We woke up Friday morning to this overnight winter-gift. Anika is not sitting down, she sunk this deep in the two-foot drift. Oh, and the power was out. Power outages come with the storms around here. Lots of trees to crack limbs on heavy wires. The night before, we lost power for a few hours, got it back for awhile, then lost it again. Each time I woke up to the sudden silence or whir of machines humming to life again. The world gets so incredible-still when the power goes out. No refrigerator, computer-cooling-fans, fish tank bubbles. Nothing. Pure quiet. Little unsettling 
In the morning I used my ingenuity to warm up water for hot cocoa and tea. Tried the fondue pot.
Made a few cute little bubbles, but finished it off by holding it over the gas-lit fireplace. They really should mold those ceramic logs to hold a pot over the fire. Not flat, but a clever crook where you could boil a pot of water when the power goes. Would be a great invention.
At first the kids were confused. Ian was even a little angry. ”No working!” he yelled at the many electronic devices in the house. Anika and I showed him that gluing googly eyes with glitter glue is better than any electronic fun
Then we pulled out the Playmobils and set up a the Magic Forest. Until the Dragon Knight came with his Undead Legion (1 skeleton by the tent) and kidnapped the Spring Fairy Queen and the forest slowly fell apart . . .
We needed Outside. We geared up and played right outside the garage because the snow was deep enough to swallow Ian whole. A slide going into a snowbank is always fun
Anika waded out towards the road to see how the neighborhood fared.
Ian found the summer-stash of bubbles. Bubbles in the snow, sure!
Pumpkin needed a clean cage, so he came outside, too. We gave him snowballs to play with in his cage.
Ian was brave after watching Anika pack down a snowy trail. He followed her into the deep with ski-poles for balance.
Shelter under the apple tree.
Anika on our road. Not much traveling today. The power came back on, hurrah! So I helped the chilly kids go inside to warm up and I took a little walk in the backyard (just to photograph the pool).
I loved their wild-horse rising up out of the snowdrifts. My imagination took about a hundred flights of fancy thinking of frozen-steeds leaping up out of long-buried snow . . .
Last, the pool. Beautiful in the shape and color and stillness. No swimming today
A fun day in the end. A long haul for me, with the cold, and the aches, and the fatigue, but I enjoyed it through my family. And this morning Anika said, “I wish we could have the power out again, Mom.”
We slow down . I’ll remember that. With heaters
