Snow and cooking and keeping the faith...

Christopher arrived home safe and sound at Midnight last night.  Thankfully, the heavy snow had not begun as he and his friends drove back from "The City".  They had gone to see Avatar in 3D at the IMAX and thought the technology to be amazing.

However, the snow continued to fall throughout the night and the roads were quite treacherous this morning.  For the first time since he has been driving, he ended up in a ditch which later took the tow truck guy over twenty minutes of work to rescue the Buick.  His dad rescued him and drove him to work before returning home to call the tow truck and join them on the county road when they were (finally) available.  We have recommended to our son seriously considering staying with his friend on campus tonight if possible.

I could not believe it when I saw the county schools were not even on a two hour delay (much less canceled) so I wasn't surprised to hear there was a school bus accident.  Good grief, the Interstates were closed!  The school systems have taken unnecessary risks ever since (years ago) it was decided the schools had to be open a certain number of days each year or they had to make up the time in the end of the school year.

Believe me, there were more numerous days than I can count when I looked at the yellow school buses making their way through some "serious" road conditions and I was very happy to be homeschooling Christopher.  Off my soapbox now...

While I do not like driving in this kind of weather, I love looking from the inside out.  It is breathtakingly beautiful here at the edge of a forest.  As I look across the county road, the red barn has a lovely snowy scarf which reminds me a little of the lacy head covering my late sister, Alice, wore when she was a part of the Catholic church.  :)

So... besides waiting up late for Christopher and taking care of Victoria (who is still a tad quieter than normal but much, much better...), what have I been doing?  This kind of weather brings out my inner chef.  When I was at the grocery store yesterday to purchase milk, I noticed they had their rotisserie chickens on a very nice sale so two of them found their way in my cart.  When on sale, they are a very frugal option.  They provided chicken breasts for two meals and a batch of tasty chicken noodle soup.

Earlier this week, I was pondering food options as I washed dishes and looked out the window at the rather forlorn scenery.  Dinner was going to be very simple so what could I do to add a little fun for the guys?  The first food that came to mind was pumpkin pie!  I had all the ingredients except for a premade pie crust and I really didn't feel like whipping up even a simple crust that day.

So... I baked the spicy pie filling in a graham cracker crust.  Now, you must realize that both the guys are very (very) stick-in-the-mud traditional.  Once they got over the change in crust, they enjoyed their unexpected favorite dessert very much.  :)

All of this as life is lived in the midst of storms (weather and personal).  Of course, there were the challenges with Victoria's unexplained illness.  I appreciated your prayers and suggestions (which are going to be copied as soon as I get a chance).  There have come the usual causes of tension which threaten to steal all joy and make life overcast with clouds and dark moods.  People who are less than perfect, things that break down, living in an imperfect world.

Joy has come only by a decision to draw closer to the Source.  A healthy kitty does help, of course.  :)