I heart snow.  Give me all the snow.  If it’s going to be cold, might as well be snowed in and have all the ugly brown landscape of winter vanish and all the pure white forgiving beauty of snow cover everything.

So glad we’ve had the opportunity to enjoy a little gift of the white stuff this week.

 

 

 

funny

 

Funny stuff happens Every Single Day.  It’s just that I’ve been noticing that lately I forget to write it down.  I laugh a lot though.  So I know funny things are being said and done all around me.

What’s a little less funny is that I think I’m still twenty years old.

Today we met some friends for a short jaunt to sled down a giant hill.  I had a meeting right afterwards so I wasn’t dressed for sledding.  And I had no plan to sled.  But then there was this inviting hill perfect for sledding and some really great sleds.  I took a leap and coasted down all the hills face first.  It was great.  I was laughing and their dog was chasing me and it was a satisfyingly long run.  I felt like a kid again.

 

 

Then I had to walk back, dragging what now felt like a thirty pound sled behind me.  And I felt like an old mom.

The kids were treating the sleds like giant snowboards and that looked cool.  Standing up and heading down the hills upright.  You know, of course, I decided that I should try that next.  I made it half way – well, maybe one fourth of the way – before hard planting my right knee in the snow off of the sled while the remainder of my body was on track to keep snowboarding downhill.  I felt like a grandma then for sure.

My knee still hurts, but what would you expect from a grandma who keeps forgetting her own age?

(Seriously, I keep forgetting.  This week I told someone I was 43.  Because I was for certain that I was 43.  And then London said, “Mom – you’re definitely 44.  You were thirty when I was born.  Remember?  Like she does!  So I inadvertently lied to that person.  Ugh.  Now I’m a lying grandmother too.  For the love.)

fashionable

 

Half of the time my fashionable posts here are either a dress from Title Nine or earrings from Noonday.

All I’m doing today is letting you know a little Noonday heads up.  

My friend Hanna from Colorado is a Noonday Ambassador and she’s great.  Her link and her picture are there on the right side of the blog in the sidebar.  They’ll always be there.  So if you get a Noonday hankering and you need a gift for your friends or yourself, click on over and let Hanna help you out.

 

flavorful

 

Well this week I think I’ve consumed so much snow cream that it’s running icy through my veins.

 

 

I don’t feel badly at all about this state of affairs.  It snows so seldom here in South Carolina that it’s still a rare “menu” item even if I serve it thrice daily.  And, because our house is already cold and then I am consuming literal snow, I have to do an awful lot of jumping jacks to get to a basic base layer of warmth again.  These are the justifications I tell myself.  (If I’m going to lie about my age, I might as well lie about my excessive love of sugar too.)

Actually, we ate well this week.

One dinner was especially popular with everyone except Otto.

Black bean “burgers” on naan bread with tzatziki sauce and served with Bergen’s mac & cheese.

 

 

I used this recipe from Pioneer Woman.  London and I agree about our feelings for the Pioneer Woman.  Her recipes are spot on.  But she is sort of … uh … not someone we enjoy being entertained by.  But man, she’s good at writing recipes.

 

faithful

 

I listened to a podcast today that my friend Leslie did and I was struck by something she said.  She was talking about how she used to feel that the weight, the responsibility, of making sure God was represented well was on her shoulders.  (I might be getting the wording wrong a little.)  But the idea was that she was carrying a burden that was definitely not hers.  As if she had the power to make God look bad or to train wreck God’s agenda.  And not that we don’t have personal responsibility – because of course we do – but that God’s being is not going to be rescued by us – or ruined by us.  Who do we think we are that God is dependent upon us “getting it right”?

 

 

feels

 

If you’ve read here long, then you know I love our small town here.  And that I own a website promoting said small town.

Last night our town made history for itself.

Last November we elected the first female mayor of Travelers Rest and last night she was sworn into office and began her mayoral duties.

It was a big deal.  The room was packed and people were clapping and hugging and cheering her on.

 

 

I’m honored to say that she is a friend of mine and I like to joke that when I met her many years ago that I predicted her future.  (I’m not the only one though so I can’t claim any real victory here.)  I just remember telling her, “I think you’ll be mayor one day.”  I also think she won’t be stopping as mayor.  I’m seriously predicting governor or senator in her future as well.  I’ll vote for her for sure.  Team Brandy.

I made the entire family go to the ceremony because it IS a big deal and because she’s our friend and because it’s our town and because I want my kids to all grow up realizing that the limits we think we have don’t have to predict our futures.  On the ride home we talked about jobs that used to be predominantly available for women.  We talked about the kinds of jobs and careers that my mom, their grandmother, would have had as options.  And her mom – their great grandmother.  And how that has all shifted for them.  And, truly, none of my passengers could quite figure out exactly why a female mayor was all that big of a deal.  “Why shouldn’t she be mayor, mom?” they asked.  And “Of course a girl can be mayor.”  Because they don’t know the entire world yet and because, in their world, strong women are not out of the ordinary.

And I think that’s beautiful.

While I was standing against the wall of the crowded small council room in this small town I’ve come to love at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I watched Brandy place her hand on the Bible and take an oath that I know she takes personally.  That I know matters to her.  That I’ve seen her live out and I am confident I will continue to see her live out.  She’s grace and poise and small town and big thinking and my kids were all watching and I was watching and then I was blinking because sometimes I don’t even know why tears surprise me when they do.

 

 

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