A Snowy Family Day Weekend

We had grand plans of how we wanted to spend our long weekend in celebration of Family Day... but these past few years of struggles have taught us nothing if not to just keep on rolling with the punches. So the weekend didn’t exactly live up to our expectations, but we still managed to find a few hours of fun throughout.

Saturday started out well enough with a trip into town to first stop of and do a little sorting at Enz’s mom’s condo followed by a quick stop to buy flooring for the camp; our next step in finishing up the interior work on the cabin. We had planned on actually starting to lay the flooring but it was just too late to start any projects by the time we got out there and after unloading it was time to just turn around and head back home.

We did have just enough time to open a box of flooring to just lay out and see how it would look. We still had the other sample out there that we first had opted for but at the last minute I decided to change my mind... Enz is not sure of my decision change. See, I decided, with a second look at the store, that the cabin floor needed a little sharper grain look than the muted look we had first chosen... I just think it helps to enhance the wood knottiness of the wall boards. Enz still likes the muted look. So we laid them out together as a unit to see which looks better. I am decided, Enz is not. Either way is fine with me but his decision-making process is a bit delayed these days with everything else going on. The lower left quarter is the muted flooring as is the lower secyion of the closeup picture..... just in case you might want to offer a flooring opinion since we can use all the help we can get right now.

I haven’t really mentioned in my blogging about our life stresses of late but life has not been fun and we haven’t had much time, at all, to work on finishing the cabin... which we had hoped to have completely finished by springtime. The reason for our delay (this time) is that Enz’s mom suffered a horrible stroke two-and-a-half months ago... Enz has been running himself ragged between the daily hospital visits, her rehab therapy consults, lawyer appointments and everything else that goes along with his mom’s care dealings..... along with the two of us now having to deal with closing up her condo and look for a kindness-filled and trustworthy nursing home we can be assured she will be safe and comfortable living in since she is now awaiting a long-term care home. Paralyzed on her entire right side and mking no improvements have the rehabilitation staff feeling like she will never walk again and clearly is not safe to live on her own again. With no other family in town to help, it is proving beyond brutal to try and keep afloat in the worry, frustrations and workload of it all.

Anyhow, we decided that Sunday morning we would get an early start at the condo and get as much work done as possible so we could head out to the camp by mid-afternoon to actually get started on the flooring.

Sorting and packing to close up someone else’s home is NOT a fun deal...

...but we are doing our best to respectfully whittle the collected years of personal possessions down to manageable.














BUT... when it got to this point of messy overwhelming while we worked there on Sunday... and after alreay having removed EIGHT huge bags of trash and FIVE huge bags of recycling.....I had a bit of an almost full on meltdown. It just suddenly became too much mess along with all the stresses of just the whole, entire ordeal of the whole crappy situation.

We were both at breaking point so Enz said, “Let’s just go... right now..... we’ll go have some lunch, get a few minutes of fresh air then come back and finish up this bit.” So, that’s what we did and we managed through another couple of hours afterward.

Somewhere within the almost two hours after going out to get lunch and finishing up a little more work at the condo it had started to snow... majorly! Just getting home was slow in the whiteout conditions so we were foiled again. We arrived safely home and we stayed safely home. We planned on coffee, sugar bread and some Olympics watching instead of going to camp mid snowstorm. But, those plans were also a no-go... I was SO beyond physically and emotionally exhausted after my little freak-out from being overwhelmed at the condo that the instant I sat down on the edge of the bed to pull my heat socks on after changing into a cozy onsie..... well, Enz said he came into the bedroom to find me when he had the coffee ready and instead found the boys and I cuddled up in bed and sound asleep, where the three of us stayed conked out cold for over THREE hours. A usual thing for the boys, sure, but I never nap so that’s how tired I was physically and the boys just knew my hy soul needed a little cuddle healing, I guess. The three of us really only got up to have some dinner before heading back for an early bedtime... Enz was tired and asleep before ten, tired was seriously going around!

On Monday morning we woke up to just over a foot of fresh, FLUFFY snow!!! The boys decided they would be game for a quick two minute play in the fresh backyard snow shallows... but only just right in front of the house door area.

Day reeeaaaaally wanted Play to play with him...

...but Play just is not so keen on playing in the snow.

They agreed on a quick shoulder-bump romp.

And together they politely said, “No, thank you!” to joining their dad for a play in the deeper snow.

After the boys had enjoyed their QUICK outside time and Enz and I had finished with the dirveway and pen snow cleanup... Enz headed in to the hospital to visit his mom and bring her a blueberry scone with some fresh fruit.

While Enz was at the hospital, the boys napped and I practiced...

And then we finally headed on out to camp and even the drive was calming.

I tried to make a Snow Angel but my legs didn’t work properly...

...which, of course, set me to laughing.

I loved my trudging-through-the-fresh-snow shore walk...

...being at the lake just never disappoints!

It sure was cold and windy at the shoreline but the beautiful of the snow-lined waters edge was more than worth the chilliness!

Enz took a huge and hilarious wipeout... he went down HARD!

He did not laugh... but instead just kept repeating, “Ughhh, I think I broke my wrist. No, really..... I think I broke my wrist!” while I laughed.

He didn’t actually break his wrist, it just hurt really bad for a few minutes. Also, he was wishing he had put on his snowpants prior to taking a shore walk like I had suggested.

Then it was time for sliding... I really LOVE sliding!

I laughed with the absolute glee of anticipation while getting ready to slide!

And I laughed with absolute JOY all the way down the slide run.

Enz caught a face FULL of snow on his first slide run...

... he did not laugh..... even after a few minutes, as he trudged back up the hill....... he still did not see the funny of it.

I had invited the boys to play outside with us buuuuut... this is as close to sliding as they ever want to get.....

Enz and I both had a little while of great fun, even if I was the only one to admit to the fact, but when we headed back inside the cabin it was just too close to the time we needed to start heading home... but we had a few minutes to share a quick coffee as the boys enjoyed their snack while Enz and I debated over our flooring choice again; Enz still isn’t sure on the choice I made so itks pribably a good thing that life again got in the way of starting on the floor.

 

All in all, we did get to spend the weekend together as a family, and a little of it was even FUN! 


How did you spend your Family Day Weekend?? I hope whatever you did you were able to celebrate with lots and lots of fun!!

Lake ice is ‘coooooooool’...

The lake ice-changes are fascinating! I am loving having the cabin almost finished and fully heated so we are comfortably set to spend some time there. Unfortunately, life got in the way again this winter and we have not been blessed with as much time as we had hoped to spend out there BUT we are so thankful for the fleeting moments we do get to head out to camp... even on the days we can only manage to stay out there for twenty minutes or less; sometimes just the drive and a quick peek at the lake is enough to help us fight back against the horrible stresses of late with just those few breaths of peaceful.

And I wasn’t kidding about how fascinating the lake-ice changes are... on a daily basis, too! I seriously cannot wait to be out there for a few days at a time just to experience the changes that happen in what seems like the blink of an eye. Lake Superior is a beautiful very deep and very cold and very unpredictable lake... at all times of the year.

All of these pictures below, were taken within an eleven day period of icy cooooolness. So, what have I learned about this whirlwind of ice days? Tkae full advantage for fun at first take... waste no time for it can disappear in a heartbeat!

One day we were sliding down the hill toward open water with a few floating ice chunks.

The next day, not quite twenty-four hours later, we were sliding toward a full view of setting ice... which was a little safer feel than sliding toward open water.

From there the lake went into a settling, thickening of the ice which was super cool to witness with eyes and ears and feels... and the ice was safe enough for rink beginnings for our neighbours.

Because I’m not up to skating quite yet I stuck with sliding and ice strolls while our neighbours skated.

Just three days ago, our partof the lake was frozen solidly deep. I headed inside as the neighbours were finishing up on the rink for the day, before heading out to do a little ice-fishing for a nice dinner catch. One of the many great things about ice-fishing is that you don’t even need a boat to get to the best fishing spots... even a bicycle will do! Play was absolutely fascinated at watching them make their way across the ice and kept checking the windows to see that they finally made it home safely.

After being down on the ice while the skating fun was happening, I started to dream of when my own time skating across the ice might come back... my mind instantly formulated a plan to try skating with my walker for stability. Enz was not impressed by my newest, grand plan but I decided it was going to happen, and soon! It appears the universe agrees with Enz on my skating plans because our quick run out to camp last night, just TWO DAYS after all that icy fun, I spied open water as we pulled in the driveway!

It was an annoyingly beautiful view... The wind was whipping so viciously that I couldn’t stay upright in it without the treeline buffer so there was no ice walking for me!

Enz decided to chance an ice-walk but boy, did he hilariously start Flintstone-tippy-toeing it back to shore when he got to close to the open water, heard the ice cracking and felt it pulling beneath him. He did get a few neat pictures of the open water area and rink cracks, though... it is beyond amazing what a single windy afternoon can accomplish on lake ice that is over two feet thick .

I still think my walker-skating plan would have worked but maybe it’s a better plan to try it on a groomed rink in town before trying to take on the ice of Lake Superior... I sure hope we can get out to camp today for at least a minute of two because I have a feeling we willbe back to open water again today. Oh well, I’ll keep praying for more cold and strong ice so I can lace ip and give’er a good go!