Snow Days!

I personally am very thankful to be a resident of Louisville and so to have missed most of the snow that hit many of our friends and family members back east (you have our sympathy!). But we have had a couple days of snowy fun...one back in January and the other earlier this week.

The snow day in January was a fun day...not only did the girls get to play in the snow (and yes, Caroline is in her pjs in these pictures), but we also had an "American Girls Day" in which we did several activities revolving around the American Girls Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly (remember them?). I had a Samantha doll growing up and was pretty into all the series of books. I was amazed recently when I started checking out the books for Katie from the library...there are about 10 different girls now! Katie's favorite girl changes with every different book she reads. It'll be interesting to see which one she settles on as she grows up.

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Our American Girls Day started off with Kirsten's breakfast of rice porridge (I had retrieved the American girls' cookbook from my mom's house on my last visit home). I should've known before I devoted the hour it took to make it that it probably wouldn't be a hit with the 4 year old. *sigh* During Caroline's morning nap, Katie and I worked on a gingerbread house just like the one Samantha built with Mrs. Hawkins in Samantha's Surprise. Aldi had had gingerbread house kits on sale the week before, and I had picked it up in anticipation of needing snow day activities. "Molly's lunch" definitely went over better than Kirsten's breakfast....pb&j roll-ups and cut out sandwiches with carrot and celery twirls. We played in the snow after lunch and then drank hot cocoa and watched the Samantha movie together during Caroline's afternoon nap. Then came preparations for "Samantha's dinner"--cream of carrot soup with homemade croutons. Given how exhausted I was already from the day's nonstop activity, I should have aborted the mission upon seeing how many steps and dishes were involved with this recipe (no wonder my mom never seemed overly enthused about doing any of the recipes in this cookbook...they take forever!) But I persevered and made a delicious cream of carrot soup that no one else in my family ate (I loved it though). So that was Snow Day #1.

Snow Day #2, which was this past Tuesday, was much more my style. Preschool and seminary were both cancelled for the day, and so we rolled out around 8am to take advantage of Denny's Free Grand Slam Day!!! I love breakfast food, Denny's, and free things, so this was just about a perfect start to the day for me. All 4 of us got free Grand Slams and were totally stuffed when we got home. I made sure that the rest of this Snow Day was more lowkey than the first...we walked to the post office and back, built a snowman on our porch, and....well, that was about it. Just the right speed.
I'm definitely hoping we've seen the last of the winter weather around here. While I love watching the snow fall from inside a cozy house, I quickly grow weary of slush, layers, and scraping. I easily fall into discontentment and grumbling about the weather (and many other areas of my life) and often struggle to wage war on my negative attitude. Recently, the Lord has been using Katie's struggle with complaining to convict me of my own struggle. I often quote Philippians 4:8 to Katie and have realized that I need to apply that verse myself (can we say "plank in my eye?")! Oh, how lazy I have become in taking every thought captive and letting no unwholesome word come out of my mouth! The Lord knows that I need my child to challenge me to think on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. I'm thankful for verses like Isaiah 1:18 and Job 37:6-7 that point to our experience of snow as a way to illustrate truths about our relationship with God. So even as I wait and long for springtime, I am striving to receive what God wants to teach me through this season of cold and ice.