Cursed Snow

I know a lot of people who love the snow.  I'm not one of them.  I don't mind it when it's a mellow day and I don't have anywhere I need to be, and when I know the sun will be out to melt it off the roads soon.  But we have been hit by an unusually large amount of snow here in Washington, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon.

We procrastinated on taking our daughter to see Santa this year because we had too many other things going on and because last weekend was a weekend of poor sleep, thanks to our baby son.  And now it looks like she may not get to visit him at all, which is a bummer.  It's been really sweet to watch her with Santa the last two years.  Who knows how long she'll continue to believe in him?  She's only 4, but kids grow up so quickly these days.  We may only have another year or two, and she'll be "over Santa."  So I'm hoping we'll get out before Christmas Eve, but we'll have to see.

We also ended up missing church yesterday because we couldn't safely get out of our driveway and down the hill we live on.  It was disappointing to miss church so close to Christmas, but we're hoping to get there for Christmas Eve, at least.

It's just weird to live someplace where the weather affects your plans so much.  I'm told this isn't usual for this area, but that seems to be the refrain we've been hearing often since moving here from California 3 years ago.  The first summer after we moved was unusually hot, with several weeks in the 90s and up.  I know that doesn't sound unusually hot to those of you in warmer climates, but we're at the southern end of Puget Sound, and it generally stays cool enough here that hardly anyone has air conditioning.  So now picture 3 weeks of temps in the 90s and up, with no a/c.  Not a pretty picture, is it?

The winter following that saw some of the worst windstorms in at least 10 years, with power knocked out to much of the western half of the state.  Power was out at our house for about 4 1/2 days.  We stayed in our house for the first two nights, but we had run out of firewood partway through night 2, and when we woke up in the morning, our thermostat said it was 55 degrees indoors.  We figured it was time to cut and run and went to stay with my in-laws, who had lost power for a total of 10 minutes or so.  (And we found out later that my brother-in-law, who was living about 2 miles away, never lost power and we could have gone there and been warm and comfy the whole time.)

The next summer and winter were actually fairly moderate.  Some warm days, but not miserable, and some snow in the winter, but manageable.  This past summer wasn't bad, either, and was probably milder than summer #2.  But here we are, back in the winter with a ridiculous amount of snowfall.

And yet, we have a comfortable home, we (currently) have the heat going so we're nice and warm, I have a great husband who's a godly man and a good dad, we have two healthy kids, and we have Jesus to celebrate as the reason for Christmas, whether we're able to celebrate Him with others at church or in homes, or whether we're celebrating Him ourselves right here.  So while I'm looking forward to being able to leave the house again in the near future, I realize that I'm very blessed.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Is This Thing On?

Okay. Now I've gone and done it.

I've been thinking about starting a blog of my own for a long time, but it's always seemed like so much work. Plus there are other things, like:
- Do I have anything to say that people would be remotely interested in?
- How personal should I get here?
- Will I be able to keep up with posting, or will this die out after half a dozen posts, and then I'll just be squatting on a blog address?

Stuff like that. So I think I'll just start posting as I think of things I want to say. I'm not going to worry about who might be reading this, if anyone, or how often I post. But I *do* want to post more than once or twice a month, so I'll probably need to remind myself in my calendar, lest time just get away from me.

Here we go.