snow day

thursday night.  heading out for more wood and to get her toothpaste out of the car (oops).  she insisted she come along.  of course it was already late, and she was in her jammies.  so, after a few minutes spent bundling up and putting on boots and such, we went out.  toothpaste and wood retrieved in all of maybe 2 minutes.  and the child?  oh no, she was just out walking around, appreciating the snowy wonder of it all.  "it's so cold I feel like walking" she told me.  "it's after 9pm and better mothers already put their little ones to bed hours ago" I thought.  of course I didn't really think that.  I mean, maybe a smidge, but I know that my little one's tendency towards night owl-ness doesn't take away from my overall motherly goodness.  and besides, I gave up all notions of 'perfect' and 'better' mothers a while ago.  but anyway~ I convinced her to come in and we bundled up together in bed, listening to the wind cut through the night and hoping for a snow day.

well, it doesn't take much for a snow day around here and we did indeed get what we wished for.  at home, maybe an inch and a half on the ground.  papa came home with reports of icy roads and brought out a heat lamp for the coop, hoping to maybe up the temp in there from eleven degrees to somewhere in the balmy upper teens range.  so if you come by, do mind the long orange extension cord running from the garage to the coop.

I took the photo above while driving home (I promise I was careful) from an appointment with a cardiologist.  an appointment I almost cancelled since it was icy and all, but once I got off the secondary roads all was well and I was focused on getting there to put my mind at ease over that weird fluttery-irregular feeling that has been bothering me for a while.  and I suppose now it's been put at ease.  words like 'murmur' and 'sinus arrhythmia' and 'variable heart rate' were used.  but also ones likes 'benign' and 'more a nuisance than a concern' and 'come back in a year'.  and also ones like "avoid caffeine, even tea, even though you gave up regular coffee last month and thought that by doing that it was enough and you've really come to love that cup of english breakfast with extra half and half in the mornings but oh well find a new morning drink".  but an abbreviated version of that.  thought that's what I heard in my head.

and then home.  peppermint tea (hmpfh).  lunch.  finished the year's first book.  stoked the fire.  we bundled up to go 'sledding' (we pulled her around on her sled through the back yard and a neighbor's yard), helped clear off said neighbor's driveway, 'skated' on the slick parts of the street.  back in for hot cocoa, popcorn, and...... a show.  she with her drum, pretending to read sheet music as she played loudly (all the while looking a bit like Willie Nelson, I thought, after putting on her headband in a new way), her papa appointed as guitarist and given her broom to play as she saw fit.  I was given a measuring cup and spoon and told to tap them together sometimes as I warmed the cocoa and waited for the corn to pop.

more fire.  more food.
snow day.