Still

Last week nearly three feet of snow fell in a 36-hour period and draped the land as far as we could see.  Wild winds buried the back steps and furnace vent every hour and packed the second floor windows, cloaking the house in snow and leaving rooms dim and funereal. Ground feeders that normally congregate at the compost pile couldn't reach it, as it lay feet below their beaks, and flocked instead to the birdseed by the house, pecking their fill and driving small-boned birds away for a time.  John missed work due to a travel ban, and I hunkered beneath blankets while the children whooped and dug gopher hidey-holes, coming in hours later all crusted thickly with snow, their faces glowing pink and dewy. 

Snowsuits still dry by the fire, but warmth and light return, and the snow begins its slow farewell, sinking inches lower each day and leaving patches of brown that stand out starkly from the blinding white.

It's hard to find traction.  I've been slogging along most days, some days less than others, and even snapshotting has stilled.  A dozen and a half pictures to show for three weeks, and half of them for buildabelly?!  Yes, I hear that collective gasp of horror!  Not to fear.  Daylight grows, and, with it, energy will return.  The next post will may have dozens of pictures to overwhelm the faithful.
(Be wary.)

My Weight Gain Journey

Oh, I know.  I know.  But aren't we getting a little bored with all of those bland weight loss journeys?  Aren't we hankering for a solid, old-fashioned tale of how one girl successfully packs it on?

Sure we are.

As any faithful reader knows, my weight has varied wildly for the last 15 years.  It's been a constant yo-yo between two extremes and every stop in between.  Snooty-pants scrawny chicken?






Yup.  When running is a joy, and I eat well, I can do the snooty-pants scrawny chicken. 


Enormous bathrobe queen with an equally enormous appetite for sweets? 






You bet.  I can do that one effortlessly! 


A red-faced, dough-y girl in the garden*, a few weeks after a new baby, wondering if perhaps she should have eaten something other than junk for 9 straight months, wondering if maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't then have gained 50 + pounds?   Not to fear. I've got that one covered, multiple times.   (*This picture is almost certainly the ugliest picture of me in existence.  I post it for the pleasure of my enemies.)






A happy medium most of the time?  (Physically, mind you.  Not emotionally.  Never emotionally.  Just ask Luke.)  I'm good there, too.








Anyway, that rambling preamble-- a "preramble," if you will-- serves as proof that I'm an expert in this area.   You may get discouraged when you think about your potential for gaining weight.  The fact that you don't find yourself gaining weight as successfully or as rapidly as others may make you reach for a carrot in despair.  My advice?  Don't compare! AND PUT THAT CARROT DOWN!  A lot of the weight gain plans you see floating around the internet seem unattainable. I'm here to tell you they're not.  It can be done!  I've even recently embarked on a new phase of my personal weight gain journey.  My goals may seem lofty to you, perhaps even superhuman-- unattainable?-- but I have confidence in my abilities.  I've done it before, and, with God's help, I'll do it again.

So here's to being an enormous bathrobe queen by September 26th!!! 

Count down with me now...and pass the candy.

*For those who really don't understand the point, this post is a cheeky way of announcing our newest little one.  Hurrah for babies!  (And also, but obviously much less so, hurrah for candy!)

**You can all thank Millie for my blogging today. Normally I wait until the backlog of snapshots is stacked to the ceiling before I'm pushed into writing a monster post to get rid of them all, but she's been DYING for me to post this one.  I finally caved.

Dormant

 

 

I forget the energy that surges through spring until winter asserts itself again, and I sink into my seat, sleepy and silent.  It's not yet time for warm winds and sunshine, but we've stolen some spring days, anyway.  Last week, I waltzed outdoors in shorts and a tanktop, but this morning the snowplow woke me as it thundered past, and outside the window, the feral cat Stargo crouches on a sagging barn beam all dusted with snow.

Transitions are often hard.  It's easier to settle fully into things when one knows what to expect, though, really, one can never know what to expect.  Even winter itself is unpredictable, by turns so hushed and still it seems wrong to press our footprints on the snow, and then, in a fickle turn, wild and blustering so that it keeps us from sleep. This season of shifting winds and clouds and sky is a fitting backdrop to Lent. Sometimes sunshine fills the rooms and bloats the day with possibility. Sometimes it's a struggle to simply step out of bed.   He meets us in both places, so here we are.  Forty days of focusing on our need and on His great capacity will lead us straight to spring.

Two Beauties Wave Goodbye to Papa

Caught Red-handed

At least she's organized enough to color-coordinate her outfits with her mischief.

Banana Phone

Our household is so technologically-oriented that even the two year old has his own phone.

He uses it for business, mostly.