Overheard this afternoon:

"Andrew, baby Jesus crying. Sing."
"No, Marc. I don't wanna sing."
"Andrew, baby Jesus crying. SING."
"Oh all right. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he..."

I forgot...

...just how much fun two year olds can be. Marky's vocabulary feels like it has exploded overnight; just yesterday she pulled a blanket off the sofa and asked me to snuggle with her. It's almost as if she's been blind and is now seeing the world with renewed vision. She's funny, opinionated, charming, flirty, caring, sincere and a complete mystery to her father. In some ways she is so much like her older brother and in others, she is the complete opposite. I never knew parenting could be so much fun, so humbling, so frustrating, such a blessing.

A belated Happy Valentine's Day. We spent ours nursing colds, one of which turned ugly and sent us to the ER, and replacing a toilet -- the romance never dies, does it? :-)

thumbprint hearts on salt dough clay ornaments for each family member graced our seasons tree

homemade heart shaped doughnuts were a special treat during the blizzard of 2010

Outside the snow is falling...

...and falling and falling and falling. The media is referring to it as snowmageddon, the snowpocalypse, a blizzard of epic proportions. Washington, DC, has shut down; the postal system is not delivering mail; our church services for tomorrow were cancelled as of 9 am yesterday, before the first flakes fell. It's a little piece of heaven, if you ask me. The wintery white world forces us into a gentle rhythm of life. Yes we'll continue to attack the shoveling even as the snow falls, but already, we find ourselves slowing down to just enjoy.

It's homemade bread (from here: http://morganmoore.typepad.com/one_more_moore/2007/03/amish_country_b.html) and potato soup, fires in the fireplace, reading books while munching monkey bread, movies and sewing, just sitting and staring at the precious babe in my lap. Oh my, how I love this snow that forces us all into a slower pace of being.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10