The Season of Unexpected Gifts...

Sometimes, in this season of lights in the darkness and thoughtful gifts, come presents that just cannot be wrapped in shiny paper. Yesterday was one of those unexpected presents as Mother Nature sent a horrid combination of snow, ice rain and finally huge, fluffy flakes to cover up all the sleet. Schools in most of the Province were closed, so Nick and I got to slip back into dreams under our nice warm duvet as soon as they announced the closures at 6:15 am. I was just surfacing from the last traces of a dream when Erin came barreling into our room two hours later in a panic. She’d just woken up and looked out to see that there wasn’t much snow on the ground, but didn’t see the ice rain. She assumed that we’d all overslept and that she was going to be late for school which was due to start in 5 minutes!

Once the girls realized that they had a snow day, the whoops of joy began. I made them blueberry muffins for breakfast while they hid upstairs practicing a Play that they intended to put on for us as soon as we’d all eaten. Sure enough, they treated us to a hilarious production of “The Odd-Coloured Reindeer” in which Bethany played two roles, her favourite being Rudolf’s odd-coloured daughter. This reindeer was PINK, so she had on one of Erin’s dresses, black socks on her hands and feet for hooves and then the headband antlers that come out with the decorations once a year. Since they were bright red instead of brown, the story was adapted to include the fact that her antlers glowed too!

After they cleaned up the “set”, they moved on to a massive Barbie game in the basement, a session of dress-up where I had to keep encouraging them to put on just a bit more clothing (it wasn’t THAT warm in the basement!) and finally a puzzle session in the living room. Luckily, they cleaned each thing up before moving on, but it was giddily exhausting to watch them play!

I still managed to get quite a bit of work done and even some stitching, but it was fun to have two different kinds of soup simmering on the stove and the sounds of giggles in the background. Nick braved the storm to get a few groceries, but the rest of us just stayed cozy in the house and celebrated this unexpected pause in a most hectic time of the year.

Higher Callings???

After positing my last blog about all the chaos, I can honestly say that I’ve been VERY glad to do what I do from home over the past week. Last Thursday night I didn’t feel well, so once the kids got off to school Friday morning, I crept back home and into bed until Bethany got off the bus that afternoon. I found another instructor to handle my circuit training class for Saturday morning and just slept off an awful flu that consisted of aches, chills and feeling carsick most of the time I was conscious. By Sunday, I was feeling Human again (funny... that expression always makes me think of talking candlesticks and singing clocks since they added the song to the Beauty and the Beast DVD!)

Sunday afternoon, Erin started to come down with it and has been home shivering and feeling miserable for 2 days now. Last night, she handed me a note that told me how glad she was that I worked from home so that I could be there when she was sick.

Yes, I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to be a wife, mother and small business owner, but in the long run, I wouldn’t walk in anyone else’s shoes. I just got a new illustration assignment that will keep me busy for the next few weeks and give me some great additions to my portfolio... plus I can’t wait to put up some of the surprises for the holidays on my website!

They say there may be a snowstorm or freezing rain storm for tomorrow morning.... Hmmmmm. I wonder how hard my husband and kids will be doing their storm dance??