"What they Do"

Normally on a Tuesday, my loved ones would be in school and at work.  I should have been in the car driving north.  But after many warnings from those loved ones and meteorologists, I rescheduled.  The house was stocked with goodies and we watched the news.  I counted on keeping my youngest home from daycare and figured we'd walked Cooper to school in the morning.  When we said "Good-night" the weather was still calm.  Sometime after 11:15 p.m. and before 6:30 a.m., a sheet of ice blanketed the city.  The phone rang & the Superintendent's voice blared in my groggy ear, "There will be no school today."  Getting a snow day as an adult is just as exciting as getting one as a kid.  I couldn't go back to sleep, so I rolled out of bed and shuffled towards the coffee machine.  I watched the dog bust her ass on the lawn as she tried to catch a squirrel.  And flipped on the news.  I guessed Mark was going to call it a snow day too after only a few minutes of updates.

Today's prompt for the Joy of Love was to focus on what your loved ones do.  Today is different only because it's Tuesday.  It seems like an exaggerated weekend: a hyped of version of a Sunday.  I hate falling on ice, so outside play wasn't going to happen.  I've gotten through 3 loads of laundry & Mark has chipped away two thick layers of ice on our cars.  The boys are enjoying too much screen time.  Cooper is playing demos on PS3 that are way too advanced for him, but he tries.  And we've allowed it today.  He's finished his homework for the week and colored more than enough pages to allow some video game time.  Becket watches him out of the corner of his eye and keeps the other one on his Lego car.  He's also walking around with one sandal on.  Last night, he found it in the back of his closet and slept with it.  We can't find its partner, but it doesn't bother him.  It's also on the wrong foot.  I've tried to change feet a dozen times, but he won't have it. These are my loved ones today.  Zoning out.  Defiant.  Silly.  Laughing.  Building Lego trucks.  Chipping at ice while knowing that this is only round one.  Folding laundry with two more loads piling up next to them.  It's what we do when we're together.  We're living.


-Erika