Wait

Lately, we have been waiting. Waiting for the snow to melt enough to drive somewhere, then waiting for the snow to melt a little more.  And luckily, it has. It has melted, then re-frozen, then melted a little more, etc. etc. until the piles of five feet turned to four, and now three. Trash is finally being picked up. Sidewalks are clear enough to walk along with a stroller. School is back in session. But we still wait.

It feels as if winter has lasted a year. Then I look at my Oliver and can’t believe he was born six months ago already, when it was muggy and hot outside, so warm that when I nursed him under a light blanket he would emerge dripping, sweat beading above his eyebrow in sweet little dew drops. With February nearly over, we wait some more. Wait for March 10th, when Mary’s baby will arrive (boy?girl? Oh, the suspense is killing me!), then mid-April, when a new cousin arrives (boy #2 for sister Krista). Then… ahhhhh. Warmth. Crocuses peaking their heads out of the ground, the earthy, rainy smells of spring, the sunshine warming our faces. The playground and the zoo. We wait for it, and I try to slow down and enjoy each day, but UGH! let us out of this house and into the weather again!

A funny thing happens when one is housebound for several weeks. Things get fixed. Organized. Re-organized. Floorboards get scrubbed, then dirty again. Ceiling fans are dusted. Puzzle pieces get shoved into tiny crevices around the house, laundry is washed and dried and folded and put away again and again and again, marbles make their way into dresser drawers and Play-doh crumbs work themselves into the space between the dining room table legs and the rug that it rests on. The house is cleaned and cleaned, but perpetually dirty. It is a maddening thing to witness. And so……

We wait.

And hope not to go too crazy in the timebeing.