Snow flakes

A half an inch of snow fell overnight and my two youngest children could not wait to get their snow gear on at the crack of 8:30 this morning. I was not so enthusiastic.

But since I don’t want to totally rain on their parade, I wrapped myself in my old purple bathrobe and helped my 6-year old find mittens and a hat. She and her brother ran outside to make snowballs with the powdery snow. I curled into a recliner and watched a rerun of “Inside the Actors Studio” about Jay Leno and dozed.

An hour later, I was bitterly cleaning up the kitchen and feeling excessively annoyed by the jumble of lids in the glasses cupboard. My husband buys mugs with lids from coffee places–though neither one of us drinks coffee–and my lid solution stopped working some time ago and now I can’t put away all the glasses because of the stupid lids littering the cupboard. It’s time to clean out my kitchen cupboards because I am tempted to cuss every time I open a cupboard door and try to retrieve something. (We have a half dozen boxes of herbal tea–and we don’t drink herbal tea. It’s ridiculous and it’s making me twitchy just thinking about it now.)

I knew then that I needed to get out of this house for the afternoon. My husband had to leave for a work-related appointment at 3 p.m., so I ended up with almost three hours. I went to Taco Time and Value Village and when I returned, I was much less likely to commit homicide.

As I was putting gas in the car on the way home (only $1.69 a gallon), the snow began to flutter again.

By the time I pulled into the driveway, the flakes were thick and fit for a made-for-television movie. The youngest kids were already outside, cavorting and rejoicing.

Then they went to the neighbor’s house and my house was quiet, but for the teenagers in their room. Eventually, more kids came over and soon, several boys were standing near the front door, hunting for gloves in the front closet. (I keep them in a clear plastic pocket organizer, the kind made for shoes that fits over the door.)

Which leads me to wonder why I am the source of all the gloves and mittens for the neighborhood? Earlier today, my daughter’s friend arrived with bare hands so we outfitted him with mittens. I stock up on mittens and gloves throughout the year because they mysteriously disappear. Right now, there is not a single pair of gloves or mittens to be found–but if you have two left hands, you’d be all set. Clearly, I need to buy more gloves. (I buy them at thrift stores in the off-season, usually.) (All my kids and two or three neighbor kids are gloved now.)

Darkness is falling now and all the kids are outdoors. I’d estimate that two inches of snow fell, maybe a little less, but they will be out until their noses fall off or until the moms all make them come inside.

Now, if school is canceled, we will all rejoice. . . until the third week of June, when we will all grumble.