The Events of Thursday, February 10, 2011

                Yesterday we were snowed in, today we are iced in. The sun was up and cheery, but because the temperatures remained below freezing, the roads stayed hazardous. Mom read online that if vehicle travel became absolutely necessary, to prepare for a collision. Since none of us seem to know how to prepare for a collision, we decided to have another snow day, I mean, ice day.

                Because we are stuck here outside of Little Rock, we couldn’t go out for groceries, so after a delicious scrambled eggs and omelet breakfast, Mom pulled out the detested dry milk that we have for emergencies. Just as she was measuring out the dry crystal-like particles of milk, there was a knock on our door. “Sorry to bother you, but I live here year-round and am heading out for some groceries, could I get you folks anything?” That is what I call divine providence. And for those of you who have never had the pleasure of drinking dry milk, let me tell you it is almost as bad as when your little sister accidentally drops a piece of bread in your glass and forgets to tell you and the soggy clumps rise to the top, ugh …

                The sun’s powerful rays on the snow became almost too much by the time we sat down to lunch. Caitlin and Mom had showered and had settled down with the rest of us, having quiet prayer times, family devotionals, doing math, schoolwork, editing pictures (we are almost caught up), making bracelets, writing postcards and e-mails, Ben and Abby had a Rubrik’s cube contest, and Mom and Daddy discussed lodging in Europe. Our “milkman” had come back bearing two gallons of fat free milk and so we sat down to warm cream of chicken soup (from a can), left over rice seasoned with the orange poppy seed spice chicken sauce, crackers, grapes, cheese, cookies, and milk. We had what I would call a throw-together meal. The icicles outside our RV were slowly dripping and the streets turned to slush. Every so often, you could hear the thump of falling snow and icicles. We went back to our previous activities after lunch until about 2 p.m.

                At the aforesaid time, Abby, Ben, Daddy, and I pulled on our waterproof gear, bid our sweet women who wanted to stay warm and dry good-bye and set off to quite an adventure. Daddy had spotted a hill on his morning walk and so we walked in that direction after reserving our campsite for tonight. We walked along the road of slush, going slightly uphill. Along each side of the road were small streams of muddy runoff. When we reached the aforementioned hill, Daddy commented that a lot of the snow that had been there the previous morning was gone. We hopped a low vehicle-restricting fence and dodged puddles and slush as well as we could. Ben adventurously started ascending the mount, while Daddy took the long way around. Abby and I followed Ben’s lead and clambered up the steep slope. We soon found Arkansas soil’s soft red clay mysteriously attracted to our gloves, boots, and Abby’s beautiful white scarf. Daddy came up clean, but the rest of us had red streaks all over ourselves. Abby and I commenced making snow angels and hearts in the snow. Daddy took pictures and Ben explored.

                By the time we headed home, we were red with clay and sunburns (isn’t it odd how you get sunburns in the snow?), and Abby was excitedly bubbling about the discoveries we had made. We had found lots of small shallow ponds on the summit and Abby took the liberty to name them all, inspired by Anne Shirley of Green Gables. The first one was the Pond of Solemnity, a large pond with a thick layer of ice covering it. I have no idea what inspired that name, because Ben and Abby threw rocks at it trying to break the ice and that is not in the least way solemn. I thought it should be named Crater Lake because the black rocks lying around us did look volcanic, and the Pond of Solemnity was large enough, but not quite deep enough to be a crater of a volcano. Oh, well. We next found the Lake of Peaceful Coexistence. One half of the pond was a dark teal slush and the other half a pure white sheet of ice. I named The Two Lost Mitten Lakes because they looked like two very sad mittens, one big and the other small, lost on the top of an abandoned mountain in Arkansas. Then, The Lone Peninsula, which was a small lake divided almost in two by a rocky peninsula. Next, Lake of Ice, I wonder what inspired that name … Then, the Island Lake, with a small rock in the center and The Journey’s End Lake which was the last large body of water we saw before we left. Abby decided that all these lakes made up the Great Cycle of Lakes on the mountain she named Slate Mountain. Abby even made up a poem which none of us, not even my artistic genius of a little sister, could remember.

                After taking hot showers that brought the tingles back into our toes, Abby made vanilla pudding for our “milkman” as a thank you, worrying the whole time that he would be allergic to something. But, it was a sweet gesture and he appreciated I’m sure. We went back to our activities until about an hour before dinner. Then, Mom pulled the laptop out to the living/bed/family/dining room, the only room that can comfortably hold all six of us at the same time. We read e-mails and watched videos sent to us by our loving grandparents.

                Then, Mom did a miracle only capable of a woman who bore four children and had such a dream as to bring us on this trip. She created a meal out of every possible thing we had in our cupboards, fridge, and cooler. She made a cucumber salad with vinegar that we bought to cure Mom’s swimmer’s ear from Dry Tortugas snorkeling, a leftover cucumber, and sugar. She also cut up green bell peppers for veggies, cooked up noodles and cheese with leftover shredded taco cheese, and made a meatloaf with the last of our ground beef, ketchup that we have had since the beginning of the trip, flavoring that we have had for over a year, and egg substitute. Is there anything that she can’t do? OK, she can’t do a head stand, but I do recall that she did a back flip off the back bed when Daddy went over a bump in the RV.

                We ate this meal with jokes and laughter as an additional side dish and finished it off with King Cake that we bought in honor of our visit to New Orleans (for more details read Ben’s blog for yesterday and the blog on February 3rd). While I wrote these very sentences, my family cleaned up dinner and got ready for the evening festivities. After laughing and crying with Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (we, well I, do get emotional sometimes with movies. Abby used to hide her eyes and plug her ears when we watched Snow White, but that was a year ago), we headed to bed with hopes that the sun will melt the roads so we can head out to Oklahoma tomorrow.