Another Baby Step

And not the grandchildren.  Me!

I'm trying to overcome my fear of ice and falling.  I have a lot of anxiety about it, and Emily and Ryan are pretty understanding.

It's hard for me to trust that all that snow is soft and dry and not slippery.  I was standing on the balcony just now watching a guy across the way shovel out his parking place, so I yelled at him and asked his opinion on whether I could get to my car safely.  He walked over and said it looked fine and even volunteered to shovel me a path.  I told him I would try it without a path, and once I got down there, he stood and cheered me on.

I just wanted to make sure the car would crank because last month I had a dead battery one cold rainy night and didn't want to chance that again.  This old Georgia car cranked like a champion, so since I was so courageous, I went into the garage and found something to lift the snow off the windshield.  I found a pet place mat which was perfect - plastic and big.  It was really so much fun lifting big chunks of snow and throwing them off.  If I had only thought to wear gloves and a coat, I would have done the top too.  But it's enough to know the car cranks, the windshield wipers are working, and I probably won't fall down if I'm careful when we go to school this afternoon.

Emily reassured me that it was going to reach 46 degrees and would rain, so it would probably be melted by noon.  So I'm looking out the window, and it's once again snowing like crazy!

I guess my poor little chickadees couldn't find anything better, so they're sampling the peanut butter and flax seed.  I guess that's a chickadee - that's what I call them anyway.

Excuse the milk drip that I see now on the glass.  I guess that's what Kate was telling me uh-oh about yesterday when she had her face pressed up against the glass.

The next time I get a chance, I'm going to buy a bunch of seed and give them a treat.  It's so exciting to think about hummingbirds feeding on the balcony and little birds hopping around throwing seeds everywhere.  It makes me happy but also makes my heart hurt thinking about how much time Mike spent setting up our little bird sanctuary last year and taking just the right pictures.  Everything makes me cry lately though.  I think spring will help that a lot, or just being able to get out and walk around.

It also helps that I have one more thing that I've found out I can do by myself.