Change Is In the Air

Anyone who says winter is ALWAYS dreary and depressing hasn’t really experienced winter. Sure, dark days and cold can have an effect on you, and I know that weather-effected depression is a really thing for some people, but I have to wonder if most of that happens because they don’t look for anything good in winter. I admit I love the winter, but I do try to find something good and enjoyable in each season, as well. (Even in the insanely hot summer.)

Today was awesome. Winter has been flirting with us for a while.. a 1/2 inch falls, and melts, another dusting falls, and melts (or gets blown away). This morning I woke up so a good-old fashioned Ohio-style WHITEOUT! We had a few good inches on the ground already and it was still falling.

This morning Andis & Ieva had the preliminary round for NOTS, which is a youth music contest for the whole region. 16 people/groups auditioned and 11 were being chosen. We raced to get there before they sang, through the falling snow and over the unplowed and slippery roads. We walked in just as the group before them finished. They did great. Ieva played guitar and they sang a duet called “Someday You’ll Know” by Mandy Moore and Jonathan Foreman. Very cool. After a nerve-racking 20 minutes of jury deliberation, they announced who made it to the next round… and they were in! Woohoo! The band will try to pull it together to all play for the finals in March.

As a kind of celebration, we decided to meet a while later and go sled riding. Actually, here it’s more popular to go “bag-riding”. The big thick garbage bags work great if you have enough snow (which we did). The 5 of us met and hit the hill. (Our friend, Daiga was here for the weekend, too.) We were there about 5 minutes and our blue sky turned to yet another whiteout! So much fun! Watch the video here! An hour later we were all cold and wet, but we also felt like we had revisited a piece of our childhood.

That is the kind of thing that makes winter fun and enjoyable. Hopefully the snow stays for a while… Peteris said he’d teach me to snowboard this winter if it does.

It’s a busy weekend. Friday night we were in Riga… the band had a concert there which went really well.

Tomorrow (Sunday) they’re leading worship at the Talsi Christian Fellowship church in the morning and then at Talsi Baptist Church youth meeting in the evening. Then it’s back to school. Ugh… Too bad we don’t have snow-days here!

We did end up with about 5-6 inches today… and it is still falling.