A Tender Mercy

Today was one of the best days I've had in a really long time.

I've been in a depression slump again recently and the cloud of gloom has been as suffocating as it has been persistent.

It has been really hard for me to try and "snap out of it."  I feel like I'm stuck, but with all the frustration of knowing it should be easy to get unstuck... and yet for some reason deciding to choose to stay put. In that pit. The one that I should easily be able to get out of. But... I don't.

Ugh, even writing about it makes me claustrophobic.

But today wasn't like that (thank goodness)! And yesterday wasn't like that either.  I seem to be seeing the horizon. And it would be disingenuous not to show my gratitude for such a blissfully content, picture perfect kind of day.

Like my husband told me today when I expressed my appreciation for this unusually wonderful day, "These are the vistas of life we need to remember."  I believe he was paraphrasing a quote from President Gordon B. Hinkley, but either way, I agree.

And so I want to write it all down so I don't forget.

It seems funny that my perfect day should start with the power turning off while I was taking a shower. But there you have it. That is exactly how it began.

I got up at 4:30 this morning, just to sleep in another half hour and get up at 5. I am trying to become more of a morning person (see my Mommy Rules) but forming this habit has been slow going. I was proud of myself for getting up (even though I didn't want to) and staying up (even though I really didn't want to).

But my shower was cut short. Thankfully, I was awake enough by this point to stay that way, so I used my husbands iPad to finish getting dressed, do my makeup, and read my scriptures. It was about 6:00am when I ran out of things to do in my pitch black and powerless home, so I gave in and laid down while my husband got up and got ready for work.

At 7am we all headed out the door into the -6 degree weather. Oh man it was cold, people! There was no building up to this weather! Just a few days ago it was in the 40's! And here we were at negative 6...and no power.

It was so cold it took some tinkering to get our keys to unlock the car door, and our car, when we turned it on, seemed half tempted to call it an early retirement and give up the ghost. Most hospitably, however,  it decided to postpone that decision (hopefully for a far later date in our future) and the engine kept running.

We drove to Kevin's school to drop him off, but found the parking lots deserted and the power off there as well. We hadn't received any calls that school was cancelled, hadn't heard anything on the radio, and we didn't have internet, so we stayed at the school, just in case someone might show up.

Another teacher did and confirmed that school was indeed cancelled. Sweet!

We went home and tacked up some spare blankets over our windows (it was 58 degrees in our house) and grabbed the remaining blankets from our beds and piled them all onto the couch. The kids played with toys on the living room carpet, while I read out loud to everyone the first 5 chapters of Anne of Green Gables.

Did I mention we had our fireplace on? Thank goodness it is on gas and not electricity!  It was so peaceful.

The power came back on about ten, at which point we decided it would be safe to go sledding, now that we knew we would have a warm house to help us thaw afterwards. We bundled the kids up with at least 3 layers and went and played in the now 10 degree weather.

It was surprisingly comfortable and we spent the next hour and a half playing on some hills by our home. I could have stayed out even longer, but Emmie and Kevin were ready to go in for ramen and I didn't want them to have to wait for Kay and I to eat.

So Kay and I took a few more rides and then joined them in the house.  After lunch, we decided it was time to go buy some ice melt, a snow shovel, and a garage door opener. We couldn't trust our car to handle this cold another morning. It was time to shell out the big bucks. ;]

While we were out we stopped by several stores and enjoyed talking together in the car. I got the rest of my kids stocking stuffers from the dollar tree and we also stopped by PetSmart, just to look at the animals (per Kay's request.)

On our way home we rented Angels Sing from RedBox and watched it while we ate a dinner of pumpkin soup and toast (which I made from scratch while the kids listened and danced to Alvin and The Chipmunks Holiday station on Pandora).

After the movie was over we had our nightly routine of a Christmas devotional (which I got from this blog here, seriously, go check it out. She did such an amazing job on these!), a Christmas book to unwrap, and chocolate advent calendars.

Then it was off to brush teeth, snuggle, and tuck the children into bed.

It was such a simple...but deeply beautiful, contented, kind of day that I always imagined I would have when I had a family of my own.  I guess I know now that even though these days are not an every day reality... they are possible. And they are as sweet and as wonderful as can be.

Feeling so thankful tonight. I hope to keep this feeling with me for a very long time! <3