

Have a great weekend!

* Besides starting a day late, I missed one day due to extremely needy sick children - please let me set you down so I can post!.

Let There Be Rejoicing!

I wish I had a video clip to show you from this evening. During our Life Group, Allan mentioned that he had driven home through some snow. This bit of news sent the children, especially Kevin Crumrine, into a complete tizzy. I thought the poor kid might blow a gasket from his overwhelming excitement. Allan quickly went into thorough explanations of altitude and snow elevations, while I stumbled over an apology to Leah for the night that was to come in their household (he won't go to sleep now!). When we had prayer time with the children, we went around the group and each finished the sentence, "Thank you God for..." and of course snow was mentioned. Just a few minutes later, lo and behold, I got to make the greatest announcement of the day, Kids, It's Snowing!! There was much screaming and jumping. And more screaming and jumping. The joy was beautiful and contagious.

Thank you, God, for the snow-

Another Tuesday

Just another Tuesday morning. After we all got to stay home together for MLK Day on Monday, it's back to the routine, back to the grindstone. That is - until the blinds were opened to reveal a beautiful winter wonderland! There is nothing better than that first glance at your snow covered neighborhood, especially when it is a great surprise; then it's all eyes on the t.v. to see the beloved words SCHOOL CLOSED! So instead of commutes, ABCs, packing lunches, and "Hurry up - we're late!", we had snow angels, cross-country skiing (you know Allan and his sick need to exercise), hot chili, and another good family day. We already know that school is closed tomorrow because of expected ice. Another good day in the forecast.

Let It Snow

I've been in a bit of a funk for a little while now. Holiday blues? No - this season brings me great joy. Post-partum hormonal fluctuations? Probably some. Sleep interruptions? Undoubtedly. One contributing factor has been snow. No, we haven't had any, that's true. I think tonight we are supposed to get blown out to the ocean with the newest storm. But no snow here. It's the stories I've been hearing coming out of the snow that make me melancholy.

I have resisted writing about the Kim family trauma as those of us on the West Coast have been saturated by the minute-by-minute accounts. For those of you in a far-off land, like Uganda or Texas, here's the story... A cute little family from San Fransisco went missing en route from Thanksgiving in Seattle back home via the Oregon coast. For nine days while stuck in the snow on an old washed-out logging road, mom kept her four-year-old and seven-month-old going by nursing them, even as she got weaker. After doing what they could to stay alive, including burning the car's tires, dad finally went out searching for help. The girls were rescued and for days we all hoped he would be, too. They have figured that he hiked for sixteen miles in the snow before finally dying of hypothermia. He was a true man, a hero to be sure, doing what he could to protect and save his wife and children. This story struck a painful spot in the collective hearts of our region.

Currently there is another snow adventure gone terribly wrong; one whose details resemble a picture that could belong to our own family, even as the Kim's story "could have been us". Even now searchers are desperately aching for a clearing in the weather to seek three climbers who have been lost on Mt. Hood for over a week. What a hard Christmas this will be for their families.

I don't have a great spiritual application to make of this. There's no neat little bow to tie together at the end. I know that there are risks in life - choosing to embrace those risks are what makes this a great adventure. I know life is short, which is why we need to live it to the fullest each day ("being ready" as I read in Mark today). I know and believe whole-heartedly that this life is not where it's at or what it's all about; we're just visiting until we can get home to heaven. I'm just a little sad as I read the paper these days, and I wanted to tell you about it.