Jan 17, 2017 | moments & memories
As I sit here at the start of SNOW DAY #9 out here in Portland, Oregon, I caught the above scene out of the corner of my eye. Yea, that’s Grace. She’s CRAWLING across the kitchen counter to fetch herself a banana for breakfast. A depiction of the mentality that so many snow days brings. Nine snow days in will change a person.
We’ve all lost it. Manners? Social graces? Innate kindness to those you live with? Gone.
Yesterday afternoon, I was able to escape our Portland snow prison for a few hours so Gavin could practice for his upcoming Oregon Battle of the Books event. I’m using the term “upcoming” liberally here – I mean, we hope it’s upcoming, but who knows given this bitch-slap of a winter Mother Nature has inflicted. Also, ‘practice for his upcoming Oregon Battle of the Books event’ is mom code for we need to see adults and kids who do not live in our own houses (+ wine).
While out, my friend shared that between the holidays and inclement weather, our kids have had five days of school between December 14 and now. FIVE DAYS. FIVE. Holy hell. For kicks this morning, knowing that we’d had a few inclement weather days earlier in December, I went back to check the grand total. Going back to December 7, the kids have had a whopping eight days of school. EIGHT DAYS of school in almost six weeks. And, for added fun…the grand total of school days since November 22 is 15.
So, yea, Grace is crawling on the counter to grab breakfast.
As for the rest of us? Happy to say that Grace is the only counter-crawler at this point. Gavin DID run laps around the living room / kitchen in a loop for a solid 10 minutes yesterday afternoon. Sadly, I didn’t even bat an eye, instead shrugging my shoulders while Kenny looked at me wide-eyed like “what the actual eff is happening here?”. My take? Go on, boy, get it out. Honestly – he wasn’t asking me for snacks, or requiring help to pull on his snow boots, or asking to buy apps, or annoying Grace to get a rise out of her, so I was practically blissful.
Naturally, on top of the snow, Gavin and I were sick last week, following Kenny’s bout with the flu during the first week of January. We are all enjoying spending so much time in our petri-dish of a home wondering who’s going to pass what to whom next. There’s a game-in-wait in there somewhere – “Who’s Illness Is It Anyway?” or Infectious Disease Roulette or Microorganisms vs. Snowbound People. Positive spin? The Clark family is building up our immune system. #noflushotsneeded #didnotworkanyway
I will say, this has been a great journey of self discovery. Nothing can battle test your sanity and will like being cooped up in your house for days on end. So, my friends, I’ll leave you with this fine collection of actual thoughts that have run through my head during Portland’s Snowpocalypse…tweet style.
- From this point forward, I shall be known as Master of All Board Games. Thanks, Mother Nature.
- New Year’s resolution to spend more quality time with the family? Check.
- Side benefit of snow? Constant soaking wet floors breeds a compulsion to mop = cleanest floors ever.
- Thank goodness we had so many practice ‘snow days’ to prep for the real thing. #snowpros
- Dry January? Nope.
- My house should really be cleaner since I haven’t left it for more than six hours in the past week. #notadomesticgoddess
- Adorning kids in snow clothes 20 times a day counts as a workout. #20minuteson #20minutesoff #repeatendlessly #checkouttheseguns
- Side benefit? My husband is so stir crazy he offers run errands twice a day, minimum #yeaboi #myunintendedbreakupwithnewseasonsmarket
- Parenting has devolved into Lord of the Flies, Snow Sequel. #ipads #television #answerisyesaslongasidonothavetomakeitorcleanitup
- Car rides on snowy, hilly roads are the equivalent of a sitting upright plank for me. #fullbodytension #whiteknucklegrip #bunsofsteel
- Silver lining? Two less weeks of summer camp to pay for!
- Another silver lining? This storm has freed my Facebook wall from endless political posts. #funnyportlandfriends #inittogether
P.S. Portlanders, my sarcasm and scoffing at our first ‘snow day’ may have caused this karmic boomerang. I apologize, and take it back. Mother Nature, I get it. You CAN and WILL make it snow in Portland. My bad. I am sorry for doubting you.
#pdxsnow
#pdxsnowpocalypse
Dec 15, 2016 | moments & memories
Last night, we were sitting around steaming bowls of lovely Chicken, Corn and Potato Chowder following an insane afternoon filled with some snow flakes, a mad rush to grab our kids from school so they didn’t have to take the bus on our neighborhood’s near-instantaneous treacherous roads once any sort of winter participation hits, and a 3 hour, 10 minute commute for Kenny (for what’s normally a 4.7 mile commute that takes 15 minutes).
Grace started a frequent dinner table conversation where each of us shares “one good thing, one bad thing and something nice you did for someone” from our day.
Grace started. I followed. Kenny followed me, sharing some nice thoughts on how he was thankful to have made it home safely.
Gavin went last. His good thing was his OBOB (Oregon Battle of the Books meeting) because he and his friends made a plan and some reading progress. His bad thing was his OBOB meeting because he still has so much reading to do, including Harry Potter, which he simply cannot seem to get into. His nice thing? “Eating Mom’s dinner.”
Seriously?!
Dying. I could not stop laughing. The underlying sentiments of his reply – Taking one for the team. Charity eating. Doing this for you, Mom! – kind of fresh, but I appreciated (as always) his quick wit. I would have felt worse if the chowder stunk, but that stuff was good – and an especially fitting meal for a snowy Portland afternoon. Granted, it was such a winter freak show yesterday afternoon that I forgot to add the chicken and fresh parsley to the chowder – but it wasn’t greatly missed judging by the lack of leftovers.
This kid. He is very much a ‘everything has a spot on the plate and nothing can touch’ type of kid. Unless it’s croutons on lettuce. The mo’ touching, the better for that dish. So, soups and casseroles aren’t his favorite thing.
As for the snow? Officially, we have 2.0″ on the ground and it’s literally like a post-apocalyptic winter’s morn here today. (Check out this photo gallery for a sampling of pics). Tales of hundreds of abandoned cars, people walking home for miles, and kids stuck at school until well after 7 p.m. are the lead headlines today. These are coupled with tales of humanity and goodness of people helping people, which I always love. I feel like yesterday went from two snowflakes falling to a real shit show in the matter of an hour…almost as if everyone saw those first two snowflakes, and left work / school / whatever at the exact same time, compounding what normally would have been a dicey drive in the snow with heavy traffic. This created near-instant gridlock throughout the city and surrounding towns – with the earliest drivers seemingly crushing the first flakes into a layer of ice. And, all the while the snow kept falling and making things worse.
Between the infrequency of the snow, the hilly terrain, and the lack of rock salt use here … Portland is not a city that weathers winter weather well. Given this, my bets are on our kids being home with until January at this point. Any takers? 🙂
Ah, Portland, Oregon. This is turning into quite the winter with “all” of the snow so far!
Dec 8, 2016 | moments & memories
All right, friends.
The snow eventually showed up, and we had a nice layer by about 12:30 p.m. or so.
Sleds were in full effect for a few hours, and Bob is apparently a huge fan of the white stuff. Huge. As in didn’t want to come back inside.
The storm is changing over to freezing rain – as you can tell by the amazing quality of this photo… and by Grace’s face. She’s getting pelted – but sacrificing herself for the good of mommy’s blog and to the benefit of my tens of readers. #attagirl
Dec 8, 2016 | moments & memories
Just wanted to share a quick update to our friends and family back East (and elsewhere in the world) as I know the news of our anticipated wintry weather out here in the Pacific Northwest has spread far and wide.
We’re weathering the Portland snow day just fine. (See what I did there?)
The kids, as you can see, are enjoying their day off from school.
It’s cold.
It’s windy.
And the streets are drier than they have been since September.
Safety first! Hahahaha.
I’ll let you know if that sled gets any use today. 😉
Nov 30, 2016 | moments & memories
Ah.
Those two kids up top got married fifteen years ago today.
It was a great day.
Greater days followed.
And God willing, our greatest are still to come.
This morning, Kenny surprised me with Together is Better: A Little Book of Inspiration by Simon Sinek. I picked it up, flipped it over and read, “Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”
Truth.
15 years of hard work. For something (someone) we love.
We’ve been together forever.
Forever in the best way.
Forever in the kind of way that I can’t really imagine my life without him in it. Nor do I want to.
Forever in the kind of way that our wedding pictures were taken before digital photography was a thing, and we only have prints.
Forever in the kind of way that we exist as BridgetandKenny. And apart as Bridget. And Ken. (and now Gavin, and Grace and Bob.) Forever in the kind of way that any of those people combinations work. And likely always will.
We’re best friends.
We’re partners.
We’re for each other.
We’re forever.
Thank you, Kenny, for a fabulous 15. Here’s to many more.
