Cocooned

A hard, cruel month, February. The cruelest? Yes; I think, with all due deference to T.S. Eliot, that it might be. At least…this February was. Hard and dark and full of…well, I can't even describe it all. And I won't, in this place. But you know the miracle? (There's always a miracle. I'm learning that, slowly.) The miracle is that in the coldest, darkest parts of it, I felt…cocooned. Wrapped in love and protection and stillness. I even took the picture above (sitting in my chair, literally wrapped in my yellow blanket) to help me remember what it felt like—to help me remember that the tender mercies of God really are over all those who love him. He is so good!

In February we had the biggest snowstorm I can remember. It started late one night as I went outside to wave goodbye to Seb and Malachi, who were going off to a movie together. I've never seen snow build up so quickly! I was worried about the boys, but luckily the roads weren't too bad until after they got home.

When I looked out at the back deck before bed I was amazed how much snow had already accumulated!

Sam shoveled a path inside for the boys.

The next morning, the snow had piled up even higher and drifted into huge mounds! Even our front porch was covered with it!

And the back porch was all rounded up with snow-muffins and marshmallows and buns. Even the string lights were strung with fwuffballs instead of bulbs!

It had piled up higher than the doorframes.

Sam went out to measure it, of course.

We tried to see if it was piled almost as tall as Clementine, but she'd have none of it. Poor barefoot baby! She thought it was interesting to get snow on those tiny feeties of hers.

The window wells were filled and scooped out like the pearly insides of seashells.

The car was nearly buried!

And it just kept snowing…and snowing…and snowing! The chairs and the firepit were slowly buried too!

You can see how high it piled by the fence, actually covering the shorter fence in the corner, and towering unnaturally on the top of the tall fence.

No furniture. No grill. Just mounds and bulges and bumps.

The kids went out to try sledding, but it was so deep, they just blundered into piles and trudged through drifts and got their sleds buried under them. They had fun anyway. "What did you do?" I asked Junie. "Just mostly lay there like I was on a bed," she said. (Look at the car!)

The front fence disappeared almost entirely.

There was no getting out or going anywhere for anyone, and I was glad. The piles behind the garage and in the alleyway were three feet tall in places! We all got to be cocooned inside together.

Daisy liked forging her way through the snow like an intrepid adventurer, though! 

48 inches tall here

Sam valiantly shoveled a path…

…which from afar looked like a canyon, the sides were so steep.

The girls ventured out back eventually,

and sat on the puffy chairs.

I did what I always do when other people go out in the cold—made warm food for when they came back in. We were rolling out scones and before we knew it, Clementine had joined us. We laughed and laughed when we saw she had brought her own little "rolling pin"! Clever girl!

On one of the snowy days, I got out the project I've been meaning to do forever, which is finishing up everyone's birthday garlands. I got one of these felt ball garlands (the bunny one on the left, above) to put up for Teddy's birthday last year, and then became mildly obsessed with making one for everyone in the family. I kept accumulating felt balls here and there, and tracking down shapes to represent people's likes and dislikes, and it became more of a challenge than I at first anticipated (sometimes I forget that what isn't too hard x1 becomes significantly more hard x10 🙄). But look! Now I've done it! And everyone will be suitably celebrated on their birthdays. Above we have Teddy, Ziggy, and of course Gus's garlands.

Here are the girls: Goldie on top with the turquoise donuts and elephants, Daisy of course, Clementine of course, and then Junie is the orange-loving lemon-lover (with some limes thrown in for good measure).

The older boys, none of whom will care in even the slightest: Abe, Malachi, and Seb.

And the cutest one of all for Sam and me to share on our birthdays (five days apart)!

When the snow cleared and real life came rushing back in with an unwelcome vengeance, these miraculous flowers from my friend came and sat like a bright little patch of sunshine on my table and lasted for a whole month. They made me happy every time I saw them.

Zig "helped" happily when the real work of shoveling all that snow began. He loved playing grown-up "man" games with Sam as they worked together.

The snow stayed around for a long time, not diminishing noticeably. And it was beautiful!

Amidst all that white, Teddy's baptism day came, another beautiful bright ray of sunshine. Sebastian baptized him and Sam confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We even got a picture of the whole family (minus Abe of course!) which is a blessing for me whenever it happens.

And we got to meet my new little grand-nephew, my brother's first grandson and my mom's first great-grandchild! Oh he was cute and tiny!

Malachi holds him with such casual nonchalance.

Ziggy drew this sweet little note for his three sisters, with pictures of each of their favorite animals (penguin, pig, and elephant).

He drew these many Caws for Gus. ("Their names are Caw the King, Cawy, and The Maddest Caw in the World," he told me.)

He drew Jesus, wearing an appropriate shirt (trust Jesus to wear two "CTR"s)

He also made every person in these old newspapers my mom gave us into a policeman. Note their angry  eyebrows!

And he learned how to spell police with the letters in the right order! Amazing.

We made Sam his sorely-overdue birthday cake, finally. The kids enjoyed the candle-blowing-out immensely.

Ziggy has been on this…well, it's a long story. Did I tell about how a kid in our ward had Ziggy help him with his science experiment? The kid's name is Theo and a month or so ago, he asked Ziggy if he (Ziggy) could participate in his (Theo’s) science experiment, which was growing bacteria from different-aged people’s armpits! 😱 He just had to take a swab of Zig’s armpits right after her bath one night, and then again 24 hours later. 

Ziggy was very nervous about it, and it was so funny! First he said he didn’t want to. Then when I brushed that off he said he WOULD NOT DO IT. Then when I said I’d already said yes, he said “can he do it while I’m asleep?” Then he talked about it nonstop the whole day. “Why does he especially need a five-year-old? Why is he coming tonight? Why is it a school activity? Why is he coming after my bath?” And when the Great Moment finally came, he insisted that Daisy stay right next to him and hold his hand. Theo didn’t help by making a bunch of jokes about how it was going to hurt A LOT, and we all laughed especially heartily at them to try to reassure Zig. Then, of course, it wasn’t scary or painful at all, and Ziggy said afterwards, “When he put the q-tip on my armpit it didn’t feel like anything.”

Anyway, after all that, Ziggy has become semi-obsessed with Theo. He loves him! He talks about him all the time, he says hi to him in the halls at church, he re-enacts the fateful Q-tip swab night ("Mommy, lets play that you're me and I'm Theo and I came to get your bacteria."). He also watches Theo's every move (Theo is a deacon)—and lately he's gotten into this routine of playing "passing the sacrament" at home with Gus. He sometimes does it wearing sunglasses, because Theo has glasses.

It has gotten more and more elaborate over time. First the sacrament trays were just books. Then other objects. (Sam texted me when I was gone one day, "I just ate a giraffe for the sacrament.") 

Then they made little trays with blocks and paper cups and started saying the sacrament prayer at the sacrament table, with two "priests" holding up the tablecloth for the one saying the prayer! (I keep wondering if I should intervene! I have talked to them about the sacrament being sacred…but it all seems done in such a spirit of admiration and delight. I don't think Jesus minds?)

I love these funny little boys, and the rest of my pack of rascals too. And it shows, all things considered, that even the darkest months aren't so unbearably dark after all!