Winter Doldrums

Right after "'Tis the Season to be Jolly" follows "'Tis the Season to be Melancholy!" Yes, it is winter in Tennessee. I never understood why all the elderly flocked to Florida during the winter. I am beginning to understand.

I had to go to the clinic again and get an antibiotic. My ears are infected, and the throat was a mess, too. It's just a given in this weather that if you go out in public enough, you are going to catch something. I am not even going to mention "the illness that shall not be named" that we get every year that we so fortunately have not gotten this year. I am sure that, now that I have blogged about it, we will come down with it shortly. That is how these things seem to go. Let he that standeth....

I have a hard time looking at the pictures from New York right now where they do not even have to get ladders to climb on their roofs. They just walk on the 12 feet of snow they have right over to the roof and climb on. Bet some of those kids are having lots of fun doing what my husband did as a boy in Minnesota--climbing on the roof and jumping off into deep piles of snow. Those of us down here in New Florida, a.k.a. Tennessee, can't even get 12 inches!

The only time I remember one of us jumping off the roof was when my brother Doug went through his Batman phase. He gave poor old neighbor lady Mrs. Starkey cardiac arrest as she tried to dial the phone and tell my mother that one of her offspring was about to become a caped-greasy spot. (Luckily, the roof was not high enough that serious injury was sustained. Come to think of it, that is debatable, considering my dear brother's altered mental state!)

I digress. Well, as we continue the Spring semester of home schooling, we yearn for warm days again. I am mentally preparing for graduation number two, with my sweet Sam being the senior this time. I have to start his photo board, which will take hours and hours to do. Graduates get to have a memorabilia table at graduation. We had one with Daniel, too. I learned then that it is best not to put this stuff off until May!

Sweet Sam! I have to brag on the boy a little. One Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, I woke to the smell of coffee I did not make followed quickly by the wafting of the smell of hot pastry. It was 5 a.m, and Sam was bringing me breakfast in bed. He then informed me that clothes were in the dryer unwrinkling, and he was on his way out to clean out the car before we left for worship. Without having to be asked, he gently guided the little ones towards clothes, coats, and the car. Without knowing it, he provided my "cup of water" for the day. There aren't many teenagers who will extract themselves from the bed at 5 a.m. and lead their families to church. I appreciate this special young man so much, and I dread the day that he moves out into the world, even though I know he must.

Well, I hope that Spring is at least in your heart, and may the love of God carry each one of you through the gray days, whenever and wherever they occur.