shoveling snow and a 4x4

wouldn't it be funny if hotels hired small children to provide wake-up calls? yeah right... hilarious! my small children woke me up at 7:30 today, which isn't bad considering i'm usually up at 5:30 during the week. regardless, it's not all that funny.
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i basically skipped breakfast, eating a banana as i brewed a couple cups of decaf. while it brewed, i did the dishes from the night before. coffee done before the dishes were, i moved on to sweeping the kitchen floor. amidst the coffee pot's continual clicking to tell me it was done, i then dried and put the wet dishes away.
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sarah was busy at the same time, and i couldn't peel her away from the laundry to sit and have a cup of coffee with me just to relax. she then had a few phone calls to take, so i sat at the dining room table alone and wrote out some thoughts (see tomorrow's blog).
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after lunch, which consisted of some shredded cheese and a slice of cold homemade pizza, i took the girls out to play in our 6 inches of snow while i shoveled out the driveway. sonja tried to help, but that 3-pronged, 6-inch kid's rake wasn't going to do the job. 2.5 hours later... i was done.
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sarah's phone calls earlier in the day were in regards to a friend of ours going through a really rough time. without hitting the details, i'll just let you know she needed some groceries. well, with God's awesome snow storm last night and all day today, the roads were pretty bad. but i was able to round up another friend with 4-wheel drive, and we yee-hawed our way the grocery stores. despite the slippery roads, witnessing several spin outs and almost being sandwiched by a wayward semi, we arrived home safely after delivering our God-sent care package (God-sent because He's given us so much that we've been able to give back to someone else who needs His provisions too).
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i crashed. 5:30, dinner time, i was beat. my legs and back ache like there may be no tomorrow. guess i'm pretty out of shape for all that work and running around all day. but it was worth it, and i enjoyed every minute of it really... except the part where i accidentally threw snow in alex's face... oops!
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after getting the girls in bed, sarah encouraged me while preparing her sunday school lesson for tomorrow. reading out loud, she told the story of the ant and the slug. how the ant is an awesome worker and the slug... well... isn't. i was an ant today.
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again, all-in-all, it was a good day. if it weren't for the grocery run later in the afternoon, my blog would have been titled: "what i did today...". the entire story would have read: "shoveled snow". despite doing other things, that job basically defines my day... and my aching body.
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whew! i'm spent!