Beauty In The Normal

Really Beautiful Things About the First Snowfall

1. It sets the mood for Christmas. Christmas songs, and lights, and trees are just better with snow.

2. It is an open invitation to drink more hot chocolate and cider. Warm hands, warm bodies.

3. Shoveling the driveway is a great workout, and quite relaxing. At least for the first time that season.

4. There is always a child who is experiencing snow for the first time. I got to witness it. It made my eyes well with tears and my heart swell. She could barely move in her snowsuit, but her eyes and flapping arms said it all.

5. The blah, brown ground turns to a beautiful white sparkle. The colors of fall are beautiful, but when the winter sets in, the leaves are gone, and the grass is brown- the earth loses some of its beauty. A fresh, white dusting of snow on the ground turns it back into a beautiful landscape.

6. Fresh footprints on a bike path. I was the first and only one who had set foot in the fresh snow on the entire route of my run. It was fun to think about the fact that my footprints were following me perfectly, undisturbed.

Reasons I love being a wife:

1. Cleaning the house/setting up the tree/making dinner/any other mundane, everyday task feels so much more rewarding. When he comes home after a day at work, and I’ve had a productive day of doing these things, he is genuinely grateful- and it feels rewarding.

2. Small things that would usually (and sometimes still do) annoy me, also make me smile.

3. I miss him- greatly- when he’s gone. Whether just for a night, or for a week, when he leaves- I always wish he was here instead.

4. I have something to look forward to every single night. I look forward to the end of each day, for the simple fact that we get to cook dinner together, eat dinner together and hang out.

5. It’s my job to make him feel loved, cared for, and respected. And I love finding new and better ways to do just that.

6. I get to celebrate with him in his victories, and pick him up from his failures. It feels really good to succeed with somebody, and equally as terrible to come alongside them in their failures- but experiencing emotion with someone, for someone is one of the most awakening things I have experienced thus far.

Things That Are on My Winter Bucket List

1. Read a book. Maybe two. Or three. I am not a reader. There. I said it. I feel like it is a secret that I never really like to let on to others, because I’m a teacher- and teachers are supposed to be readers. But I’m not. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading, or don’t like to pick up a book every now and then, it’s just that it takes a really right book to grab my interest, and keep my interest. I’m not one of those people that you will find juggling the plots of 3 different books at once, and lost when they don’t have a book to move-on to after they have closed the cover of one. However, there have been several times over the course of the last week that I have been craving a good read. So this winter I want to find a book that I really love reading, and I want to read it cover to cover.

2. Crochet a few baby blankets. I have some special babies arriving in my life this spring, and I would love it if I could welcome them with some hand-made blankets.

3. Stay active. I haven’t worked out for days. I haven’t done a thing. Nothing. Because, frankly, when the high for the day is -10 windchill, it just doesn’t even make sense that you could possibly go out there. People might argue against me, and they might tell me you can, but the truth is- it just isn’t safe. So somehow,  amidst the freezing cold weather and slippery paths, I want to stay active.

4. Balance grad school and teaching. I’m praying the transition goes smoothly, and that it’s not super challenging to balance the two for the next two years of my life.

5. Take Photographs. Lots of them. All the time. Sometimes that good old camera of mine gets neglected for far too long. And I start noticing because my eye will start taking mental photographs of random moments, or objects or beauty. So this winter, I want to actually capture them.