Snow Day

So, as we're sort of getting ready to move once again, I realize I've never even blogged once during this adventure of building our house. The short version is: we started our house in June, I didn't see much of my husband all summer, we made the most of the hot days, fall arrived and school started, my husband finished his bachelors degree while the project continued at full speed, hunting season arrived and my husband (for the first time since I've known him) did not buy a liscence because he has spent every spare moment working on our house, Thanksgiving came and went, and here we are- ready to begin painting tomorrow with hopes of moving in as soon as we possibly can. The long version really isn't that much different. Really.

And, amidst it all, I am sitting here feeling so happy and blessed. Life is so full of good, even when difficulties cloud our ways, even when life gets so busy we wonder what the point of it all really is.

Then little moments happen to remind us.

 I knew the kids would have a snow day today, and I knew I didn't have time for that. With so much to be done in the upcoming weeks, so much packing and things to finish before we can move, I really found myself dreading the closing of school, when normally I welcome snow days. Well, it was a true snow day, too cold to play outside and with the littlest sick with a bad cold and the chicken pox, I felt myself getting more than a little overwhelmed.

So, I decided to bake sugar cut out cookies and let the kids frost them. When you can't beat them, join them.... Or something. So, as we're standing there rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies my three year old is chatting away and suddenly says, "I love you, Mom." And even though I've been lucky enough to hear those words many times before they never lose their meaning and always soften my heart. So they frosted and decorated and made a large mess of the kitchen, but when I sat down
for a few minutes afterwards I found myself being so thankful for this snow day. We weren't even going to bother doing decorated cookies this year with everything else going on. After seeing how much they enjoyed it, I'm rather glad we did.

Tonight I tucked them in with all four older kids cozied up in one room because the other kid bedroom is just way too cold on nights like tonight. See, in this house the two kid rooms opened up into one, and often they would camp out in the warmer room together. When we move, a couple of the kids will get their own rooms and they will no longer all be sleeping together. I think these months have brought them closer together, and even though they think they're so ready for their own bedrooms, I have a feeling I'll find them camped out on each other's floors more than once in our new house. And that makes me smile. I'm glad they're close.

Life is good. It's always the little things that matter most. Make time for the little things and always the little ones. They are the ones who matter the most, the moments with them are the moments that go by too quickly and cannot be replaced.

And enjoy random snow days even when you don't have time for them. (Now, if tomorrow's a snow day too I could be singing a different tune...) :)

Happy Decmber, everyone! I hope you're staying warm and finding reasons to be happy and joyful this Christmas season!