this morning, i woke up and noticed that fat, white flakes of snow were falling outside my window. i was too excited to go back to sleep (plus, i’d been having a series of yucky dreams), so despite the rather early hour (for a weekend) and to my snoozing husband’s chagrin, i decided to pick up the book i’d started yesterday. it’s philip reeve’s new book titled “larklight” and you can read a review of it in librarian’s log 1/07. alkelda, if you haven’t read this book, go immediately to your local library and get a copy. i think you’d love it even more than i did.

once mr. happy stuff decided it was time to get up and noticed the snow for himself, i commented that today looked like it was shaping up to be a wonderful day to stay indoors all day and he said, “oh, i thought you’d want to go outside and take some pictures.” which was exactly the thought that had been lurking in the back of my mind! what i’d meant to say was that today was a good day to not have to drive anywhere! (we’ll see if we can weasel out of church… i’m supposed to lead children’s time…) mr. happy stuff proceeded to pull on some clothes and go downstairs to make himself some coffee and he was kind enough to ask if i wanted a cup of tea which he then brought to me in bed!

finally, when the tea was finished and i was just a few short chapters away from the end of the book, i decided i’d probably better go outside and get some good photos before it stopped snowing or turned ugly stormy or something, so i pulled on warm clothes, grabbed the camera and went to ask mr. h-s if he wanted to join me in my photo-exploring. i was pleasantly surprised when he said yes! so i waited for him to get suited up against the weather* and then we tromped out into the drifts together. i took lots of pictures, then he wanted to take a few (and got some of me in my ridiculous snow outfit), then i took a few more. we had a great walk in the snow and were happy to have ended the walk not much more damp and cold than we started.


here’s a close-up of one of the shots we got. if you click on it, you can see the whole picture. i didn’t know i’d gotten the cardinal until i opened the pictures on my computer! can you spot the red bird in the big picture? i also like the way that the small brownish tree stands out against the more grayish trees behind it.

when we got back, i curled up with a down throw in my new hammock chair and finished “larklight.” it’s still snowing outside. i love it.

*it’s a very good thing that he delayed me by just a few minutes. i had forgotten that the teacher who had asked me to judge stories was stopping by to pick them up today! as i was headed for the front door, i saw a vehicle pull up and stop at the end of our driveway and someone got out. i totally didn’t recognize her until she looked at me with recognition in her eyes and my mind finally said, “stories!” which were, conveniently, in a packet beside the front door waiting for her to pick them up. we had a nice chat about a few late entries she’d dropped off earlier this weekend and i think it was a good thing that i could read the stories with no pre-conceived notions of these kids and who they are and what their background is. i may have totally torn down a straight-a student and praised a kid who normally is thought of as a degenerate–who knows? it’s good to shake things up every once in awhile.

today’s the first day of a four day weekend and i am sick. i got the same thing mr. happy stuff had at the beginning of the week, so at least i’ll have some idea of the progression it should follow. i actually left work a little early yesterday because my throat was starting to burn and all i wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep (and in fact, i did take a tiny nap at the end of my lunch break…. puppets can make good pillows in a pinch). so let’s see. the nice thing about being sick on your days off is that you don’t have that “do i call in or don’t i” conundrum. or maybe other people don’t have that quandary like i do. i always get this guilty feeling for calling in sick–especially if i know that my calling in will affect someone else’s schedule. i mean, i’m dedicated to the idea that if you stay home and rest you’ll feel better faster and you won’t spread your germs to the rest of your co-workers, but i think it’s a left-over feeling from the years where i worked in a very small staff pool and one person calling in really did affect your workload for the day. so, hurrah for no guilt sickness!

the other nice thing about being sick is that it’s about the only time that i allow myself to just lie in bed and read / sleep all day without a single twinge of guilt. i have this terribly strong urge to be “productive” all the time and when i’m sick i can happily tell myself that lying in bed or watching tv on the couch is being productive–i’m working on getting better!

being sick and reading in bed also allows me to chip away at mt. libro that’s growing beside my bed. not only do i have all of the required reading for my upcoming children’s literature class, but i also have the stack of books that i’m reading just because they looked like they might be interesting/a hot title/something i could consider for “favoreads” at work.

so, i’m off to spend a snowy day in my bed, down comforter pulled up to my chin, three pillows under my head, stack of books on one side and cup of hot tea on the other. may all of your sick days be as lovely as mine.