Wow…is it cold or what? We were in Columbus the last few days and felt the bitter blasts of flat Midwest winds. I didn’t even look up the wind chill factor. I think it just makes you colder. But I do know this…when it’s 3° outside and the wind is blowing, it’s flat out miserable. Our hotel room was on the first floor. I don’t know if the room was cold simply because it was cold outside or the fact we were sitting on a huge slab of cement. The heater had a governor on it and you couldn’t turn the thermostat up over 78° and at that level, it blew nothing but cool air…until it didn’t. Then it got way too warm. Next time, we will elect to stay on an upper floor. 

As we were driving home yesterday, Mr. FixIt asked if we could stop at Rocky Boots in Nelsonville, OH. We are of an age now that we know to ask each other what we want for our birthday or Christmas gifts. We have everything we need and there’s absolutely no need to go overboard on huge gifts…especially if it’s not something we really want. Mr. FixIt has a big birthday coming up so I’ve asked him to let me know what he would like. Unfortunately, he has an unusual foot size so he wasn’t able to find the comfy boots he was hoping for. We’ll have to keep looking. 

We were surprised that Columbus got so much less snow than we have at home. You could really tell the difference between Columbus and Nelsonville. We got out of the truck and there were piles of snow reminiscent of my winters in Colorado. When we got back in the truck and headed home, there was something about the way the sun reflected on the snow under the clear cerulean blue sky brought me back in time.

Have you ever had a memory come to you and instantly you are transported across time and space to something warm and wonderful? That is what happened yesterday. It was the winter of 1982. Denver had a Christmas Eve blizzard that stopped the city in its tracks. People were delivering nurses to the hospitals on snowmobiles. And once you were there, you didn’t come home till the roads were cleared. Hubby #2 was in Medical School so fortunately, he was home with us.

We rented an old brick bungalow the color of a sandy beach. It had big windows and zero insulation. We had no money to speak of. We used a kerosene stove in the middle of the living room for extra heat. Daughter #1 was eight years old. We gave her the only bedroom in the house and we slept out on the sun porch in the back. Ice formed in the corners of her room and on the windows in ours.

We were poor and in love and didn’t care that we had no money. We walked to the store in the snow and carried our groceries back home. I was filled with dreams of living in the country and having a farm with chickens and gardens. I baked our bread, made homemade granola and yogurt, and started seedlings inside for what vegetables we could grow in the flowerbeds around the house. We did whatever we could to entertain ourselves on the cheap.

That’s where I was teleported yesterday as I drove through the farmland of Ohio. I held that warm memory up to the light of today and realized…I’m exactly where I dreamed I would be oh those many years ago. It isn’t at all like I thought it would be at the time. There was a whole other marriage and a death between then and now. Another child came along to add to the family. Dogs filled our hearts and broke them when their all-too-short lives came to an end. Moves were made. Hearts were broken and mended. Old lives were lost and new lives were added and here I am…back where I started.

West Virginia. With a different West Virginia boy than the one I first set out with. And a big family to love. I bake our bread, I can our food, I grow a garden. That’s why that warm feeling that came over me yesterday seemed so familiar. 

It is my life. And it is so, so good.

❄️?❄️

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

Proverbs 16:9 NLT