White Snow, Bright Snow

Last night before I tucked my boys into their beds, I read these words. . .

"Softly, gently in the secret night, down from the North came the quiet white. Drifting, sifting, silent flight, softly gently in the secret night. White snow, bright snow, quiet as sleep. Down, down, without a sound; down, down, to the frozen ground. Covering roads and hiding fences, sifting in cracks and filling up trenches. Millions of snowflakes, tiny and light, softly, gently in the secret night..."

All day yesterday I checked the weather. The meteorologists were predicting snow. A winter weather advisory had been issued for our area. My anxious heart was filled with hope!! And, as I read the words of White Snow, Bright Snow to my boys, I worried for a few moments that maybe I was putting false hope into my little ones' hearts. Their eyes lit up as I read of the children playing in the snow. And, I told them that, maybe, just maybe, we would wake up to winter white one more time!!!

Weather.com said that the snow would begin to fall at 11 pm. Well, at 11 pm Erik and I were sitting in bed reading, when all of the sudden, we heard a noise outside our bedroom window. Erik jumped up to see what it was. He went to the front door, turned on the front lights, and looked outside! He came back to our room and happily announced that the sound we heard was the sweet North wind blowing snow against our window ~ except he didn't call the North wind sweet ~ I added that!! I ran to the front door to look, and, sure enough, weather.com was right on!!! Then, I tucked myself back in bed and smiled myself to sleep with visions of snow floating down from heaven and falling gently on my face!!!!!

I can honestly say that today has been a gift! I am sitting in front of my laptop at our kitchen table, little boys napping, big boys engrossed in a movie. I am sipping coffee and watching the snow fall. Only God and my husband, and possibly Deana B, know how much this day means to me! I love snow! I jokingly beg my husband at least once a week to move me a little further north, so I can see more snow!!! But, he won't go for it!! :-) I know this is likely the last snow of the winter, and so I am soaking it in ~ enjoying each moment!

When it snows our bird feeder gets some serious business!!! There are six birds there right now! One of which is a gorgeous red cardinal! How happy am I??!!!

Some of these pictures are from the surprise snow dusting we got last Monday! It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep the boys out of school!

Here are my sweet boys having popcorn and a movie on a quiet snowy afternoon!

But, I know that like all good things, this, too, has to end. I haven't looked at weather.com today. I fear what it will tell me!! Probably tomorrow will be sunny with temps in the high 40's, and that is not compatible with snow. So, most likely, tomorrow I will spend much of the morning listening to the sound of snow melting off our roof. And, each time I look out the window a little more snow will have disappeared from our lawn. :-( I keep reminding myself that spring is right around the corner, and I do love spring. It just doesn't feel like it on this snowy day!!! And, that brings me full circle to an excerpt from the end of the book White Snow, Bright Snow. . .

"The wind pushed light puffs of white from the branches, while the melting snow on roof-tops drip-drip-dripped into long shiny icicles. . .Big patches of soft muddy ground showed through snow in the fields. The sound of dripping, running water and the smell of wet brown earth filled the warm air. Now the branches were bare again. . . fence posts lost their dunce caps, the snowman's arms dropped off, and running water gurgled in gutters and rain pipes... and, the children watched for the first robin to tell them Spring had really come. . . "

Won't be long now!