How Did I Do This Everyday?

I will talk about my days in Sweden—as brief as it was—until your eyes gloss over and mine fill with tears. Yes, I really loved it that much! And while the summer and spring were amazing the winter we spent there was one of the worst--four months of snow-covered ground. I shoveled and scraped regularly. Everyone was outfitted in snow boots, snow suits, hats and mittens most of the day, everyday.

Yesterday morning we welcomed 6-8 inches of beautiful snow. I mean the most spectacular kind of snow only Mother Nature can create. Beautiful. I love snow. There is nothing more perfect than walking outside on snowy day when the snow is still falling—because only those who truly love the snow come out then—and listening to the quiet. For me this is the perfect kind of quiet. It’s even better than the kids-just-went-to-bed quiet.

I won’t get into the whole nonsense of my kids today who I TRIED to make appreciate my love of the snow. Alex just eats it, and Anna only whines about how cold it is. At least I have one cold weather enthusiast. Snow days for me (real snow days that is) are like Christmas. I brought out all our old Swedish gear—snow suits, boots, sleds, hats, mittens, snowball maker. Ok, well only a few of these are actually from Sweden, but living there made me appreciate having all the appropriate gear. Everything came out of the closets, bins and drawers, and I set to work dressing both kids. It’s like dad taking his son to a baseball game or mom showing her daughter the museum. This was my moment to show my kids how much I love this miracle.

Whine. Cry. Fuss. Moan. Groan.

No one wanted to be part of my game this morning, except me. But I worked to outfit both kids in everything they need. We shimmied on his snowsuit and then hers, pushed on the boots, pushed some more, stuck on hats, wriggled on mittens and made our way outside. Every time out someone had some kind of an issue—water, pee, hurting finger, cold hands, wet gloves. Something. We came back in, de-suited and re-suited.

As I’m getting Anna into her snowsuit—the same one Alex wore in Sweden—I couldn’t help wonder how I managed this regime everyday. Every time we left the house for school, the store, play, playdate everything went on and then we came home everything came off again. Then it was washed and dried because sure enough we’d need it again really soon. My foyer was always a giant pool of water and my car always smelled a bit like stale water.

The only thing I could think of was that we do what we have to in order to survive the situation. Four months of snow meant four months of snow gear. And even that left me still loving the snow. Today, however, not so much. I think I liked it better when no one had an opinion about the cold. At least I grabbed a few minutes for myself to enjoy it all. Good snow like this doesn't come this way often.