Depending on which ground hog you believe in, we could either have spring in a few weeks, or have a lot more winter. I'm going to go with the latter.
We got a dumping of snow yesterday, more in the forecast and no sign of any temperature above zero. 25 more days and we're heading out to our vacation. With any luck we might be on the friendlier side of winter when we get back.
The cold I can always do without. But we did make the most of the winter over the weekend. My girl totally kicked it skiing on Saturday and we braved some high winds and snow on Sunday for some sledding (or tobogganing if you're old school).
Miss K was super keen on the ski thing, not sure at first if it was because of the promise of going out for supper after, but after a few runs she totally got into the groove and loved it. She still doesn't have the best speed control but aside from that she did awesome, really really good compared to last year.
We went last February and I think did about 8 runs over the course of 2 hours. She whined and complained and lots of 3 years old going on 4 drama.
This Saturday was different, yes, she did have a bit of melt down after she had a good face plant wipe out, but aside from that she was all smiles and eagerness. There was even a few " I want to go skiing tomorrow" comments, which was great to hear.
Not that we're going to insist that she ski all winter or even that she keep with it, just that she was really really happy doing it.
I or I should say we only insist that she take swimming lessons until she's competent in the water, other than that I don't care if she takes a gymnastics/dance/water polo/golf/ski/baton/piano/basket weaving lesson in her entire life.
Neither Big C or I will be that "pressure parent" that has their kid overbooked every week in a dozen activities. Childhood is too short and a kid should be able to follow their loves and have time to play. Just play, not structured organized play either, just grab some sticks and dirt, or scissors glue and paper and do what comes naturally to them.
I'm not going to say that Miss K will never take a class or be "in" something, but all in good time I say.
Swimming to us is a life skill, we're outdoorsy type folks and much of our spare time revolves around water in some form and Miss K will be able at some point to swim competently. No need for olympic level swim team, just adequate swimming skills to be able to survive if in water over your head so to speak
But it was encouraging to hear her say how happy she was to ski. Big C and I both love it and its one thing that makes winter tolerable. If Miss K were to love it too, I could see many a weekend afternoon cruising the hills and riding the chair lifts with my two greatest loves in tow.
Winter is here and it's snowy, might as well make the most of it before its gone, which as I mentioned I'm hoping it is soon after we get back from vacation. There are too many snow days and bus cancellations for the kids anymore. We've had 4 or 5 days of bus cancellations already this year…out of 20 possible instructional days so far fully 1/5th to 1/4 of them have been compromised by a lack of bus students or all out school closures. I realize you can't control mother nature, but when the sun is shining and its clear by 9:30 in the morning, would getting the kids to school a bit late be such a bad thing?
I'm all for safety and such, but I sometimes think we've crossed the line and become a nation of fear mongers and scared nelly's that 4 snowflakes constitutes a state of emergency. There's a lot of b.s. as far as I'm concerned, but I'm not going to fight the system, I don't have the time or the energy. Just don't bitch to me when little Johnny still can't read when he's in Grade 4. (not that I'm saying snow days are the sole cause of this either)
I did have the guilty pleasure of clearing snow with the ATV yesterday. It's still a pain in the ass, especially when you have to get up at 5 in the morning to do it, but way more fun than shovelling for sure. Less tiring and more satisfying to push a big pile of snow out of the way in 30 seconds, knowing it would have taken you 10 minutes to do the same with a shovel.
I need the exercise this is true, but our driveway is a heart attack waiting to happen if you know what I mean. We're talking 4 hours of snow blowing at a minimum, so I wouldn't even want to think what shovelling would take
Hmmm, the dog took me out at the knees on the weekend. I zigged, he zagged and his butt landed square behind my knees and I went down hard. Really, really hard, so bad I needed a minute to lie there and evaluate the situation before I got my ass up. Speaking of my ass and back, its still really sore, sitting is a killer as everything stiffens up. It's getting better, but I'm glad I'm not 20 years older, I probably would have broken a hip
Winter carries on and so does life, til next time…make the most of the snow if you have it
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