welcome winter
November 15 is a fine day to have the first snowfall of the winter, but we still weren't ready. It wasn't possible for me to be ready. We did some things, sure; I worked the day before yesterday afternoon getting the leaf pile off the lawn and picking up garden stakes, and yesterday morning I sent the kids out to pick up at least some of the toys scattered all over the yard. And we found at least some cold-weather gear for everyone; we had to, since the middle of the day we needed to go out to the last homeschool coop park day of the year (the first one to take place in solidly below-freezing weather!). But then when we got back from running and playing in the park we ran out of steam for serious preparations. Instead we did some reading and some deck-building and some napping, and then hosted Harvey's friend for a couple hours. Good winter activities. But nothing to make be feel ready for three inches of snow on the ground before 10:00 last night!
winter!
Well, that's not totally true; in one respect we were fully prepared. Seeing the snow in the forecast, yesterday morning we busted out the white paper and scissors and made snowflakes. They're up on the windows now. And all the scraps on the kitchen floor made a pretty convincing facsimile of fallen snow. Although they were a whole lot lighter to sweep up than the actual snow was to shovel this morning: the snow changed to rain early in the morning so clearing the front walk was like trying to move wet cement. The rain didn't slow down the kids any, though! There was a two-hour school delay here in town, so Harvey's friend Jack rang the doorbell a little after eight and, after we invited him in for a couple pancakes, the kids spent a delightful couple hours romping in the sodden snow. Now it's getting colder again, and the rain has changed back to light snow. It looks like things'll be white for a little while yet. I'm OK with that.
let it snow!