Our life in a snow globe...

Winter has arrived in all its splendor in Northeast Ohio, with several major winter storms and no thaws in between.  Aside from a few moments that invovled unplowed roads and a lot of shoveling (detailed below), I am loving it. We are alternating between snuggling in under the heated blanket and drinking lots of coffee and cocoa, and heading out into the cold to ski whenever we can.  In between have been days at school and evenings spent at swim meets or working at Rexwood.  An interesting mix of busy and not-busy-at-all.  Today I write from the dining room, still wearing jammie pants, surrounded by folded laundry, sleeping animals, and vistas of a winter wonderland outside, as we get 4-6 more inches of snowfall...  we have yet to decide if we will try to ski this afternoon, or go walk on the frozen lake, or go sledding, or just call it and not leave the house all day.  So many great choices...

Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks.

This is what the house looks like when we un-Christmas. Only took two days, and the house still looks a little barren.  Perhaps this afternoon is time for Valentine's decor....

My mom and I went to see the Immersive Van Gogh show (part of her Christmas gift).  It was pretty neat, though I was grateful to have gotten our tickets on a BOGO special.

My running friends are a balm to the soul in this time of (continued) isolation. I've not been getting out much, tending towards laziness on these cold, cold winter mornings, but we meet up about once a week to brave the weather and talk incessantly. 

After much work and anticipation, the Rexwood listing went live on January 12th and we had our first guests booked to come the weekend of the 15th.  We are currently booked pretty much solidly through the beginning of March.  Here's hoping it continues!

Jack's first post-Covid swim meet.  After easing back into practice the week before, he'd had only one full length practice prior to this meet.  It wasn't his best ever, but he was within a second of his breastroke PR, so not too bad for a kiddo still recovering from a nasty, global pandemic-inducing virus.  He also had a surprisingly good backstroke performance.  I'm so impressed with this kid. 

Back to the (crowded) slopes!  We have been trying different nights and different areas...  but the long lines and crowded conditions seem to be here to stay this ski season.  Due to "staffing shortages" (code for what seems to be gross mismanagement by Vail Resorts nationwide), generally only one out of our three local areas are open at a time, and up until this weekend, most were only operating 1/2-2/3 of their lifts. It's been a madhouse everytime. The snow has been great, and those 20 seconds at a time on the hills are as fun as ever (if you can find a good window of clear slope to ski in, between the mobs of snowboarding teens), but the 15-20 minute lift lines have been a real drag. 

We are likely to keep on trying though.  Because we're crazy like that. 

Lovely night with our neighbors.  You know you don't get out much any more when you're putting on makeup to go eat Tommy's around someone's dining room table.  But its *someone else's* dining room table, so that makes it an event!  Just so grateful for these new friendships.

Nat and I took Ivy to a birthday party in Mentor... which turned out to be the NEXT day... but we still carried on with our plan to explore Chagrin River Park and downtown Willoughby.  Both of which were cute as can be.  And freezing. 

Very "Winnipeg-esque" out there, with the frozen river and wind chill and brilliant blue sky.

Try try again! Can't see the lift lines from here, which is probably a good thing.  You also can't hear all of our whining about the lift lines...

Up to Mentor again. Actually got Ivy to the birthday party this time.  Spent two hours finding thrift shops, learning about "bin" shopping, checking to see if the lake was frozen (it was not), and discovering Pickle Bills, which we are now in love with. 

MLK day--  the big snow! Just after we got home from Mentor, the snow started falling.  Woke up to about 16 inches of perfect white.

And cars and a driveway that looked like this.  Which we unfortunately had to shovel out by 8am so we could get over to Rexwood and shovel out THAT driveway so our Airbnb guests could leave at 9 for their flight home.  All of a sudden those two nights of income were NOT feeling worth it.  But there was a certain sense of accomplishment in moving two driveways' worth of snow, making it through the completely unplowed streets, and digging out our guests' car in the street two times to get them to Cedar.  Accomplishment, and also a lot of sweat and sore muscles. 

We proceeded to come home and not move at all the rest of the day.  Which was fine because everything in the world closed and the roads were terrible anyways. Ivy went sledding with a friend- not pictured because I was far too tired to go along. 

The kids woke up to a snow day because our CH buses were snowed in. Sadly Solon was still in session.. but I cut out ASAP to meet the fam at the ski area.  Along with everyone else in the world, of course.  I could only ski til 6:30 because of choir rehearsal, but we all left at 6 because we just couldn't anymore with the lines.

Beautiful night and beautiful fresh snow, though!

Next swim meet!  I am grateful I've been able to attend as many meets as I have. I love watching these kids swim.  And chatting with the other swim parents, of course. 

And, another one!  We've only had a couple away meets this season and this is the first one I've been to.  A different vibe, for sure, with only a few CH families in the audience- but it was a super exciting night of very close races!  Our girls' team got trounced by Shaker's huge, fast team, but our boys edged them out by 5 points. Jack shaved off two seconds in the IM and 100 breast, and placed third in the IM.

Hung out with our friends after the meet, and kept Lillian for an overnight.  These two have embraced life in a snow globe.  As well as playing a lot of Wii.

Looks like we're going to go brave the slopes again in a bit, so I'll sign off and go suit up.  When the world gives you snow- go get out in it!  

Happy New Year 2022!

 I am typing tonight to the sounds of a broadcast of our October Brahms Requiem concert. It is bringing on all the feels, I tell you. The euphoric experience of singing in front of an audience for the first time in 18 months, all the work and nerves and frustration and accomplishment of learning the piece by heart and trying to sing it well enough to be a part of such a high caliber group, the amazing chords and dynamics and emotion of the piece itself.  And this recording is gorgeous. It all paid off.

It's even more emotional to listen tonight because our first month of COC rehearsals- and our first performance with Franz Welzer-Most- have been cancelled due to the Omicron surge. And I am missing all those nerves and work and challenge, and the new friends I had just started to make during the holiday concerts.  We are set to resume February 7th, and I am hoping it will be so.

Gratefully, West Shore Chorale is rehearsing, and we are singing some lovely works, including the Schubert Mass in D, all romance and melody and energetic phrasing.  As "Wie Lieblich" resonates from the radio I am just so suffused with gratitude for the blessings of choral singing and making music with other people.  

One of my wishes for 2022 is to keep making music, and to keep putting my heart and work into being the best musician I can be. 

I guess that is kind of a resolution?

Our Covid holiday season was really a downer of an ending to 2021, and left me in no mood to celebrate a New Year or resolve to do much of anything. With an end to our quarantine, a return to schedules, and Jack finally feeling healthy, I am swimming to the surface and finally feeling ready to reflect on the year behind, and to voice some wishes for the year ahead. 

So.  2021.  It was a year, that's for sure.  If you look at our photo book, it was a grand one.  There were sunsets and holidays and beaches and cute pets and growing children aplenty.  We had a wonderful trip to Northern Michigan that was the highlight of the summer, and we had a rather pleasant autumn with plenty of socialization, a little travel, concerts, and a return to a semblance of normal life. We enjoyed the heck out of our first ski passes, and Ivy learned to ski and Jack learned to hit the jumps.  Jack played tennis, the kids swam with Tigersharks, I started singing with the Orchestra Chorus. So many good things. 

2021 was also full of remote learning, shutdowns, masking, making reservations in advance, and the constant low-grade trauma and anxiety of living in an ongoing global pandemic. 

And it was also the year of vaccination against said pandemic!  By October we finally had our whole family protected... but not before Nat and Ivy had their bout with Covid in September.

The year was marked, too, by our Gram Sarah's health crisis and the ensuing changes to her life-- and ours-- as we helped her back to health and into assisted living.  Silver lining?  Lots of new learning!  We learned to manage diabetes and Mychart, and all about what a vascular dementia diagnosis means.  We handled financial decisions and packing and moving and real estate.  Happily, the close of the year finds my mom living comfortably in an assisted living apartment near us, where she is making friends and feeling much more like herself.  We have purchased an investment property to help defray her living expenses and we have 2 out of 3 units rented, with the 3rd ready for AirBnB.

Oh, and during our Christmas quarantine we reglazed the tub and cleaned and organized the basement.

We did some things in 2021, didn't we?

It was kind of a doozy, last year, really.

Which leaves ume with my main wish for 2022.  I am not hoping for perfect, but maybe some things can be a little bit better?  Maybe this year can be good enough.  Maybe our kids will get to go to school in person all year.  Maybe we will stay healthy.  Maybe I will get to sing in an opera with COC in May. Maybe we will get to be at Farley's for 2 full weeks.  Maybe we will get to go on the California vacation we've booked for June.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But here's hoping that most of the time, this year will be good enough.  

My personal goals, to make the most of this year, are to eat food for fuel, exercise whenever I can, and maintain my physical and emotional health so that I can hike and swim and run and play with my family and friends all year long. Also maybe to save money on random spending so that I can then spend it all on travel and shows and experiences.

My wish for 2022 is more laughter, more time with friends, more travel and adventure, and more appreciation for the amazing privilege of my life.  That even in a "bad year," I had so much that was so very, very good.  I want to go into 2022 ready to embrace all the joy it has to offer. 

Like listening to this concert on a quiet Wednesday at home, in a clean kitchen, after a nice day at work and a run with my friend and a tasty dinner and time with kids, with a cat purring next to me and a little dog curled in her bed across the room.  Definitely good enough, right?  Maybe even a bit better than that. Let the rest of this year be what it may be.  I resolve to revel in the breathtaking blessing of each ordinary day we get.  

Happy New Year, loves!

Another Zoom NYE. Sigh.

Tobogganing and feeding chickadees-- one "winter fun" day to close out our break once we were all out of quarantine.

Projects!  Believe it or not this basement looks a LOT better than it did before.   No one will ever see how it looked before. 

The Attic at Rexwood is coming along.

The bunny and dog are friends all of a sudden.

Immersive Van Gogh with mom!

First night skiing! Crowded, terrible snow-- you know, the usual early season in Ohio.

Second Christmas!  Gifts from Vovo and Lulu.  Not the same as getting to see them, but made for a fun Thursday night!

T