As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my family and I are spending a lot of our time far away from home this year due to my husband’s job. We went from the Texas Gulf Coast, where winters can range from 40 degrees and chilly to 80 degrees and sticky, and are now in Northern Kentucky (practically in Cincinnati, OH) where winters are, well, cold. For the first time in my 34 years I am experiencing an actual winter that includes some single digit temps and a good bit of snow. Our heater has been on for the entire 2.5 months we’ve been here, there are no ceiling fans in the bedrooms and schools have quite a few “snow days” during winter months when weather and driving conditions get more severe. You should’ve heard me when I first talked with the preschool director. I said things like, “Well, I know y’all must still function when it snows, but I’m not really sure how that works” and “I assume there are professionals that know how to prep the roads when it snows…”. I must have sounded like some sort of alien to her. This may be my first rodeo, but it certainly isn’t the locals’. I’ve learned that leaving the house during very cold temperatures, especially with young children in tow, is cumbersome, inconvenient and sometimes painful (don’t scrape ice off your windshield when it’s 5 degrees out with no gloves on, ok?). I’ve also learned that while snow is absolutely beautiful much of the time, it sometimes turns to a grey-ish color after it’s been sitting near the road for a while, which isn’t pretty at all. It also causes poor driving conditions sometimes which will make a Houston gal real nervous real fast. But on a positive note, it’s kinda cool to hear the snow crunch under your boots and to see your 3-year-old having a blast outside building a snowman. And I can’t leave out the awesome winter clothes we all got to sport.
It’s now March 9th and finally not freezing (literally) outside. I might even be able to turn our heater off soon. I turned on the one ceiling fan we have this morning. My 3-year-old looked at it, smiled and said, “round and round”, while my baby girl stared at it mesmerized for 5 minutes. Although those sweet babies come from the land of “tropical weather without the tropical view” (an original nick name written by yours truly, thank you), they have fared well this winter in the almost-Midwest. It’s their parents that were in the most shock. Isn’t that always how it goes?
Kind Kiddo 