snow for water?!

“Did you read that people in Texas are boiling snow for drinking water?”

“Did they get that much snow?”

“No, but what they did get shut the entire state down.”

“Oh yeah, I know that, but I was just thinking unless they got inches of snow, it won’t last them very long.”

My husband and I are in shock over the news we’ve just read. The thought of having to melt snow for drinking water makes my heart race. I grew up in a place where a quarter of an inch of snow felt like a lot. Now I live in a place where we think 4 inches isn’t enough. I stare out my window and see the 7 inches piled up just from last night, wondering how long it would last if that’s all the water we had to drink.  

As I think about the reality my Texas friends face, my thoughts turn to the ways we use water just about every single day.

What would I use to boil pasta?

How would I make coffee or tea?

How would we wash the dishes? Our laundry would be piled up for days!

Even making taco meat requires a little bit of water.

What would we drink? Our bodies need water. The experts say to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Just how much snow is that for a family of four? 

“I think it takes anywhere from 1-4 feet of snow to equal an inch of rain, depending on how powdery the snow,” I mutter out loud, as I start to think through the implications of this.

“I think that means a 5-gallon bucket would be about a half-gallon of water,” he replies.

If our math is correct, that means a family of four would need at least 20 gallons of snow to make enough water to keep you hydrated. 20 gallons of snow! Each. Day!

And then you’d need some way to safely filter it. My thoughts turn to our beloved Berkey water filter. At least I know if we lost water in our house, we could shovel all the snow into a bathtub and transfer it to the Berkey to be filtered and safe to drink.

Water is one of those things we sometimes take for granted. It’s so easy to stay in this privileged life we’re in, that we often forget millions of people around the world don’t have clean water to drink. It takes a natural disaster in our own country for us to become aware of that great need.

It’s so hard to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. But today we tried. Today, as we sat around our kitchen table, we talked with our daughters about what it might be like to have to use snow for water. 

We shared the things we love most about water. A cold glass of water after we’ve come in from a long hike in the woods. Or after we’ve eaten a sugary ice cream cone. 

Watching the bubbles when we boil a pot of pasta on the stove. The way water turns to broth when we combine it with a simple bag of beans. 

Today we gave thanks for our water supply. We talked about those families in Texas who find themselves wondering if they’ll have enough water to last until the pipes are restored.

We prayed for people around the world who don’t have access to clean water. 

And we prayed that we never take water for granted again.

This post is written in response to prompts from 40 Days of Writing the Everyday with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs.

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Photo by Jos Speetjens on Unsplash.

a wedding and dirty dishes

My best friend stands with his arm held out, curved in the way that you’d expect an escort to stand, anticipating the entry of mine. He’s dressed in his best grey slacks, a beautiful teal sweater, and an embroidered tie that is whiter than my ivory dress. His hair is spiked up, and he looks as handsome as I’ve ever seen him before. 

Are you ready? He asks. 

Yes, I say. Absolutely, 100% yes.

Holding back my tears, I take a deep breath and interlock my arm through his, forming a circle that will be broken in just a short time. We pray silently together as we walk towards the small chapel down the hall. 

It’s only fitting that he be the one to walk me down the aisle and hand me to the groom who stands at the front, waiting patiently, with tears in his eyes. This friend is, in large part, the reason we’re here. He taught me to dream. He taught me to believe. And he told my groom that there was no woman more worth fighting for than me. 

This is no ordinary wedding. 

This is a wedding that represents second chances. This wedding represents resurrection in the most real and tangible way. This friend standing beside me is how I most clearly heard God’s voice when my world felt like it was falling apart. 

It’s okay to admit it is over. It’s okay to let go, and move forward. God wants you to be happy. And fulfilled. And loved.

And the man waiting for me at the end of the aisle—he has given me more love than I ever imagined. He accepted me in all my brokenness. He took my pain and made it his. He showed me God in a way I’ve never seen before. He showed me Love. 

He showed me what it meant to be patient. And kind. He does not envy or boast—not even when he should. He is not rude or self-seeking, and it takes a whole hell of a lot to ever really make him angry. He keeps no record of my wrongs. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always…ALWAYS…perseveres.

He proposed over Oreos and milk. Our love has always been about the ordinary. About how sacred moments shine through in the midst of the mundane. Our love isn’t founded on exotic vacations or fancy adventures, but instead is founded on believing in each other, fighting for each other, living simply together.

Doing the dishes has always been a way he showed his love. It used to be that we would do the dishes together. And then once we had kids, it became his way of helping out. I was the only one that could nurse the baby, but he could wash the dishes. And now here we are, 11 years later, and he still does the dishes every single day. He does the dishes with the same amount of love that he had on that very first day.

And maybe even more.

Happy Anniversary to the one I love. You will forever be my better half.

This post is written in response to prompts from 40 Days of Writing the Everyday with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs.

Like what you see here? Don’t forget to sign up for the Monthly Munchies Newsletter! Each month I collect all my favorite things from the month and send them straight to your inbox!

a great adventure

I sit at my desk and hear the dryer tumbling with its low and steady roar. Just a moment later, water whooshes into the machine that sits below. 

Laundry—it’s a chore that never seems to end. 

Just when you’ve put the last pair of pajamas in the drawer and hung up the last shirt in the closet, you turn your head to find the basket filled with the day’s dirty clothes. 

Despite that it is never-ending, laundry is one of my favorite chores. Well, except the necessary sorting. The stinky towels and underwear are my least favorite to touch. But the act of putting the dirt and grime into a machine that washes it all away brings me hope of a new day.

When it comes time to fold laundry, I leave the clean clothes in baskets for far too long. Sometimes we dress out of clean baskets of laundry for an entire week, alleviating the need to ever put them away. 

But on the days when I finally convince myself to fold it and put it away, it turns into a form of escape. I pop my noise-canceling earbuds in my ear and tune out the world. It is perhaps my most secret form of self-care. 

Some days I head to a faraway island, to lay on the hot sand and swim in the turquoise water.

Other days I join a writing class and learn from the very best the field has to offer.

Some days I travel to a completely different world, one with fairies, dragons, unicorns, and any other creature that only exists in my imagination.

Other days I pretend I’m having coffee with another homeschooling mama, learning all her tricks and feeling encouraged by the way she’s gone before me in this homeschooling life.

And some days I simply fold in the pure beauty of silence. Praying and listening for a still small voice to come my way.

Where will you go when you next fold laundry?

This post is written in response to prompts from 40 Days of Writing the Everyday with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs.

Like what you see here? Don’t forget to sign up for the Monthly Munchies Newsletter! Each month I collect all my favorite things from the month and send them straight to your inbox!

a breakfast of empowerment

I walk down the stairs to find a huge block city spanning the length of the living room floor. My eyes scan the room and I notice a bowl on the counter containing just a splash of milk and a few leftover O’s, the spoon resting gently on the edge. Cereal crumbs scatter the counter and floor, and an open container sits in the middle of the counter. Glimpses of the early morning breakfast that happens before I wake up.

Some people dream of breakfast in bed. I dream of someone else taking care of breakfast while I’m left alone. Under the warmth of my blankets, with a notebook and a pen.

A breakfast of words, if you will. I crave solitude first thing in the morning. A few moments to collect myself and really prepare my heart for the day to come.

Perhaps one of the best decisions I’ve made as a parent so far was rearranging the kitchen to put bowls in a waist-high drawer, and milk in a child-size pitcher on the lowest shelf in the fridge. As preschoolers they learned they could wake up and make themselves a bowl of cereal, giving me another hour or so of lazy mornings in bed.

It’s just one way I strive to give them wings—empowerment with equipping attached.

“Yes you can do this!” this small action says. But it doesn’t stop with those words of encouragement. It goes a step further. ”And we’ll change some things in our house to make it so you can be successful with very little effort.”

Empowerment alone can be crippling. Giving someone the freedom and encouragement to do something for themselves can sometimes feel like too great a responsibility to bear. But when we make small changes to really help people achieve the thing we’ve given them the freedom to do … only then does freedom have real power to grow wings and soar.

This post is written in response to prompts from 40 Days of Writing the Everyday with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs.

Like what you see here? Don’t forget to sign up for the Monthly Munchies Newsletter! Each month I collect all my favorite things from the month and send them straight to your inbox!