Days like this come infrequently in Texas. It’s not just cold, with a gentle snowfall, but freezing ice covering everything. Tree branches bent to the ground under the weight, streets treacherous underfoot, and mobile phone and power towers that collapse under the sheer pressure of ice. As if that isn’t enough, houses are without power for many hours and horror of all horrors, the internet connections are overloaded as all those occasional users want to find out what is going on.
For those who have power, and therefore heat, ‘homes’ can appear from mere ‘houses’ where children stay in their jammies, food is a constant snack through the day, and fun is made from hand crafts and board games. Mums, usually governed by housework routines, join in the hilarity forgetting their chores, and Dads who didn’t make it to work, are having a great day with family, just kicking back and enjoying the homemade ‘cabin fever’.
Life will get back to some kind of normality in a day or so. Children will get back to school, mums to their usual routines, and dads to work. The board games will be back in their boxes, and meals will return to the non snack healthy and nutritious variety. Some would look back and see this as a wasted day, but what price can you put on family time, even if it is unhealthy, and not nutritious? How can you not benefit from the memories you make with the kids during times wrapped up, drinking cocoa, playing silly games around the Christmas tree, while carols are playing in the background?
There is plenty of time to do ‘routine’, so take these happy days gladly. In a few years time, these will be the little things that make big and happy memories. Guaranteed.
Life's a Journey 