My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

Some people are fair-weather friends; I am a fair-weather outdoorsman.  That is, I don’t go outdoors unless there is fair weather.  As soon as the temperatures dip down into shiver-inducing realms, I find myself reluctant to step outside unless I’m strictly dashing from a car into a building.  Maybe that’s because I was born a California girl, maybe it’s just because I’m a wimp. 

But I can’t say the same about my girls.  Yesterday, we had returned home from the store on a wet and chilly day and I was unloading the groceries as quickly as I could so I could retreat to the warmth of our house.  However, my plans were derailed when the girls re-discovered their toy ATVs that I had stashed in a corner of the garage (figuring our outdoor playing days were over for the season) and decided it was the perfect weather for driving around the yard.  I was about to scold them for their insensitivity to the obviously inclement conditions, when I realized they weren’t shivering.  They were having a ball.  So I stood there, laughing, and watched them play.  They were zooming around the driveway like they had just been released from a month-long jail sentence.  I guess that’s what winter in New England sometimes feels like to me – an imprisonment.  But I’m thinking that perhaps the imprisonment is much of my own making, by my hesitation to throw on an extra layer of clothing and just get outside for some fresh air.  

And maybe, just maybe, thanks to the initiative of my children (and some good old-fashioned cabin fever), you’ll catch me actually enjoying some less-than-fair weather this season. 

We’re so excited that our friend Gabe came back up to Connecticut for the weekend for a quick visit.  The girls have their playmate back! 

I took the girls to their first storytime at the local library today.  We met up with my friend Julie and her daughter Charlotte, who was kind enough to keep the girls company amongst all the new faces.  Here they are enjoying their snack (which is the apparently best part of storytime, if you didn’t already know!):  

Afterwards, we took the girls into the main part of the library so they could flip through books while Julie and I talked.  Of course, Julie and I ended up doing more reading than conversing, but we still had a great time together!

Do you know how hard it is to make a bed with two little monkeys “helping”?

This is their version of straightening the wrinkles out:

and I think this was supposed to be helping me pull on the comforter:

Even if they weren’t very efficient in their bed making, they were entertaining!

Oh, and speaking of little monkeys, I heard the heartbeat of our third little one today.  What a glorious sound! 

And although the sound of my voice isn’t exactly as exciting, here is my attempt to serenade the girls while they were jumping on the bed: