14 straight days: shovel, scrape, bend and throw!

It has been snowing constantly here in West Michigan, and as a man who prides himself on not complaining,  I just can’t seem to hold it in any longer…I HATE SNOW! I constantly have to stay ahead of the shoveling or my wife will never get out of the driveway. There is a steep rise from our house to the road and it is imperative to keep it clean. So time after time I begin the grueling routine once again: “shovel, scrape, bend and throw.”  After doing this for the last three months I have accumulated some major snow piles at the end of the drive. The tippy-top of one of them is as tall as me!

So, as you can detect, I have had it with snow. Well, this weekend we had our nieces and nephew come stay overnight. My daughter Jasmine and her cousin Sahara are very busy girls, and after a while, they were looking for something to do. “Dad, we are bored. What should we do.” I quickly responded, “Boy, there sure is a lot of snow out there, go play, slide, or hey…why don’t you make an igloo out of that giant snow mound in the front?” They look puzzled and said, “How do we do that?”

I thought for a second and I drew them a diagram:

They said that they didn’t know how to do that, and could I help? Well, I went outside and started to put my plans into action, one shovel-full at a time. After an hour and a half (a 1/2 hour better than my estimate) I had a fully functional igloo ready to go for two squealy girls. “Wow, cool dad, I love it, I love it, I love it.” You know it did turn out pretty cool…see pics:

 I can’t believe I am admitting this, but building the igloo was a blast. The snow that I detested became the material for memories. Jesus says that we need to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven; maybe that means more than seeing him as provider and Father. I think it also includes seeing the world he gave to us as something to embrace and find joy in; instead of always grumbling, mumbling, yelling and complaining.

I am sore, I am tired – – but I have two happy girls and warm hot chocolate in my belly!