ingenuity

egads! This was written yesterday, but I have been unable to sign in. In fact, I only managed to sign in today when leaving a comment to someone else.

Ice is no fun to walk on, drive on, or shovel. If it is ice from freezing rain, it does make the world even more beautiful – encasing it in shining crystal. Ice from sleet is crunchy, white, and looks like snow – you just don’t sink when you walk on it. It also offers the eye something to focus upon while buried in spackle, primer, paint, and exhaustion.

Last night, five of the kids seized upon the opportunity to use their snow saucers in the hour before bedtime. Off they rambled to what they term OG hill (It is in the yard of an “old guy” who lets them use it). Shortly after leaving, N reappeared with the pink one. She had pronounced the outside world “too cold” for her tastes. In her place, he departed with a raft which has somehow remained inflated since summer.

I thought perhaps the raft was going to be used in some sort of tandem-sliding exercise, and thought no more of it. As I looked out the window soon after, the real use of the misplaced floatation device became clear. The hill was so slippery that one child was stationed at the bottom with the raft which they would use to smash into their descending sibling to facilitate stoppage. Now that’s what I call ingenuity.

Today, the freckled one (M) could be seen using the same raft to teach our neighbor’s 18 month old not to fear sledding. He pulled her around her yard, down small hills, around in circles – both of them giggling every step of the way. Now that’s what Valentine’s Day is all about!

P.S. Trim painting tomorrow and flooring Friday. We MAY just be back in our room by the weekend.

P.P.S. So sorry I missed bread this week.

P.P.P.S. I am attaching a group of poems written about 22 years ago because they are seasonably appropriate (though somewhat depressing).

Reflections on Snow

a.
Starting with
unique white flakes
blanketing
dirt & ugliness.
The dirt seeps through
and white
turns gray.
Man’s efforts -
blackness from the core.
Away on a mountain,
untouched,
the white remains.
That’s what you do
for us, Lord.

b.
Ice, snow, more ice -
rock salt, sand, cat litter,
shovel sounds,
tires skid,
sirens - a fall, a crash -
another day.
Will winter never end?

c.
Snow -
delicate, soft, white -
harmless from picture windows,
chills, freezes, kills
outside.