The woodstove was glowing, smoke drifting slightly west from our chimney, and the snow was piling up almost as fast as the books on my to-read list. We were almost totally thawed last week until Saturday, when it started snowing and didn’t stop until a few days ago. People called it Merry Springmas.  

…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON
AKDT TUESDAY…

* LOCATION…MATANUSKA VALLEY.

* SNOW…ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATION 3 TO 7 INCHES THROUGH NOON
ON TUESDAY.

* TIMING…SNOW WILL INCREASE THIS EVENING INTO THE EARLY
OVERNIGHT. SIGNIFICANT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL PERSIST THROUGH
TUESDAY MORNING. MINOR ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW ARE
POSSIBLE THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT.

This came after the last advisory of 8-14 inches, which came after the alert from Saturday that I can’t remember the details of. The total at our house was 17 inches…less than some, more than others.

Our cats curled up together like quotation marks. The grill wore a chef’s hat. 

The kids practiced their theatrical skills and tried to convince each other they were waist deep

or more

and required assistance

before they had to swim to safety.

Just a few days before, the streets were dry. Mattie and Iree had testing and the rest of us had time to kill while we waited for them to finish. 

 We threw snowballs at each other,

stomped in puddles…

fell in puddles…

…and woke up at 7 am for three days straight and lived to tell about it. Miracles do happen. 

We drank a lot of coffee. At the post-testing celebratory lunch with Grandpa at Sophia’s Cafe, I discovered…Greek coffee.

“Greek coffee?” I asked the waitress. “What makes it Greek?”

“Well…I’ve heard people say that it’s like 16 cups of coffee in one cup.”

“I’ll take one of those.”

I just like watching my dad’s eyebrows go up.

This week, as the snow is re-melting, falling off the trees like glacial calving when the sun hits it, we’ve had more testing of a different sort. We had an appointment on Monday that was awesome (yay!) except that in spite of my warnings, our child with the most attachment issues was doted on for a 30-minute gig and we’ve been reaping the consequences ever since. For example: if a child acts like he’s…limping…right after he’s has his blood drawn, you can bet he is practicing his, ah, theatrical skills, also. Please. And while that is kind of funny, everything else we’ve been dealing with post-fawning-appointment has not been. We’ve been swimming for safety all week.

{Unless you are the parent, gushing over a child with attachment issues is a huge no-no, and those who do it are not the ones who have to deal with the aftermath later. Egad, Holmes!}

We are learning to assert boundaries with people in the community and trying really hard to teach those who need to understand what it is that we are dealing with. We have had to be taught, too, and we are still learning so much. Usually it’s wonderful, but this time it wasn’t, and we will start again when this blows over.

We did learn some exciting news though. Eight months home, and Reagan has gained 6 1/2 pounds. Andrey has grown almost 2 1/2 inches.

The fact that Reagan has gained so much weight is particularly notable since she lost almost a pound of hair when we cut it a few weeks ago. 

But the real miracle is that she still has both ears and no injuries, because she is quite a…shall we say, mover and shaker? and jerked this way and that way, wings flapping, the entire time. It didn’t help that this lady showed up at the back door, either.