Oh Wintery Day!

Oh Wintery Day!

By Allan Olson

By all accounts, we have been fortunate on the weather front this winter. Of course, by some standards, it’s unfortunate that we’ve had such a small amount of snow and cold weather. I can definitely say that I don’t mind the lack of either, although I was missing not having at least a little more snow.

The latest storm that blew through the area last week brought the most measureable amount of snow we’ve seen so far this winter, and the kids and I made use of it.

I put my shovel to work in removing the snow from the driveway. I tried enlisting the aid of my children to help – that worked well.

The first mistake was that I only had two shovels – one a nice light plastic one that was meant for pushing snow around (that went to Nikolai) and an aluminum grain shovel that was meant for hard-packed snow, where a plastic one would break.

Since Nikolai was outside first late Saturday afternoon, he claimed the plastic shovel and started removing the snow from the driveway.

It took me longer to get ready since I had to get the girls ready to go, too. Marcus declined to go out, claiming it was “too much work” to put on all his winter clothes.

I really appreciated that Nikolai was moving the snow, except that he wanted to pile all the snow next to the porch so he could slide off the railing with the sled.

That was our first argument. I didn’t want it there for a couple of reasons: they would probably break the railing, and I really didn’t want it that close to the house; I wanted it out in the yard, out of the way.

He was then asked to move the snow with my shovel, since I stole his for the removal of the snow. He didn’t like my shovel, and wasn’t happy that he had to move the pile – but he came around after I explained why I wanted it moved.

He was busy working on making a big pile to go sledding on, and I gladly assisted him while working on removal of the snow.

Then Alivia decided to be a pill. She wanted to go sledding now, but the pile wasn’t ready yet. She wouldn’t listen to Nikolai – why would a younger sibling listen? – and kept right on stepping on his pile of snow. He was getting mad.

She decided that she wasn’t going to listen to me, either, so I had to correct that issue, and of course, that’s when the waterworks started. I informed her that if she was going to cry outside in January, her tears would freeze, her face would get very cold and she would have to go in the house to thaw out. She slowly made her way to the house, crying still. I continued working.

Nikolai and Abigail were the only two left outside. They worked on the pile together for a little longer, and then decided to go sledding in the ditch. I continued working; after all, it was pretty hard to get them to help when I only had one shovel that would do the job.

Finally, after about 90 minutes, the job was done. My driveway was free of snow (at least until Monday morning), and I could play with the kids in the snow.

Nikolai soon left for his friend’s house, at which time Abigail burst into tears because I wouldn’t let her go along.

I gave her the same advice as I did her sister.

I decided that I had played outside long enough, and it was time for me to go in. Abigail followed, tears and all.

By evening, all was right in the world again, except that every muscle in my arms hurt.

The next afternoon, all four of the kids (Marcus wasn’t given a choice this time) and I went outside again to play in the fresh snow and warm winter air.

For nearly an hour I pushed them around in the snow and we took turns throwing ourselves into the fresh snow and rolling down the ditch and wrestling in the snow. The last time I went rolling down the ditch, I landed on a stick – it hurt! – and I was done.

With a long weekend off of school this week, I’m sure I will find time to subject myself to more time playing in the snow – if there’s any left!

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. For more of my columns visit http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.