Let it Snow

The sky is officially grey, as my friends in Ohio and Illinois can relate. And it will stay grey until sometime in late March. Hurray.

It is, as you can see by the title of this post, snowing. And whether or not there is school tomorrow is largely to be determined by how cold it gets: will it freeze? They tend to cancel school here if someone sneezes, which irritates and amuses Liza From Minnesota to no end, but pleases me greatly, as I "work from home" those days. Even though, I have to say, there were times when I worked for the school district when I was scraping inches of snow and ice from my car and swearing at the superintendent the entire time for not cancelling that day. You never really know until your alarm has gone off and you're already too awake to fully enjoy sleeping in that day. It's just the way it works out.

So, I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving (well, those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving-- I do have the occasional international reader, Hello! Bonjour!) and ate lots of good food, drank lots of good wine, and had food coma afterwards, like I did.

Last night my kiddos came home, so I feel like a real person again. My noisy, messy home returned to me, negotiations of computer/video time, baths, lost gloves!, changes of underwear, socks strewn on the bedroom floor-- ahhhh, yes, life is once more full. Not that I didn't enjoy my adult time when they were gone-- Oh, I DID, but it is always such a joy when they return. I just find myself staring at them, and how gorgeous they are, all chattering at once about playing Halo 2 in Cleveland and their updated Christmas lists (NO WAY), and their little desires for hot cocoa and please just let me stay up a little bit longer...

I worked on Friday until 4:30, and then Friday night, we went to a wine tasting and then out to the DuKum for a bit.

Saturday, I went out shopping in the downtown shops with Liza, and then for a late lunch at the coffeeshop, and then Dereck met me there and we went to see Ray. It was great! Too lazy to link it right now, will do that later.

We had a light supper at Il Spazio, and then I was tired, too tired to go to the grocery store (so I have to go today!) and so we just went home and read and went to bed early.

Yesterday, I got up early and got showered and dressed and drove Liza and Sonja down to the Orthodox church in Columbia. It was really cool. Talk about high church! It makes Catholic Mass seem pretty tame.

It was beautiful and intimate and very moving. I just got off the phone with my friend Carol, after describing the church with its icons, the altar, the crucifix, the incense censer, the people praying in four different languages, one at a time, so there is a ripple of prayer through the church, the cakes and prayers offered for grieving and thanksgiving afterward, the chanting of St. Luke and the homily, which let me look at the story of the rich man trying to get into heaven in a completely different way... And after I told Carol about all of this, she said, "Let's both convert!"

So, she is interested in coming down with me.

Yesterday advent started in the Catholic Church, so they are lighting a purple candle, in a wreath, every night and saying an advent prayer. Well. You know I live for that kind of thing, so I'll stop by Mary Immaculate today and get a candle and a copy of the prayer. Woo hoo! And they have vespers on Sunday afternoons, and she wants to go.

I want to get back down to St. Luke's in Columbia, but this week, when I have the kids, I'll probably stay up here in Kirksville and go to church with Carol.

Yesterday, in a conciliatory gesture, the Catholic church in the Vatican returned important relics to the Orthodox Church after centuries...

These are interesting times we are living in...