More Snow Days

These first photos were taken back on January 29th. It was bitterly cold outside and a wet snow was thickly falling. Rayna, bless her heart, volunteered to go outside and shovel the drive while I was fixing supper. I agreed, but didn't really think she would accomplish much of anything. I was wrong! Forty-five minutes later, when I joined her in the shoveling, she had already gotten half the drive done, and done a pretty good job at it, at that!



A week ago yesterday, the two little kids and I were at the table having breakfast (Grant and Darcy still hadn't emerged from bed!) when we heard a loud thud near the front door. Rayna dashed out to the living room to investigate and came running back in to tell me a bird had flown into the glass and knocked itself out. When I got out to the front porch, there was Rayna, gently holding the fallen bird. She was exclaiming, "It's dead, Mom!" I reassured her, "It probably just knocked itself out and gave itself a concussion. Wait a bit and it will probably be flying around again." To which Rayna looked at me skeptically...her thumb lightly resting on it's chest purposefully...shaking her head, she held the little bird up to her ear and announced, "No. I don't think so, Mom...I don't see a heartbeat." Well, my little nurse was precisely right...there WASN'T a heartbeat. Poor little thing had broken its neck. Rayna was a pretty astute diagnostition! Her little face was just beginning to contort into sobbing sorrow (her usual reaction to anything injured--be it bug or worm or animal) when I commented, "Rayna, that was very perceptive of you! You are a regular nurse!" Her face instantly lit up! She was glowing the rest of the day with the knowledge that her first instinct had been to check for a heartbeat without anyone even telling her to do so! She may have lost her patient, but gaining recognition of her nursing abilities made everything all right after all!



This is the second day of Spring. And we have a fresh coat of wet snow on the ground! Doug went outside and began making snowmen alone, until Rayna finally joined him. (Okay, I helped out a bit, too, but then opted for shooting pictures instead!) Two hours later, Doug is STILL outside happily building stuff in the snow. The rest of us have long since gotten cold and come inside...but Doug is busy making an entire snow family!