Wonder and Snowballs

The first few couple months of the year were unusually cold ones here in Garrett County. Swallow Falls froze over to a greater degree than I’ve ever seen. That’s us behind the falls in the feature photo above and me peeking out from a hole in the center in the photo below.

Another very cool snow formation we experienced this year is what I call tumble snowballs because they remind me of the tumbleweeds out West. We woke up one morning to our yard and driveway covered with these hollow snowballs, rolled during the night’s high winds.

I had no idea there was such a thing and felt the same sense of wonder I experienced as a child when finding a ring of mushrooms in the lawn. I love that there are still things (good things!) to experience I had no idea of.

There are bad surprises too. The U.S. bombed a girls’ school? The U.S. bombed civilians on the Plain of Jars with the heaviest rate of bombing per capita in history? I didn’t know.

And so our idols fall.

I don’t always know how to sort between the wonder and joy I experience (grumpy or not, there it lies before me in the moments I open my eyes) and the brutality I hear of.

I wish every wife had an Ivan and every mommy an Annalise. Not cell for cell, of course, but the kindness and commitment of the one and the safety and innocence of the other.

Annalise loves playing in the snow, and this year, we had plenty of it to play in.

Here are the children with what will probably be the last snowmen of the season on February 25.

In the warm days that followed, I was seduced into thinking it spring and hauled all my fig trees out of the milkhouse, where they were overwintering, only to haul them back later for fear they would freeze.

Annalise has been reading stories to Teddy at a great rate–by which I mean looking at the pictures and telling the stories. I must say, I am impressed with her storytelling skills–the expression, the pauses for effect, etc. I also enjoy her original remakes at times…it gives me a window into how she has heard a story. Or perhaps what the pictures convey.

Here are snippets of a few stories I jotted down when she was reading to Teddy from a Bible storybook near the beginning of the year:

Adam and Eve: “They wanted to eat the apple because they thought it would make them strong as God. So they ate the apple and they died.”

Noah’s Ark: “The ark landed on a hill. The animals all cheered and came out of the ark.”

Ten Commandments: “The world was God’s. He came down from the hill and gave all the rules to the people.”

Baby Jesus: “Little baby Jesus was born in a stable. A stable means barn. She married her wife named Joseph. He married his wife named Mary….The wisemen took a long time to get there because the camels were slow.”

Raising a toast to childish wonder,

Lucinda