Trying Not To Get Excited
I'm a big fan of winter. I like that it gets very cold and snows. From December 1 to March 1 I would love for it to be about 20 degrees with at least an inch or two of snow covering the ground constantly.
Most people do not appreciate my view on Winter, which I can understand, but I still enjoy waking up to a blanket of white. I know I am kind of prejudiced towards a typical winter, given Erik's winter profession providing snow removal, but it really doesn't have as much to do with our income as it does my hatred of mud.
I HATE MUD!
Hate it!
There's not a square inch of ground on our 40 acres that is without mud. Most days, that includes my house. It makes me nuts! The amount of work mud creates for me is unbelievable. Everyone in the house requires at least two changes of clothes per day. Willie J, of course, requires at least three or four. No one respects my boundaries of TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF AT THE DOOR and I frequently find someone traipsing through the house with muddy boots on. Apparently, having mud caked boots is the only time my family remembers the rule: If you need to talk to me, come find me. Don't stand there and just shout "MOMMA!" If you are perfectly clean and want me, by all means, stand in your bedroom and yell for me when I'm down in the laundry room up to my elbows shouting out all of our mud stained clothes. But if you are covered in mud and most likely manure and want me, please, by all meanswalk STOMP all through the house as you search for me. Especially if I am in the upstairs bathroom. There's nothing I love more than being disturbed during my bathroom break. Unless of course, it's coming out of the bathroom to find a trail of mud down the stairs, through all the downstairs rooms and back to the laundry room where you are now taking off all of your muddy gear.
However, as we approach spring, I am looking forward to the warmer days and I'm getting used to the mud. Although our cellar has a lot to be desired, we set it up over the weekend for the kids to be able to enter through the basement door, disrobe of their muddy attire, and come upstairs through the basement. It has cut down on the mud considerably this weekend, which was especially important as I had spent the entire week thoroughly cleaning the house. Like, moving furniture and washing baseboards kind of cleaning. Three days in and we're holding pretty well. I only had to sweep four times today and I didn't have to run the vacuum at all.
I'm also getting kind of excited over the fact that we may actually have a real Easter break. Our school is scheduled to have the Wednesday before Easter through the Tuesday after off as part of their building in snow days into the schedule just in case. We haven't even had a delay this year, which has been kind of sad, but I had looking forward to this potentially long break.
That was until I was reminded of the Ides of March. This particular phrase has always stuck with me from High School - I want to say it was 10th grade - when we read Julius Caesar in English class. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed (23 times) to death in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. The group included 60 other co-conspirators according to Plutarch.[2]
According to Plutarch, a seer had foreseen that Caesar would be harmed not later than the Ides of March and on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar met that seer and joked, "The ides of March have come", meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Ay, Caesar; but not gone."[3] This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March."[4][5]
This sticks with me because during my late high school years, the Ides of March (March 15) is the day before my mom's (and now Maggie's) birthday and we had two years of very bad blizzards around the Ides of March. So I always associate the Ides of March with blizzards. Last year was not too different as I discovered as I went through some pictures from last year. I found these, taken March 11, 2011.
Most people do not appreciate my view on Winter, which I can understand, but I still enjoy waking up to a blanket of white. I know I am kind of prejudiced towards a typical winter, given Erik's winter profession providing snow removal, but it really doesn't have as much to do with our income as it does my hatred of mud.
I HATE MUD!
Hate it!
There's not a square inch of ground on our 40 acres that is without mud. Most days, that includes my house. It makes me nuts! The amount of work mud creates for me is unbelievable. Everyone in the house requires at least two changes of clothes per day. Willie J, of course, requires at least three or four. No one respects my boundaries of TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF AT THE DOOR and I frequently find someone traipsing through the house with muddy boots on. Apparently, having mud caked boots is the only time my family remembers the rule: If you need to talk to me, come find me. Don't stand there and just shout "MOMMA!" If you are perfectly clean and want me, by all means, stand in your bedroom and yell for me when I'm down in the laundry room up to my elbows shouting out all of our mud stained clothes. But if you are covered in mud and most likely manure and want me, please, by all means
However, as we approach spring, I am looking forward to the warmer days and I'm getting used to the mud. Although our cellar has a lot to be desired, we set it up over the weekend for the kids to be able to enter through the basement door, disrobe of their muddy attire, and come upstairs through the basement. It has cut down on the mud considerably this weekend, which was especially important as I had spent the entire week thoroughly cleaning the house. Like, moving furniture and washing baseboards kind of cleaning. Three days in and we're holding pretty well. I only had to sweep four times today and I didn't have to run the vacuum at all.
I'm also getting kind of excited over the fact that we may actually have a real Easter break. Our school is scheduled to have the Wednesday before Easter through the Tuesday after off as part of their building in snow days into the schedule just in case. We haven't even had a delay this year, which has been kind of sad, but I had looking forward to this potentially long break.
That was until I was reminded of the Ides of March. This particular phrase has always stuck with me from High School - I want to say it was 10th grade - when we read Julius Caesar in English class. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed (23 times) to death in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. The group included 60 other co-conspirators according to Plutarch.[2]
According to Plutarch, a seer had foreseen that Caesar would be harmed not later than the Ides of March and on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar met that seer and joked, "The ides of March have come", meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Ay, Caesar; but not gone."[3] This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March."[4][5]
This sticks with me because during my late high school years, the Ides of March (March 15) is the day before my mom's (and now Maggie's) birthday and we had two years of very bad blizzards around the Ides of March. So I always associate the Ides of March with blizzards. Last year was not too different as I discovered as I went through some pictures from last year. I found these, taken March 11, 2011.
What a difference the snow makes.
I'll curb my enthusiasm for a while in anticipation of what could happen with the Ides of March, but I'll be enjoying these amazing, warm February days as we head into Leap Day. And if March 2012 COMES IN and GOES OUT like a lamb, I won't complain!