Living in MinnSNOWta we all knew it was coming but every year we pray and try to pretend that maybe the snow won’t come. Maybe the snow will wait till after the 1st of the year. Are we nuts…probably. I have to say a first snow is pretty it is that beautiful Christmas card scene. Then you go out and drive. Yep all pretty images are gone just cold fingers, cold toes, and maybe a curse word or two. Getting ready for winter and snow is like getting ready to have a baby. It is winter nesting. We get together the boots, snowpants, hats and gloves and pray we have pairs and they still fit. We make sure everything is picked up in the yard because you won’t see it again until till probably April.
Well the first storm came yesterday. We got the snow and then the blowing winds. Living out in the prairie the wind is horrible. It whips across and creates drifts that can be as big as a car. The drifts make the roads impassable. So today was the first and probably not the last 2 hour late start at school. Oh the kids love that. They still wake up at 6am but have 3.5 hours to waste before school. Today was TV and outside play. My daughter was out for about 3 minutes just to cold. My son on the other hand was out for quite a while. Crazy boy.
I know some people like this white stuff and cold but I am in the group that wonder why we live here. We are a hearty group of people, little nuts, but it is that good German and Scandinavian blood you know.
Welcome to winter what ever side of the snow debate you are on. Love it or lose it.
Night Silence
I find myself compelled to write about things that I wasn’t planning on writing about in this blog. But isn’t that life the unknown the ever changing. Has anyone ever had everything planned out and it really goes that way? Maybe some but was it interesting then? As I sit down to write this I can’t get over how quiet it is in the house. Everyone is in bed and my hearing aid is out for the night. It is total silence. There is no dripping faucets, no creaky floor boards, no furnace or fridge running. I see an occasional car drive by but no sound. How strange this is but at the same time amazing. How you go into life and then the unforeseen detour on the road takes you on another direction. So we are in for a major snow storm some saying upwards of 10 inches. Now the power just went out. I am not kidding you can’t make this stuff up. See the unforeseen always seems to happen. So when this new path comes up what are you to do? Learn to deal, make the best of it, find the positives, I guess I am still trying to figure that out. I know my drive to write has been heightened and I want to go with that. It is a wonderful outlet and maybe it will go somewhere someday. Listening to music has been an obsession of mine for the past few days. I don’t know why, I am a tv person. Love having the tv on as background noise and it is on all the time. I haven’t turned it on in 3 days. Kids think I am going nuts. I wonder why the music, am I somehow worried someday I won’t hear it? Not sure, it has to be turned way up but I am loving it lately. Life is an always changing organism. I am finding that out a lot in the past few years. With a move out to the Prairies of MN, with a son who receives an SPD and Autism Spectrum diagnosis and now hearing loss. Always changing and we have to be receptive maybe not willingly but life goes on and we want to go with it.
SLEEP
Ever have a craving? Maybe chocolate, or soda or if pregnant pickles and ice cream….I am craving SLEEP. It has been a couple weeks of maybe a couple hours of sleep a night if lucky. I fall asleep for an hour and then wide awake. Sometimes I wish I was back to a small child and I could take a nap. Just doesn’t happen. Having a child with SPD can mean sleep issues and that is the case with my son. He wonders the house at night sleeps for an hour or so and then up for the rest of the night. It is hard on this momma worrying what is he doing, what is he up to. Now I have my own mind racing at 100mph at night. Do you know the stupid thing you can worry about at night…it is stupid stuff. Going from normal hearing or near normal to needing hearing aids in a 2 week period can cause lots of thinking and reflecting. My mind goes to why, can people notice, will it get worse. I know it could be a lot worse but in the middle of the night I am sorry you think about yourself, or at least I do. As I drink my sleepy time tea tonight I pray that these worries will subside and my mind can be like my SPD son and just crash. He gets to Thursday night each week and just crashes. I need a Thursday night. To all the other SPD moms out there they know that days can be hard and nights can be harder. We all need that Thursday night once and a while.
The start of the Christmas Season
Kids with Jake and Jim who gave us a wonderful ride today
Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks
I guess you can always find something to be thankful for. I can say the obvious I am thankful for food, shelter and water. I am truly thankful for the those items but this year I have been pondering this question and I find I am thankful for so much more. I am thankful for my husband that has a birthday tomorrow. He has been known to drive me nuts and make me laugh until I can’t breath all in an hours period. He makes life interesting. I am thankful for my daughter who is getting so grown up. Everytime I look at her I am amazed and I wonder where my little girl has gone. Thankful for my son who has shown me a new way to look at the world. He has introduced me to trains and I am proud to say I know all the trains names.
As I grow older I find more and more to be thankful for. I am thankful for the wonderful teachers and staff at my children’s school. It is so nice that they both love going to school and are excited to go each day. I am thankful for the wonderful Tae Kwon Do family our family belongs to. It is wonderful for our children and it warms my heart every time we all get together. I am thankful for CASE IH that is my husbands employer. It is fun to see a sprayer in a field and think my husband helped build that. I am thankful for doctors and modern technology which is helping me through a recent event where I lost quite a bit of my hearing.
When we look around we should all be able to see the splendor of the earth and the gifts God has given us. I hope you have a wonderful turkey day and are able to spend it with someone you are thankful to have in your life.
Friday
FRIDAY doesn’t that word just relax your shoulders and cause a sigh. Well it does for me. Of course for us mom’s the weekend really doesn’t bring a whole lot of relief but what it does bring is family together and no schedules. The kids probably will still get up at 6am but I won’t need to yell and scream and wake the dead that we NEED to leave for school in 5 minutes. It is a time to relax a little. Maybe go out to eat or watch a movie in the middle of the afternoon. Yes the weekend and after this week we need it.
There is always something going on in this house. It is a semi-organized chaos. Last weekend we had a tae kwon do tournament. I love those days. They are tiring and crazy but what proud mom moments. Seeing my son bow to the judges just made the tears flow. Here is a boy that last year couldn’t say a full sentence let alone go into a room of people without a full meltdown. WOW he did it and came home with two trophy’s. My daughter just kicks butt. I never imagined yelling and cheering for my daughter to KICK HER, KICK HER IN THE HEAD. I get into this. I am a tae kwon do mom at heart. Then the week went into school, audiologist appt for my son, sick kids, sick mom and OH YEAH halloweeen. Like I said semi-organized chaos.
Take a moment this weekend and breathe. Go outside and take wonder in the falling leaves, the cool crisp air and the autumn smells. This is a time to make memories if it is pumpkin patch time, apple picking or raking the leaves. This is that little window of fun until it is white, cold and pick up that shovel.
It is FRIDAY just breathe.
Sunday
A day to give thanks for the week we have had and the week we are about to have. Sunday has always had good memories for me. We dress up and head to Sunday School and Church. Now we get to do that with our kids. They are so eager to learn of Gods love for them- that warms the soul.
Sunday as a parent can be a little busier now. It is the Lords day but also get caught up on the laundry, cooking, cleaning, get ready for the week and if your lucky a nap or a movie. This Sunday is cold and rainy and almost expecting some snowflakes soon. But a movie is playing and naps are happening for some so a relaxing day with some time to get ready for the next week.
A week is so many things for a mom with kids and a family. It is wash day, cooking day, trash day. It is Church night, it is Tae Kwon Do nights. This week it is a white belt test for my son. How exciting and scary for him. It is a school ordered Autism Evaluation this week for my son also. What a stressful time for us parents to hear the strengths and the weaknesses of our son. It will be a week of being proud of our daughter as she helps conduct the Tae Kwon Do test for her little brother. How she is growing up before our eyes.
A week is time passages of a family as it grows, melds and expands. It is a living, breathing unit like bread dough. It can get knocked down and it will rise again. Sunday is that chance to start over and start to rise again. Good luck next week.
A day out
Do you ever have that moment in the morning when you drag yourself to the bathroom and wonder is that is just a reflection or could it be a grey hair. Then the panic sets in a grey hair really I still feel like just a kid. Luckily so far it has only been a reflection for me. How do we get a feeling like that- Kids, family a home, work and life? Yep I have all those and at times doesn’t it feel like a hole we are getting sucked into but wouldn’t get out it if help were offered.
Life is crazy. It pulls you different directions. Directions you did not sign up for. I signed up for an easy life with a husband and two children. I got a hard-working 60 hours a week husband, an eye rolling daughter who is wonderful but entering those tween years, and an adorable high energy son who happens to have Sensory Processing Disorder and PDD-NOS a form of autism. Life is crazy and you need to disengage from yourself and watch or life will pass you by.
So the 4 of us took a day trip on Sunday. It was sunny and we hit the road. As most mom know a laid out plan does not usually happen. We stopped for lunch and my son didn’t like the smell of the restaurant or ANY of the food there. So he dined on saltines and asked every 2.2 seconds if we could please leave now. Well that set the mood for the day. Made it to one of the 4 stores we wanted to go to and my little energizer bunny boy was bouncing off the wall.
We found an indoor trampoline park. Did you know those were even a thing? AWESOME is all I can say. Not to spendy and the kids had so much fun. They bounced, jumped and crashed. The 10-year-old and 5-year-old had a blast. Check them out. Dads you can play dodge ball with your kids and pelt them with that ball and it is LEGAL. It is a wonderful place.
Hubby drove and missed our exit home so we went another way home that was all new to all of us. It was a wonderful end to a day that didn’t go as planned at all. This momma has to learn to be flexible and change plans as the wind blows. The evening sky was entering the horizon. The kids were sleeping and the fall colors were painted thick for us to admire. Yes this is the life I wanted and was given.
Musings of a Momma 