You'd like to get on with the new start and the new routine, but everything is closed. Also, today was -15 degrees F. I think it eventually warmed up to -7. I stayed inside. No exercise for this body today.
The sun has already set, darkness falling black outside the windows. Granted we haven't eaten supper yet, haven't even worked up an appetite for supper. Still, the daylight is over and the day mostly gone.
I washed a few sheets and towels. Shawn washed the dog.
It's been a slow start to 2018, all things considered.
Last night was a blue moon, or maybe not quite. Maybe tonight is the full moon. But last night, December 31, the moon was round and particularly bright, after a lovely full moon on December 1. Shawn and I ventured out into the dry, bitter cold to look at it before we went to bed. When it gets that cold, the outside air sucks your breath away but almost doesn't feel cold to your skin, because it seems to burn. A cold burn. We quickly turned our faces to the moon, appreciated its brilliance, and hurried back inside. Then we went to bed, on New Year's Eve, at about 10:30 p.m.
The kids left on Thursday and Friday, December 28 and 29. David and Ashton left early Thursday morning. Matthew and Laura had planned to take Shannon to the Indy airport on their way home Friday, but snowy conditions moved them to try to leave ahead of the storm. Shannon had a late flight, which was further delayed by the weather. Shawn and I were happy to glean a few extra hours with her, so we offered to take her to Indy later.
We almost crashed the car on our way home from Indy. Highway 465, the beltway around Indianapolis, is five lanes wide (I think, at least that...), and it was completely unplowed after 5-6 inches of snow had fallen. You couldn't make out any lanes, and the surface of the road was extremely slick. As we sloughed northward, amidst a mixture of cautious and reckless drivers, all of a sudden, for no obvious reason, a car ahead of us and to our right lost control and careened in an arc across a number of lanes, towards the left side of the road. We and the car directly to our right (which was also a bit ahead of us) began to brake and try to avoid a collision. On our left, in the "fast" lane, another car was approaching, faster than the rest of us. As the out-of-control-car crossed in front of us and slid into the left lane, the car chugging up the left lane was completely unable to stop or slow down, and it T-boned the careening car with an ominous crunch of metal. The impact carried both vehicles into a sort of circling dance; right in front of us, they spun around together. I prayed, and Shawn tried to figure out which way to steer to avoid them without hitting the other cars around us, while pumping his brakes. They glided off onto the inner shoulder and we left them in our wake. I wonder if any other vehicles piled into them.
It's easy to feel thankful when you have a near miss like that. For awhile, the relief and adrenaline took the edge off missing the kids.
Saturday was a dull day. Of course we were tired. And Christmas let-down set in with a fury. I don't know what we did all that day. We did not cook or wash dishes, which is a nice silver-lining after the excitement of houseguests.
Sunday was church, which is always nice. Church, lunch with Jonathan, football in the afternoon, a Vikings win. A lazy day. I ate popcorn, applesauce and granola, and drank a number of mugs of tea.
Which brings us to today.
I apologize for this lame blog post. It's been so long since I've written, I scarcely know what to do with myself here.
My words for the year are Power and Glory (God's), and I also want to grow in humility. Perhaps "want" is too strong a word there. I perceive the importance of growing in humility and hope to get better at it, although I have a certain dread of the pain that such an endeavor may involve. Still (an idea I've explored before), I think humility is the surest, and perhaps only, path to ultimate joy. I will write more about Power and Glory and humility another day.
2017 was a busy year, full of graduations and trips. We experienced gains and losses, triumphs and sorrows. It was a good year for the garden and a bad year for the ornamental pear trees. Some excruciatingly horrible things happened, but there was no lack of small and medium sized miracles to keep us conscious of the truth that a sovereign God in heaven watches over us with love.
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