With the passing of each day this year, as we’ve gotten closer and closer to Zach’s graduation, I’ve been wishing time would slow down and take a pause. And it has. The winter weather has definitely made us all slow down, and not just a little bit, quite a lot. We’ve had 11 snow days so far with the possibility of more, either tomorrow or sometime next week. In all of these snow days we’ve had a lot of togetherness and have enjoyed a slower pace of life.

In fact, we’ve had so much togetherness and enjoyed such a slower pace of life, today the words, “Be careful what you wish for” started rolling through my brain. And they’re rolling more and more quickly as the kids go screaming through the house, pounding up and down the stairs, laughing shriekily at their own goofiness.

Let me set the stage….

I have Lucas home in a knee brace and on crutches from his surgery last week. He has yet to step out of the house and I think the confinement is finally getting to him. He’s watched enough episodes/seasons of Breaking Bad to know exactly how to make the blue stuff from the show. He’s now “killed” so many people on Call of Duty that he could combine them with the folks from Breaking Bad to start a new game and name it Breaking the Call or Duty Calls Me to Break Bad. And I think he’s beginning to lose his mind a little, or maybe it’s the pain killers. I’m not sure what’s causing it, but he’s been hobbling around singing goofy songs with his shorts hanging down below his rear. He’d be here whether we had a snow day or not, so I can’t say be careful what you wish for because of him.

The other two, I definitely can.

Claire has either been my shadow and stuck to my side or baking like a crazy fool, encouraging all of us to eat her yummy concoctions. I can’t even get into my kitchen. She’s taken over. When she’s not baking or by my side, she’s wandering around the house making strange noises and encouraging Bella, our very fluffy golden retriever, to act like a complete nutter and shed all over everything she looks at.

Then there’s Zach. He’s the whole reason I want life to slow down a bit. His time here is quickly and quietly slipping away. But even when he’s here, sometimes he’s not really here. He’s on the third floor, tucked away. But on these snow days he comes down out of his roost to rile the masses. His 18 year-old enthusiasm tears quickly through the house with Bella right on his heels. He giggles like a little girl being chased by her school-girl crush as Bella works hard to find him in his twisted little game of hide-and-seek with the dog. The two of them mess curtains up, throw rugs to the side, jump on furniture and all-in-all make a giant mess of my downstairs. I guess life really doesn’t slow down when you’re 18 and on the precipice of adulthood.

And then there’s the weather from hell. My idea of hell isn’t fire and brimstone. My idea of hell is a frozen arctic tundra, all white and icy. This weather, this winter is my idea of hell. So why I’ve wished for more snow days is something that is completely and totally beyond me. I hate winter, especially this winter, with a passion. This is my idea of hell on earth.

OK. So, I’ve wished for life to slow down and it has. But I really need to be careful what I wish for. The winter weather won’t end. The kids, though no longer little, still work to keep life more than interesting when they’re home from school on snow days. I’m really questioning my wishes for more and more and more togetherness. I’m on the verge of too much togetherness. I’m on the verge of being the one sitting in a padded room with a pretty white jacket on all because what I’ve wished for. I really need to be more careful.

Oh, for the love of my children….