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Snow Days -then and now

Who doesn’t love a snow day!  As a kid it was always the best.  In the neighborhood where I grew up there was a pond across the street that during the winter often froze solid.  We all had ice skates and would walk over and skate with our friends.  Building snowmen, making forts and having snowball fights were part of the day as well.

After we were cold and usually wet, we would invade someone’s house where the mom would make us grilled cheese and hot cocoa. We would line up our wet mittens and boots on the hearth by the fireplace or in some type of mudroom.

Fast forward to my years as a mom with small kids.  That was the best.  Bundling up those little bodies in snow clothes that you hoped still fit.  Finding the hats, gloves, scarves, snow pants and boots.  OK – so it wasn’t all that fun but once we got outside, my boys always had fun.  Since I am a teacher, I usually had the day off with them.

I would drive us to a nearby hill for sledding.  Then we would finish shoveling. Since I was home and my husband was at work, shoveling snow was generally left to me and as the boys got older I passed my skills onto them. After sledding and shoveling, there was always the snowman to make. Ever the crafty mom I was good at finding things in the house to create a friendly face. Once we had all claimed to have won the ongoing snow ball fight, we went inside.

puppy and boy in snow

Puppy’s first snow storm

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I loved cooking on snow days.  Cupcakes, cakes, or banana bread followed by a nice pot of stew or chili.  I always made the dessert first! Just like sledding before shoveling.

A few years ago my boys no longer needed me to drive them to the sledding hill.  They drove my car and their friends to the bigger hills.  I stayed home. I took pictures of the snow.  One time the little girls in the neighborhood came over and helped me bake cupcakes.  They insisted we make different color icing to decorate them. We lined up about 15 red solo cups with different shades of icing.  The girls were awesome designers and then delivered the treats to all the neighbors on our block.  After that, we watched the movie Frozen.  How fun!

Last week we had 2 snow days.  I loved getting the phone call the night before that I could stay home and not have to drive on bad roads.  I slept in and enjoyed seeing the storm out my window while I drank my coffee and watched T.V.  I curled up with a book for a few hours and read.  I wrote a blog about a trip I took to  Croatia.  10 Fabulously Fun Things to do in Croatia  I found more old letters in a box to read and laughed at the old memories.

The 2 days led into the weekend.  The roads were dangerous and I was a little lazy.  In fact, the quiet time was almost too much. Being alone in my house with nothing to really think about gets me thinking about what I no longer have.  My kids are away at college and my husband is no longer here. I do believe that I am past the point of thinking that he is still coming home.  During the first year, I thought it was just a temporary thing. Acknowledging that he died was an important adjustment. I am not used to being so alone and I’m not sure how to adjust.  I guess it’s one of those “one day at a time” things.

Well, I finally baked some banana bread for the teenage boy next door who shoveled my driveway.  My neighbor invited me over to her house to watch a hockey game and eat chili. Sunday evening I attended an antigravity candlelit yoga class so I finally did get out of the house.  I still love snow days, they are just a bit different now.  Do you like snow days?

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The roads are dangerous!

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Lots of snow – friends to bake with later.

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Storm is over.

 


runawaywidow

At the age of 51 I unexpectedly became a widow. For the first 6 months after my husband died, I was in shock and numb. I journaled and with the help of friends, family and therapists was able to get back to living my old life, even if it is now very different. Before I was married, I had spent a semester in England and backpacked around Europe. My husband and I moved from New York to California for 8 years and started a family. Travelling took a back seat to raising a family and going to work everyday. Since the loss of my husband I have visited a lot of places with family and friends and took a solo trip to Thailand. I am enjoying sharing my stories and adventures as well as some of my insights to how I am traveling the path of being a widow. I hope to share my stories and adventures as well as some thoughts on being a middle aged widow. While I have some great experiences traveling to Thailand and cruising to Central America, some of my adventures involve a trip to see a Broadway show in nearby Manhattan and a shopping trip at Bed, Bath and Beyond. If I can inspire anyone to go out and continue to live a good life that would be my greatest accomplishment.

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10 Responses

  1. Christine Jordan says:

    Great post Kristin! You forgot going to the Beach Pub Saturday night! It was great to see you! Keep writing!!

  2. Addie says:

    I like to look at pictures of snow, I don’t like to be in or drive through the snow….That is why I now spend my winters in FLORIDA!!!!

  3. cedar51 says:

    Well I have never experienced a snow day – we don’t do “snow” this far up the country, but snow does cause “snow days” elsewhere in the country – even only 5 hours away in the central North Island where are a bunch of mountains…

    But we do have heavy duty storms where they suggest “don’t go out unless absolutely essential” and we are now experiencing many days especially if it’s raining where “traffic jam” reins supreme – this not even in rush hour!

    that is because of population growth with little improvement of good public transport so everyone and his dog, gets in the “car”… and grid locks insure. One of my friends posted a picture of her stuck in a jam – including “see the lights are green – a long way in front…nothing moving” -this on a 2 lane road – a kind of expressway….

    • runawaywidow says:

      We have had some big storms here too like hurricanes that put the power out for days. It’s too bad they can’t keep up with the population growth causing such traffic jams by you. That can be so frustrating.

  4. Kelly MacKay says:

    We just had a snow day yesterday. I stayed in doors wrote, read and cooked. I stayed in comfy clothes and while it stormed there was no guilt in taking the day to do only what I wanted to do. Hope the spring will be good to you. Cheers

  5. We LOVE our snow days here in Utah!

    I

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