Cold days and warm hearts

This week:  An abundance of snow and an abundance of friendship in equal measure.  We have settled in to winter, becoming accustomed to the white vistas and snow-covered roads and filling up the cold days with a different activity every night. It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of January already, but the sunlight that lingers a little later every day is a bittersweet reminder that 2015 is flying by already.  Reveling in the wintry wonder of our community, our children, and our family and friends this week...

 There seems to be a whole lot of magic that happens in those hours between Jack's school dismissal and when I finally get home.  I am envious of Nat, that he gets to fetch these smiling beings home from their busy days, feed them snacks, take them to play and sled at the park.  I get to romanticize those hours, you know, because I can't be there.  It must all be perfection, if one is to judge from the pictures Nat shares with me...

Most of the time I am happy to be a working mom.  I know I do better when I have some deadlines, and places to be.  And despite all the fun and excitement in the world of public education this year, I do love what I do and I am grateful to have my job....

But!  I really do wish I could get home in time for after school sledding...

this playground equipment used to seem a lot bigger...

As it is-- I just have to fit a week's worth of magic into each weekend.  Mission accomplished last Saturday...


Highlight: Our first time snow tubing,  with the Hiram Alumni group.
We talked Melinda and Tiffany into bringing their families too, and we joined forces with 230 other Hiram families to enjoy an afternoon of schlepping and sliding through the snow.

 It was terrific fun.

It was grand to share the fun with these people.  Our Hiram past, our families now, all tied together just like a flotilla of snow tubes.  A perfect blend. 

 We were having such fun we might have stayed right through til closing if we hadn't been quite exhausted by 5:30 and if I didn't have to run off immediately to my next engagement-- more wonderful time with amazing friends as the "Mama Speakeasy" crowd headed out for Korean Food together.

We celebrated a year of our monthly gatherings with many toasts of plum wine.  I am so grateful to have been pulled into this group of women.  Amazing mamas, devotees of the Heights, brilliant and talented every one of them.  And kind!  And loving!  And hilarious!  We had too much fun and ate too much food and stayed up too late at Kat's house.  I feel young and vibrant and included and important and inspired with these new friends of mine.  How lucky am I?

Sunday-- a trip to the gym, coffee with an old friend, brunch to celebrate my baby sister's 24th (!) birthday, house cleaning, and a cozy, energizing tea with the dinner swap crew....

A weekend done right.

If only weekends like this one came with a recovery day.  Alas.  This week has been a mad rush of 5am wakeups, jam-packed prepare-for-the-tests-quick! school days, and busy evenings.  Good-busy, the best kind of busy, full of learning and exercise and friendship and family time.  But busy nonetheless.

Our weekly after-school schedule in brief for you:  Monday evening, piano lessons.  Tuesday evening, Lakewood for dinner with my mom and choir rehearsal.  Wednesday: swimming at the JCC followed by attending a forum at CH High School on the state of public schools and testing.  Thursday: our traditional "gymnastics and fast food" date with friends.  Friday:  Dinner with M and W (a calm respite in the storm...)

This is the norm for us this winter, it seems.  Never a dull moment.

In the midst of it all, we do manage to sneak in some moments of calm and connection, Nat and I.  One of my favorite stolen moments-- our Tuesday afternoon walks at Lakewood Park.  Drifted snow?  Icy paths?  Twenty degree temperature?  Lakeshore winds?  They don't bother us!  We've been wandering the park with a blissful spaniel in tow each week and it is so very very good.

There is this view.  And my husband.  And a sense, for those few moments, of the expansiveness of time, limitless possibilities spread out before us like the lake horizon.

Tonight, I am looking forward to a weekend of calm and connection and expansive time for all of us.

Or at least, more snow and friendship.