stumblingtoholiness

And now for a completely frivolous post.  Well, not entirely.  When one lives in New England, and one has 5 children to consider when having to go out anywhere, these things require deep thought and consideration.  I’m speaking of shoes.  Boots specifically.  Snow boots to be exact.

I contemplated going out this evening, or tomorrow afternoon to buy some.  If I went out this evening, I would have had to leave 4 children plus a nursing infant with zmr and rushed out to be back in time to nurse zman.  Or take the nursing baby and have the trip take twice as long.  Not to mention I really don’t like going out in the evenings, as that is generally all the time zmr and I have together, and he has to get up early in the morning, hence early to bed.  Option two being to go tomorrow afternoon.  With all 5 children.  Even with a helper, the chances of one place having my size in a style I like that might actually be warm?  Small at best.  More likely, in my world, miniscule.

So I regained my sanity, and remembered my lovely friend Zappos, who ships to me for free, and gives me free return shipping as well.  No I am not being paid to talk about them.  I just love them.  I searched on my phone while putting zman to bed.  I ordered 5 pairs.  Some of them are rated to -100 degrees Fahrenheit.  How true that is remains to be seen, but reviewers in Alaska and Russia were impressed.  Ought to be good enough to keep my frigid toes warm in New England.

Here’s hoping that free 1-day shipping gets them here tomorrow before taking the children to their ski day in Vermont on Thursday; I will probably not be skiing myself, just supervising some littles on the bunny slope.  I despise being cold.  Which is how I have gotten by for over a decade in New England without snow boots.  I try not to be out long enough in it to need them.

But zmr…zmr’s family is Swiss.  He comes from a long line of skiers.  These people think hiking glaciers is fun.  Swimming in just above freezing water from snow melt is exhilarating to zmr.  And his children have inherited his inner furnace that somehow keeps their bodies all toasty and warm even during the past few days of frigid temperatures.  Zfirstborn has been walking around in a t-shirt.  I keep telling the children to put some clothes on, they’re making me cold.

My family is from the mountains as well, though the Adirondacks, not the Alps.  I remember a time when I used to go outside and play in the snow.   Running outside after soccer practice in shorts and a t-shirt and catching snow flakes on my tongue during the first snow of the season.  When I was even younger I never seemed to be able to find two mittens at a time and so I remember shoving both my hands and my feet into socks and bread bags to keep them warm and dry.  I remember the magic of my mother waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me there was a blizzard outside, let’s go make a snowman.  We did that several different times over the years.

Now the thought of going outside with thin cotton socks and a layer of plastic over my hands is enough to make me hypothermic.  I need about ten layers of real shearling inside some sealskin mittens.  Maybe some blubber too.  Blubber might help.  Make me a whole suit out of it.  Then again, that probably wouldn’t smell very good or be very comfortable.  I would look like some sort of franken-seal out there.  You see my dilemma?  Sitting next to a cozy fire with some hot cocoa, wool socks, and a nice warm wool sweater sounds like a much more alluring day to me. Let’s all sit around and read.

Sigh.  But not in this family.  Not that they don’t enjoy reading.  But for some reason frozen stuff on the ground and frigid temperatures screams to them.  It beckons them to get up in the dark (need I say more?!) stick their feet into plastic casts, strap ‘em to some sticks and race headlong down a mountain.  What? One of them broke their leg last year you say?  Meh.  No problem.  But you have an infant and zgirl is only 2 you say?  Last year zgirl kept falling face first in the snow and just spitting it out and pulling herself up, no help required nor desired, thank you very much.  As for zman, he has his own blubber.

So, if I am going to keep up with this family, I need to learn to love the snow again.  Forget my fear of frostbite, it’s bound to happen.  As long as nothing falls off, no reason to notice it.  So, all that to say…I have high hopes for these boots.

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