In my attempt to make these long winter months as fun as possible, I’ve taken the kids sledding twice this past week. The first trip out was to a good friend’s house. T-Rex had a minor mishap with a tree, but quickly got back on the horse – er sled, although he’s still rightfully concerned about trees. The second outing was with my my brother-in-law and sister-in-law at a high school with a sweet tree-free hill. My sister-in-law quickly won cautious Little Miss’s confidence and she could not get enough of whizzing down the hills with her aunt “steering” the sled.
At one point, T-Rex was riding with his uncle and Little Miss was riding with her aunt, leaving me with an empty sled. I was feeling young at heart and decided to give it a go. I couldn’t remember the last time I went whizzing down a hill by myself just for fun. It didn’t take long to realize why grown ups usually pass on the icy fun. The hill was packed down and made for speedy sliding. Having turned into a Florida girl, I completely forgot how to steer and my sled was spinning every which way before dumping me and turning me into a rolling snowball. As I tumbled over I finally landed, with my clenched fist in my abdomen knocking the breath out of me. I got on my hands and knees trying to act nonchalantly ok while wheezing. “Small breaths, small breaths, fill your lungs…come on!” I smiled and waved at my family at the bottom of the hill. One final “UUUUGH!” and my lungs returned to working order. I hopped in the sled again and made it down the rest of the hill without mishap. Little Miss was correctly quite convinced that her aunt was a safer sled driver than me. I was quite happy to remain at the top of the hill and take pictures.
Over the past few months life has felt a bit like the ride on that sled – spinning at lightning speed, completely out of control with several spills that left our families breathless. But through it all, we’d get up on our knees, suck in a few deep breaths, get back on the sled and cheer each other on.