When Snow Is Good

Anyone reading my posts for any length of time has probably come to the conclusion that I absolutely loathe, abhor and despise winter -and especially the snow that comes with it.

Well, that's not exactly true. By January and February -yes, it most likely has by then become something I'm very tired of seeing. But today, as we received our first really good dose of winter's finest, I'm not in that kind of miserable mood. Not just yet anyway.

And today, also being a Friday, and Friday means that a post showing "Only the Good" is due from me, I looked at the snow from a slightly different angle.

It really is pretty!

Here's Maya, down in our backyard, checking everything out and enjoying being able to go out and play in the white, icy stuff. Although school for her -nor for anyone else around the county -was cancelled, or even delayed today, Mandy didn't send Maya to school today as she just thought the way the roads down our way were this morning, there was no sense in putting "Mr. Fred" (Maya's van driver) at risk of sliding into a ditch. So, Maya had the entire day at home, most of it in the house too as she had to wait till Mommy got home from work around 3 p.m. to be able to go outside and play.

Here's Maya, out front, having some good old-fashioned fun in the snow. Note the accumulation on Mandy's car. At 10:30 this morning, Mandy had cleaned off both my jeep and her car and by noon the car was completely covered again with this much on it by around 3:15 p.m. (And, she had cleared at least this much snow from the car this morning!)
Today was the first time in Kurt's young life that he's ever been outside in the snow, all dressed and no where to go, sort of. He wasn't sure about this stuff on the ground and had no clue as to what one is supposed to do with it either. Mandy said when she brought the kids back inside that she had finally found something that stops Kurtis dead in his tracks. Take him outside in the snow and he just stops, stays completely still! Hmmm. Sounds a bit promising -but cold -doesn't it?
Even Chino -our sweet little kitten -decided she wanted to go outside and check things out too. However, once out there, she must have decided it was better to sit on the front stoop.
Kurt seems to be adjusting a little more to the white stuff. Maybe, kind of like Gram, in that snow at this stage of my life sort of grows on me for my appreciating its presence.
I guess it's ok to try to move around a little bit in this stuff. Seems like that may have been Kurt's thoughts on the stuff here.
Meanwhile, Maya was having a great time, walking in the snow, kicking at it with her boots and watching how it curled around -like maybe it would dawn on her that you can roll this stuff into big balls and build a snowman. That's probably a little ways down the line as yet for her though. She's not quite the novice with snow that Kurtis is, but she still isn't all that knowledgeable, as yet, as she just had the thrill of sledriding last winter for the first time. She has yet to learn the joys of making angels in the snow, building forts, making snowballs that are packed really solid and heaving them at anything that comes within your range. Wonder if when she and Kurtis get older that they might enjoy learning to ski?
Guess sitting on the swing right now is a bit out of the question, isn't it?

Kurt looks like he's checking around, trying to find the shut-off valve on wherever this snowfall is coming from, doesn't he? Sometimes, I think I probably look like that too when we're in the midst of receiving a whopper of a snow storm. This one was just nice, just enough!
I sure do hope the residue around Maya's mouth was there BEFORE she went outside and not something she found under the snow and smeared around on her face! I've never heard of any chocolate snow, have you?
Looks to me like Kurtis is wondering what Maya has on her face too. Either that or maybe she just tossed some snow in his direction?

My son called home today too -around noonish -asking what's new and exciting here compared to where he was then -someplace in southwestern Virginia. I told him about the snowfall and such, then asked him when he figures he will be home. The answer was sometime tomorrow night.

On hearing that response, I said "OH, good! If you get home tomorrow night then you will be here and able to go to church with us Sunday morning, just like you promised Maya you would do!" I think, no, I know, he had forgotten all about that promise he made or maybe he was just hoping that I would have forgotten about it at any rate. He should know better than to think I would do that when it comes to a promise from him to go to church with us! The mind then becomes like a steel vise and I latch onto those words with the strongest type mental glue possible!

Why this Sunday, why the big deal of making him promise to go with us? Because you see, the Children's Choir is scheduled to sing the anthem this week and yes, Maya is now a part of the Children's Choir at church! She's been learning this one hymn that the kids will sing and it just so happens it is one of my favorite hymns too! "Children of the Heavenly Father." Yes, I dearly love that song and the kids are supposed to sing all four verses of it and then, repeat the first verse but in Swedish!

Maya hasn't learned all four English verses but she does know the first verse now in English and she has picked up a good bit of the first verse in Swedish too now. I hope things go smoothly for her with her first public performance in church. Not that she's singing a solo or anything that big, but for little kids, even getting up and singing in a group can be a bit scary the first time they do that so we'll be watching, hoping and praying that all goes the way the choir director wants things to go! (Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to get a little video of the kids doing their number on Sunday.)

All these things -the snow, the way the kids responded and reacted to it, the fact that Mandy made it to work and back with no problems on the snow-covered roads, and especially that my son was reminded about his promise for Sunday -all are, in my book, "Only the Good" things for today, this Friday as we got hit with our first major accumulation of snow for the season.

Just seeing the joy on the kids faces taking in the fresh air, the snow still falling, the fun of exploring it a bit and for me, the knowledge too of many things to come that they will find happen and they will love -just as much as I did when I was a young'un!

Sure is pretty to see though, isn't it?

And there you have it -what I like about snow and what makes it really a pretty darned good thing after all!