Is Winter Over Yet?

No, it's not. One look out the window shows that clearly enough. It is snowing... again. Big, fluffy, sparkling flakes drifting lazily past, making it look like I'm in a tiny snow globe house. Very pretty to look at. The ice storm that covered every last blade of grass in a glassy coat was also very pretty, but dangerous. That storm hit just after we arrived at my parents house in Ohio. They lost power for a couple hours in the following days. Evelyn and Dominic are having a great time with the snow however. Their grandpa built a snow fort for them and then pulled them around the yard in a sled. They spent about fifteen minutes outside before they had to come back in, red skinned and expecting hot chocolate.

Mainly, I just don't like to drive in snowy weather. It was winter when I had driver's education in high school. One time I had to drive back into a small neighborhood that hadn't been plowed to pick up another girl in our group. I wasn't driving fast at all but the car hit a snowy patch of ice and spun around to face completely the other direction and came to a stop inches away from someones mailbox thanks to the snow they had piled up around the post. Not only is it terrifying to loose control of your car, it was mortifying to do it with your driver's ed instructor in the seat next to you.
*Sigh* - I just don't like driving in snow...

And finally and more importantly, a wintery reminder of the Kingdom of Heaven in a quote from a desert mother: "Amma Theodora said, 'Let us strive to enter by the narrow gate. Just as the trees, if they have not stood before the winter's storms cannot bear fruit, so it is with us; this present age is a storm and it is only through many trials and temptations that we can obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.' "