Still sending letters

Dad passed away in 2007 and mom moved and got rid of their old email account.  However, I still write to that old email address.  It seems to still go through, nothing is sent back.  Usually, it's complaints and life chit chat.  It's "I wish this" "Wouldn't that be nice?" "Maybe some day" and so on and so forth.  I miss my family.  I miss feeling like I have a home.  I miss not having that "I can always go home" sense in life.  Growing up, dad always said, "No matter what happens or what has been done, you can always come home".  Wow, right?  Just wow.  That was definitely some of the parenting-to-do that I have in my mental file folder to say to my kids.  Always know you can come home.  It's hard now in life's circumstance to not have that open invitation.  To not be able to call my dad for advice.  To call mom twice a day and hear about the latest in home nurse care provider or how people have been visiting the house.  I miss my home.  It is in the front of my brain to have a childhood so pleasing that when my children and grown and gone that they look back and miss it.  My husband doesn't remember much of his childhood.  That, in of itself, is a whole other chapter in his life.  However, how can you not remember your childhood?  How can you not want to hear your parents voice and to check in?  Different upbringings and different cultures.


Remember that your kids grow up.  Remember that they will one day look back and think of you.  How do you want to be remembered?  I want them to tell their children of all the adventures 'grandma and I experienced'. 

Not going down without a fight.

Or so it seems.  K was able to back his truck out of the driveway, get to the nearest town south, only to have his boss text him to stay home.  Oh how I have to laugh at it because right now that's about as much as anyone can do.  A two hour late start was scheduled only to have school completely cancelled.  Not that it has any direct effect on us but my goodness this is what we are dealing with. 


All six of us were outside shoveling and snow blowing thinking that PJ wouldn't come until after he got off work, PJ the home owner.  I did get to use the snow blower and my oh my the power rush that comes with it: "Take THAT you evil snow! BEGONE FROM MY DRIVEWAY! MUAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" (This is the state of most if not all of Minnesota's mind set at this moment)  However, PJ and some unnamed dude who looked much like an Alaskan fisherman came and saved the day with four wheelers equipped with fancy plow thingies on the front.  Praise the Lord I'm going inside!


Kendall is home so production is shot.  "I want to play with dad!  Let's wrestle!" though K thought he'd get some computer work done and the family was banned from our bedroom for the better part of the day.  We did accomplish some work, the basics like math and writing.  We are currently reading, wait for it.... The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I've held out for four months.  FOUR MONTH of these so very cold temperatures.  Where sprinkled days in the 20's and 30's are a glimmer of hope, I will hold on!  Yet, now all I see is white.  The whiteness.  The cold. It's all I see.  Things are so very cold...  Wait, what? 


The highlight of winter was I purchased an amazon prime membership because I need things like a vacuum filter and mattress cover and if I can sit and analyze at 11:30 at night in my warm house without dragging four children whom HALF won't keep their gloves on, so help me, then I'm all for it.  Amen.


My plans for going to a ladies event and my friends church has been cancelled.  We are supposed to go to Mall of America tomorrow with family, will the roads be bearable?  After this huge snow dump we are falling into to the teens, single digits, and delight of delights the negatives once again.  This is why I cut back on my calendar.  Wednesday night church?  It was fun, but not in the negatives.  Tuesday morning Bible study?  I'm trying, really! However it is a morning of not accomplishing much of anything at home.  Play dates and story times?  See you when the snow melts!  Oh Minnesota, I love you and hate you all at the very exact same time.