mamamusings: January 22, 2005

settling down for a long winter's night

We’ve had about six inches of snow on the ground all week; the temperature hasn’t risen enough to melt it, so it just sits there, or blows around.

Today the snow started up again, along with subzero temperatures, and winds gusting up to 30mph. We’re supposed to get 3-6” this afternoon, and another 6-10” overnight. Brrrrrr.

We got all of our morning errands done (we think Lane did well in his cello solo competition this morning, but won’t know ‘til tonight at the earliest), and we’re all home now, safe and sound and warm and cozy, watching the snow fly sideways past the windows. I doubt we’ll be going anywhere for at least 24 hours, maybe longer.

Time to start a fire in the fireplace, crack open a novel from the library, and pipe some music from iTunes to the Airport Express…

to sleep, perchance to dream

For quite a few years now, I’ve been an early-to-bed, early-to-rise person. That was very much a result of being a parent—sleeping in is a luxury that parents of small children seldom get to indulge in.

Over the past few weeks, however, I’ve found myself fighting off sleepiness and trying to stay up late. I’m not completely sure why that is. Part of it, I think, is that after the kids go to sleep it’s blissfully quiet in the house, and I enjoy savoring that time. It’s easier to read, to write, to think, to relax, when you’re not being barraged with requests for parental attention.

But there’s something else going on, too, that I can’t quite put my finger on. A restlessness. A resistance. To what? I don’t know. But it’s there.

So here I am, watching my fire slowly burn down, feeling it warm my feet while I type. Soon I’ll be too tired to string words together, or even to focus on the screen. Then I’ll turn off the lights and head up to bed, where I’ll be asleep within minutes.

Tomorrow we actually will get to sleep in. No cello competitions or swimming lessons, no school buses or committee meetings, no place we have to go and no one we have to see. We’ll wake to drifts of snow piled across the driveway and the yard, to sausage and eggs cooking in the kitchen (if Gerald gets up first), to a weather-enforced day of rest.

Here’s what we have to look forward to…

So now it’s (finally) off to bed with me. Time to close the glass doors on the fireplace, turn off the lights in the kitchen, and climb the stairs to the flannel sheets and warm spouse that await me in bed.