It's Raining? NO..It's Snowing!!!

Monday morning: After breakfast the kids and I check the weather like usual. I see it is supposed to rain and become increasingly cold this week. I then notice Thursdays forecast. I ask them, "What is this?" They don't know and I explain the white coming down from the clouds is snow. I tell them the forecasters say it may snow on Thursday. They become very excited and tell people it is going to snow when they answer the phone. I explain to them that the forecasters are only people who try their best to get things right, but only God knows for sure if it will snow.

Wednesday night: I explain to the children the "man on the news" says we will most likely not get snow as it looks like the cold front is going North of us. They remind me "only God knows."

We RARELY get snow here in S. Louisiana. I moved from South Florida 12 yrs. ago to be marry AJ and once only did we get a little flurry that was so excited to see!

5:54 am Thursday morning: Phone rings. I rush out of bed to the kitchen to answer it. It is AJ's dad calling to tell us it is snowing outside. I peek out the windows to see SNOW!!! LOTS of snow. Our yard and trees were covered. I run to wake up AJ and then the kids. They took a minute to comprehend what I was saying, but when they did...they all jumped up with excitement running to the window.

We rushed to get all of our warm clothes on. I had 5 layers on the top and 3 on the bottom. Not including my scarf, gloves and hat. Even Elijah, our youngest one, was awake. At one point, Kaylyn became concerned about the people who don't have homes. She asks what will happen to them. We pray for the homelessIt took about 30 minutes and then we opened the door to ste out in the frigid cold weather.

At first the kids were walking slowly. Unsure of what to think about all of the snow. So I lead the way from under the carport and tell them how neat it is! I am looking all around with a huge smile on my face ( This was my 2nd time seeing snow in my life...first time last yr. at a Lady's Conference...but I did not get to play or stand there to just enjoy my first snow).


They, one by one, venture out to finally feel snow fall on their tiny heads for the first time. It did not take long at all for the shyness to fade away as they quickly began running around and "E" starts with his high-pitched voice of excitement...which I am sure probably woke up a neighbor or two...

Elijah:

They enjoyed walking and seeing their footprints in the snow. They realized how cold it is and decided NOT to pick up snow anymore...for awhile that is.

Katie Faith praying she will not freeze:

Kaylyn and E:

We return inside after about 30 minutes to warm up by the cozy fireplace to enjoy hot chocolate and our cereal with Christmas music playing in the background. We take a moment to also thank God for the snow.

After breakfast was over, we all head out to play in the snow, with the exception of Elijah, who already fell in the snow, got wet, so I decided to change him and put him down for his morning nap.

The kids ran around, while I decided to build a snowman. My first one. I was very excited. I told my self it was for the kids, but deep down I knew it was for me also...I have wanted to build one since I was a kid so here I am at the age of almost 36 I was able to get to do this lifelong dream. It was hard work being pregnant and trying to bend over to pick up the snow with my hat falling down past my eyes each time I bent over. I was nauseated like always, tired, but determined to persevere. It was not until about an hour into working on the snowman that AJ told me how I was supposed to make a ball by rolling it on the ground.



The kids were in and out, rushing by the fire to warm up and then rush back out to play.

After almost 2 hours of continuously working on my snowman, which was taller than the kids, I placed on the hat, arms, eyes, nose (E's nerf dart), scarf, and then finally was getting ready to put on my last thing...the mouth...a piece of bacon...when...CRASH!!! It fell to the ground. My hard-worked piece of art was now a piece of clump! Tears swelled up in my eyes and began pouring down my cheeks. All of my hard work for nothing! No picture, the kids didn't get to see it, AJ didn't...I walked inside and my family was concerned for me when they saw the tears. AJ encouraged me to rebuild it, but in discouragement I did not want to take another 2 hrs. to do this.

The kids and AJ decided to go out and rebuild one for me as I sat inside.

When I walked outside to see the kids snowman, our neighbor teen, who had been with us most of the morning, said, "Now that is a REAL snowman!" which of course, I started to cry again and walked back inside.

While inside, through the tears, the Lord began to minister to me. To be honest, I wanted to sulk in my self-pity. How dare someone say my hard work and first attempt of a snowman was not a good one, I worked hard on my "masterpiece"! (PRIDE!!!) I am sure there are many people out there who are much better than me, but this was MY project! Then I did not even get to show my kids the project I made for them...and me.

So after my sulking, Christ ministered to me again.

I began thinking about my process of building the snowman.When I began, the yard was so pretty. The snow was so white and had a peaceful look to it. As I would track across the yard and pick up large clunks of snow, I would see the yucky, dirty, mud and grass underneath.

This to me, showed a picture of Christ.

Without Christ, God sees us and our yucky, dirty, ugly sin. We are full of pride, selfishness, lust, coveteousness, impatience,wanting to do our own will...not considering Christ's, thoughts in our minds that are not nice, and so much more!!!

BUT, when we seek Christ, ask for His forgiveness for these things, and desire to live a life for Him...knowing we will fail but are forgiven by His blood for dying on the cross, then GOD see CHRIST'S righteousness in us. He sees us "white as snow" and because of Christ, no longer sees our yucky, dirty, sin (mud).

My, Oh My, How great is my God! And what a time to remind me of this...in my self-pity.


Well, after I was "corrected" by God's Holy Spirit, I went outside to join in the fun with my family again.

I found AJ and E working on another snowman together, with a little help from Kaylyn and Katie Faith. Though they did not put on all the eyes and so forth, they were proud of THEIR snowman!


We then made snow angels in the snow...except AJ who thought we were crazy!


We then went on a short walk with the kids ( AJ went inside to be with Elijah, who fell in the cold,wet, muddy, stuff that was melting on the sidewalk...again)...







When we finished off our cold walk, we all came in to dry off and rest near our fire. We all hung up our socks to dry.

AJ putting on warm socks:

While our lunch was cooking in the oven, we ended our morning with this...AJ playing on the piano Christmas songs, singing, while E danced while Kaylyn and Elijah "helped" play the piano ( Katie Faith was tired and did not choose to participate in the fun)......

(For some reason it turned out dark on the blog, but you can still get an idea of what it was like)



When lunch was over, AJ went to work, I watched my friend's children, and when she picked then up, I took the kids for a ride around town to see the snow. We stopped by my our friend's house for a moment to return something, only Kaylyn got out of the van to see their snow fort...


As we returned home, we decided to play in the snow for one last time.


Elijah really enjoyed it! He loved walking through the snow with occasional squeals of excitement!

An attempt to get a picture of all 4 kids together:

Our dog, Biscuit, really enjoyed the snow also:

Kaylyn crying because her feet were hurting because they were so cold ( she did not put on socks...I did not know this...and put on a pair of boots that had a small hole in them)...


She was fine as soon as mommy and the fire helped warm her feet...


E warming by the fire...



All in all, it was a great day! The Lord truly blessed us with such beautiful weather that rarely makes it down our way...and more importantly, reminding me of Himself.

A family picture of us...poor Elijah missed out because he was sleeping. I wish he was in the picture though... Thank you, Lord, for our snowy day!!!