Pendulum

Lately I've been amazed at how easily my emotions are affected by outside elements. Anything from the weather, books, people and especially music have big influences on how I feel. I'm becoming more attuned to how those things affect me and try to use them for the positive! So when I looked outside a few days ago and saw huge white, soft, fluffy flakes drifting past my window, I took a deep breath and knew it was going to be a good day. I grabbed Jason and pulled him up next to me, sitting on my cedar chest under my bedroom window. And he sat for a half hour watching the flakes build momentum in the sky. He would point at each one like every flake was new to him. At one point he turned, excitement burning in his bright blue eyes and said "mom, it's so bootiful". I couldn't have agreed more!

I bundled up the kiddies-not even bothering to think about all the effort of coats, hats, gloves etc just to potentially turn around and take them off 15 minutes later. I didn't think about the runny noses or whining about being wet and cold. I jumped right into the moment knowing that this was probably a once in a life time memory for my boys living in Las Vegas. They got to play in the snow! Ryan tasted everything and I tried not to cringe as he picked up snow off the grass, stuffing it in his mouth. Once or twice I caught him shaking his head rigidly, shuddering as the snow touched his new front teeth. Jason was thoroughly engrossed in how the snow stuck together as he squished it between his gloved hands. We made a snowman-who lasted about as long as Ryan let him, after pulling the grape eyeballs and carrot nose off and eating those as well.

I found myself sad when they were ready to go inside, because little did they know how fragile that afternoon was. It couldn't be duplicated and wasn't likely to be repeated as long as we are living here. They would wake up tomorrow and the enchantment would all be gone and I knew how disheartened Jason would be. So I'll dream of a white Christmas in Idaho and hope that we have more afternoons just like that one! And I keep reminding myself, don't worry about the hassle, the work, the burden or cost of spur of the moment ideas. Be that mom who lets her kids run barefoot or play in the stream (or the sandbox in my case-which reminds me of a large litter box so I make the kids stay away from it!) because the memories are worth far more than the hassle.