Kathleen Smith's Blog, page 14

Daughter on Your Wedding Day

Dear Daughter,

Your wedding day will soon be upon us. It will be a day filled with much joy and excitement. A day where family and friends will gather together to watch you walk down the aisle on your dad’s arm to your soon to be husband. A day that will be filled with lots of wonderful memories to look back on.

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I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you face to face, but I quickly realized all I would do is cry. So I decided instead to write you this letter. I can remember so clearly as if it was yesterday the morning you were born. I waited patiently for the nurse to gently hand you to me as she told me I had a baby girl. Oh, how happy I was to find out I had a baby girl! From the moment she put you in my arms until this day I have loved you beyond words. I was so nervous when you were first born. I was scared I would somehow do something wrong. Until one day I was given some advice. I was told to have fun with you and everything else would fall into place. I took that advice and I did have fun with you.

I had the joy of watching you crawl for the first time and I had the joy of watching you take your first step. I held you in my arms when your first tooth was coming in and you weren’t feeling good from it. I held you as often as I could for as long as I could. I knew one day you wouldn’t want to be held anymore. I knew you would want to spread your wings and see how far you could go. So I held you for as long as I could while I could.

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I remember when you were little we would watch Winnie the Pooh together along with Arthur, Mulan and all those other Disney Princesses. I may have sometimes acted like I didn’t want to watch the princesses with you, but the truth is I had fun sitting there with you watching them. Eventually you became a teenager and we found mocha muffins at PriceChopper. It became this thing with us, whenever we went to that store we bought two mocha muffins, one for each of us. We enjoyed eating them together when we got home. Usually while we watched some TV.

Before I knew it you were graduating from High School and heading off to College. That was hard for me. I didn’t want to show it, but boy was that hard for me. The first time your dad and I dropped you off for your first year I cried on the way home. I did eventually get used to you being away from home, but I always loved it when you came back.

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Well now you’re getting married and you won’t be coming back home. You will have the joy of living with your husband instead. I know we will still get to see each other. And I know things will be different, but you will always be my baby girl. I want you to know how proud I am of you and all you have accomplished. I want you to know how much I love you. I want you to know I think, no I know you will be a great wife. And I know you will make a great mom one day too.

I also want you to remember your wedding vows every day. I want you to remember that marriage is an equal partnership. You both need to give one hundred percent. Marriage isn’t 50%/50% it’s 100%/100% never forget that. Remember to love your husband and cherish him. Remember to stay by his side in good times and in bad times, in sickness and in health. Sweetie, I can promise there will be good times as well as bad times. And there will be sickness in between the health. Be there for each other. Lean on each other. Talk with each other. Most importantly keep your eyes focused on God together during your marriage. Remember to pray with each other. Remember to read your Bible together. When the two of you get into a fight make sure you talk it out completely. And ALWAYS make sure you tell each other how much you love one another after that fight. DON’T walk away mad at each other.

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On your wedding day your fiancee will become your husband. After your married he will become not only your husband, he will become your best friend. The person you rely on for everything. And eventually you will both know each other better then anyone else will know you.

 

Love Always,

Mom

Five Guys for Mother’s Day?

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Mother’s Day is the day families love to gather together to have a BBQ. This is the day that mom’s are celebrated. A day where children of all ages remember their mom’s and give them cards, flowers, chocolates and more.

 

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Most if not all mom’s enjoy this day and love that family BBQ. For years I was the same way. I enjoyed going over to my in laws house and eating BBQ with the family. My own children would always have something special for me that morning. And I would always make sure I at least sent my mom a card and called her that day. The years I didn’t send my mom a card was the years she and my dad came for a visit.

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All that changed for me four years ago when my mom passed away. I found celebrating Mother’s Day to be difficult. I wasn’t enjoying the BBQ’s anymore and seeing those Mother’s Day cards in the stores hurt. What I needed instead was to be kept busy.

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So each year now that’s what we try to do. My husband and I pick a place to go and we keep me busy. This year as odd as this might sound, I had decided I wanted Five Guys for lunch and then I wanted to walk around the mall. When I made this suggestion to my husband he was all for it. Even my youngest was looking forward to Mother’s Day lunch this year.

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My Five Guys plan however changed when I received a text from my daughter’s future mother-in-law. She invited our family to their house for a family BBQ. I didn’t know what to do, so I talked with my husband. I was torn between Five Guys and a family BBQ. I know that sounds odd. Since I get along well with my daughter’s future in-laws and it would be nice to spend the day with her I decided to give these family BBQ’s another try. I think it will be fun. And I know I will have some good laughs with my daughter’s future husband and his family.

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My husband and kids still give me presents for Mother’s Day and I’m thankful for each one. I still appreciate them thinking about me on this day and enjoy my time with them. At the same time they know how much I miss my own mom.

With all that said Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there. I do hope you all have a great day.

 

Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger. Her books among them Good-bye Brooklyn Hello Upstate can be found on amazon and the Kindle Unlimited.

Upstate New York and its Wacky Weather

I live in a land where the weather never seems to be able to make up it’s mind. A land where instead of having Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, it feels more like Winter and Summer. Where is this land might you ask. It’s called Upstate New York!

 

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You would think that in Upstate New York it would feel like Winter in the Winter time and Spring in the Spring time….. You would think wouldn’t you. I mean that seems pretty obvious to me, and I would imagine to other as well. However, in this great land of Upstate New York that doesn’t seem to be the case. Yes Winters here can be extremely cold. So cold that even at times I can’t stand it and I LOVE cold weather. But -2 degrees is even to cold for me. On the other hand our Summers are to hot. At least for me they are and very, very humid.

 

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Funny thing about the weather here though when it comes to Spring. You know in April when it’s suppose to start to get warm, yeah that month. Yeah, the weather in Upstate New York has it’s own wacky idea of what the temperature should be. The month of April where everyone is waiting to start wearing their short sleeves again. That’s the month that loves to laugh at people. Why? Because instead of getting warm out it stays COLD. You can almost hear the snow flakes laughing at people as it falls from the sky saying “HA you thought it was suppose to get warm? I’m sticking around for a bit longer!” And it can easily snow in these parts until the very last day of April. And people are worried about global warming! Yeah right, they should try living in Upstate New York. I think they would quickly changed their minds.

 

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It seems like the warm weather here doesn’t decided to show it’s face until May. The only problem with that is, at least for me, it feels like it goes straight to Summer instead of Spring and then slowly working it’s way towards Summer weather. If you live in Upstate New York you know what I mean about it’s wacky weather. If you don’t, trust me — or come see for yourself.

 

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Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger in upstate New York. She blogs at KathleenSmith.org and her books are available on Kindle Unlimited.

Upstate New York and it’s Wacky Weather

I live in a land where the weather never seems to be able to make up it’s mind. A land where instead of having Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, it feels more like Winter and Summer. Where is this land might you ask. It’s called Upstate New York!

 

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You would think that in Upstate New York it would feel like Winter in the Winter time and Spring in the Spring time….. You would think wouldn’t you. I mean that seems pretty obvious to me, and I would imagine to other as well. However, in this great land of Upstate New York that doesn’t seem to be the case. Yes Winters here can be extremely cold. So cold that even at times I can’t stand it and I LOVE cold weather. But -2 degrees is even to cold for me. On the other hand our Summers are to hot. At least for me they are and very, very humid.

 

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Funny thing about the weather here though when it comes to Spring. You know in April when it’s suppose to start to get warm, yeah that month. Yeah, the weather in Upstate New York has it’s own wacky idea of what the temperature should be. The month of April where everyone is waiting to start wearing their short sleeves again. That’s the month that loves to laugh at people. Why? Because instead of getting warm out it stays COLD. You can almost hear the snow flakes laughing at people as it falls from the sky saying “HA you thought it was suppose to get warm? I’m sticking around for a bit longer!” And it can easily snow in these parts until the very last day of April. And people are worried about global warming! Yeah right, they should try living in Upstate New York. I think they would quickly changed their minds.

 

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It seems like the warm weather here doesn’t decided to show it’s face until May. The only problem with that is, at least for me, it feels like it goes straight to Summer instead of Spring and then slowly working it’s way towards Summer weather. If you live in Upstate New York you know what I mean about it’s wacky weather. If you don’t, trust me — or come see for yourself.

 

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Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger in upstate New York. She blogs at KathleenSmith.org and her books are available on Kindle Unlimited.

Ireland: Breakfast on the GO

If you’re anything like me you don’t like cooking when you’re on vacation. Especially if you’re a mom. You would much prefer to get something and go or go out to a restaurant. At least I don’t like to cook when I’m on vacation.

 

When my family and I went to Ireland two years ago we found some places where we could get some food, hop in our car rental and eat breakfast while we drove to our destination. Last Summer we did the same thing while we stayed in Ireland for five weeks.

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The main places we liked to stop at were Centra, Londis and Spar. All three of these places had hot foods we could eat in the car. They had sausage rolls, blood pudding, white pudding, potato wedges and a bunch of other foods to eat. A lot of it you could get 3/€5 or 2/€3.

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Because of this and our family liking a lot of the same foods, we would do that and share it all. Oh by the way the coffee was pretty good in these three stores as well. Ireland seems to have an abundance of self serve coffee machines in gas stations that work very well. (Better than here in America)

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The one week we stayed in Dingle we stopped at a Moran’s which had the same type of food plus croissants. And their coffee was pretty good too.

 

I would have to say though that to much of that “on the go” food is on the greasy side so be careful what you choose or after a while you do need some gas-x or something to relieve your stomach from some of the gas pains you might end up feeling (I know this from experience).

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With all that said though I can tell you the sausage rolls, croissants and other items do make for tasty food on the go and the price is reasonable.

Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger from upstate New York. Her books are available on all e-readers and can be ordered from any bookstore on paperback. Her Podcast “Kathleen’s Korner” focuses on Ireland and other travel items.

Upcoming Blog Topics:

Planning a Trip to Ireland for under $2,000
Getting Around Dublin
Preparation for an Ireland Trip
AirBnB tips for Ireland
Free and Discounted Sites to see in Ireland

Step by Step–Planning a Trip to Ireland for Under $2,000 for Two People

Guest post by Andrew Smith (Kathleen's husband)

Today is Saturday, April 21, 2018. I’m going to walk through how I would plan a trip to Ireland in the next few months. I’ve had people ask about cost and method, so I thought the easiest way to do this would be walk through it.

Some assumptions:

Flexible Schedule
You can drive manual (stick shift) car
7-11 days of time
Live within a few hours of the New York City area

 

Airfare

 

My go to tool for airfare is Google Flights. If you can be flexible with your dates you are going to save the most money. However, I always purchase through the actual airline, not through Google or Expedia or a similar service. I’m going to use Google Flights to find the best price. Then I will check a few discount airlines to compare, and then check the actual airline Google Flights recommends on their website.

First, let’s use Google Flights to find some good dates. I specify New York City as the departure location and Dublin (and possibly Shannon) as the destination.

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Then I click the calendar to try and find a good date/price range. When looking at the calendar you will get an idea of the prices and can browse through the months to see where the best price is.

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There are some low prices shown, but this includes some discount airlines with some gimmicks you may not want. For instance, WOW Airline has a great price– $350 round trip. However, note the stopover in Iceland for a day. They charge little so they encourage you to spend a day touring Iceland. If you are up for this, give it a shot. 

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WOW being a discount airline also will charge for meals, luggage and seat selection.

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I’m going to ignore WOW.You can eliminate WOW from your search on Google flights if you like. I’ll check some discount airlines later on. I’d rather fly a mainline airline like Delta, but Aer Lingus has some great prices.

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This is for Monday April 30 – Wednesday May 9th. Aer Lingus is also a type of discount carrier, so I went ahead to the Aer Lingus website and used the same dates but selected the fair that included luggage, meals and a seat selection. At this point it is at $424 round trip per person. That’s pretty good!

I really like Delta so a final check I make is for the same dates at the Delta website. Unfortunately I’m so close to those dates that I get no good price with Delta. I used their flexible grid search and went out to late June — I did see some good prices there.

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Delta for $516 isn’t bad, and if you sign up for some of their promotions/credit card deals you can save another $100 or so usually. (Depending on promotion) — so for two people you are getting round trip for about $50 more than Aer Lingus.

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Another tip, go to the Aer Lingus website and check out their prices from Hartford airport (BDL)– For me it’s closer than New York City. I actually found it for $424 from Bradley on Aer Lingus.

As a final step I want to see if Norwegian Air out of Newburgh can do cheaper than $424 for a comparable fair.  Turns out in this case I can get a better deal:

 

So we will fly out of Newburgh (Stewart Airport) for $369 per person.

 

Here is my itinerary so far:

Mon April 30 – Wed May 9 — $738 ($369 each) for 2 People from Newburgh, NY to Dublin via Norwegian Air.

 

 

Renting a Car

Next, let’s talk about transportation. I love using Expedia for this.

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A small car is nice in Ireland. So I’ll take the first one I see.

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That is $139 for 8 days of a car. You can’t get a much better deal than that.

Be warned they are going to want to charge you a lot of extra for insurance when you get there– and only certain credit cards will work in Ireland for car insurance. That’s a whole other topic. But before you go make sure you can use your credit card for insurance. (The Amazon Prime Visa does this, but you have to get a letter from them before you leave in order to make sure you don’t get charged extra by the rental agency).

An Automatic Transmission is going to double that cost of a car rental.

Hotel/Air BnB

I’ll use AirBnb for the housing. Somewhere near Dublin would be nice.

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Let’s go with the $66 a night one.

When booking on AirBnB read all the reviews before you book. This will give you a great idea of what you are getting into.

8 nights, let’s call it $600. Of course in reality you probably want to pick two or three different places across the country to spread out your trip.

Final Budget

So here is my final budget:

Airfaire:
$738


Car:
$139


House:
$600

 

That’s $1,477 to get you there and let you stay. Now it’s a question of what you want to do and eat. If you want to you could get by for another $500 for the entire time…. we will write another time about how we eat ‘on a budget’ and different tips for things to see in Ireland.

 

There are some extra fees, like airport parking if you can’t get a ride–  for Newburgh Stewart Airport this could be $50 – $90 total.

 

Upcoming Blog Topics:

Breakfast on the Go for cheap in Ireland
Getting Around Dublin
Preparation for an Ireland Trip
AirBnB tips for Ireland
Free and Discounted Sites to see in Ireland

Podcast: Kathleen’s Korner

About a year or two ago my husband and I had a podcast. We talked about this that and the other thing. Eventually we stopped doing it and that was that.

Recently I thought it would be nice to start my own podcast. I decided to call it Kathleen’s Korner because I thought it hand a nice ring to it. And I thought using a K instead of a C was cute. I thought maybe if I could get my name out there then people would be more interested in my books and blog. I figured people like to listen to podcasts when they’re driving. I know my husband does and I tend to listen to them as well.

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Then I needed to figure out what people would listen to. What do I know about that others don’t. That’s when my husband suggested I do a series on Ireland. The places we’ve been. The things we did. Where we stayed. The different stores we liked to shop at…

So that’s what I’m doing for now. Each one of my podcasts right now are about Trim, Ireland. Where we shopped for food. Where we got our coffee. Trim Castle itself. The list goes on and on. When I’m done letting everyone know about the different places in Trim then I will talk  about Dublin and Belfast.

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After that, well there is England, France and Italy. I’m looking forward to making these podcasts and I’m hoping my listeners will enjoy what I have to say. Maybe they will even learn something about these Countries they didn’t know before. I’m also hoping I will get a nice amount of subscribers to my podcast and my blog.

For me it is a learning experience. I appreciate your patience listening. I hope to get better at it as time goes on.  Most importantly I am having fun and sharing something I enjoy. You can listen below.

 

Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger — she posts her weekly thoughts at KathleenSmith.org, her books, including Miscarriages: My Story, are available for order wherever print or e-books are sold.

 

 

Trim Castle on Kathleen’s Korner

A Surprise Weekend Getaway

It’s Spring break. A week to enjoy time off from school. Both kids and adults look forward to this week. It’s a time for sleeping late and staying up late. For a lot of people it’s a time to get away. For me I thought it was going to be a boring week at home. I had no plans other then cleaning the house.

Then I found out my husband planned a surprise weekend getaway for the two of us and our youngest. I kept trying to guess where we were going, but he wasn’t going to let me know if I guessed right. So Thursday we packed our bags, loaded my Fiat 500 and we took off. Man, that car is fun to drive! My husband and I took turns with driving.

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Our first stop was Washington DC. It was was dark out by the time we got there. This made it difficult to see the cherry blossoms, but we did see them and what we did see was pretty. We saw some of the memorials with the Lincoln Memorial always being my favorite.

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Friday we spent the day in Colonial Williamsburg VA. We enjoyed walking up and down the streets. Going into some of the shops and taking the tour of the Governors Mansion. I would have to say Williamsburg is a lot nicer to visit in April then it is in July or August. It’s nowhere near as hot and not nearly as crowded.

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Saturday we started our journey back home. The traffic was horrible which made us lose time which prevented us from going to a market place in Pennsylvania. But we did get to visit Arlington National Cemetery and we did see the tomb of the unknown soldiers. That was something my husband and I have been wanting to do for a long time. We also had the honor and privilege to watch the changing of the guard. That was rather impressive.

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We ended our weekend getaway with some time walking around Manhattan, getting some gelato at Eataly and burgers at a corner burger place in Times Square. We also went to the auto show at the Jacob Javits Center.

Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger — she posts her weekly thoughts at KathleenSmith.org, her books, including Miscarriages: My Story, are available for order wherever print or e-books are sold.

Taking the Faith Test

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of thing not seen. Hebrews 11:1

For the last couple of weeks I have been feeling down. I’ve been stressed. I’ve been worrying about this that and the other thing. And there are some things that have been getting to me that I won’t mention in this blog. I hope to in another blog down the road sometime, but for now that stays with me.

I also haven’t been faithful about going to Church on Wednesday nights like I usually do. I’ve either been tired or not feeling good so I would stay home. Or I would ask my husband if he wanted to go and he would say “not really, how about we stay home this week”. So we stayed home. Instead of going to Church we would go to bed early and when it was time to pray we would pray together.

But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6

All this may sound ok to you, but I realized today it isn’t. Last night, Wednesday night I asked my husband once again if he wanted to go to Church. He wasn’t sure which is when I told him I thought we should go. We knew we hadn’t been to Church on a Wednesday in weeks and there was something telling me we should go. That night, last night our Pastor read from the book of Hebrews chapter 11. The faith chapter. As I kept hearing by faith this person did this or by faith that person did that and the list goes on, I realized I was lacking in my own faith.

It had hit me that I haven’t been doing a good job with my personal devotions and I haven’t read my Bible on my own in who knows how long. Yeah, I pray every day for my food and every night before I go to bed with my husband. But I realized these prayers have been the same for who knows how long. It’s like listening to a recording. And really who wants to listen to a recording over and over again. I know I wouldn’t.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17

Today I also realized that all the different things that are going on in my life right now that have me stressed I’m trying to deal with on my own. Yeah, I’ve been asking God for help, but I haven’t actually given it all to Him. I honestly think I’m being tested by God with all that is going on to see how I will deal with it all. Will I have faith and trust in Him? Will I give it ALL to Him to take care of? Will I remember He is in control and will take care of me? Will I put a smile on my face and say “Okay God your putting this storm in my path please help me to trust and have faith in you to see me through this”? An even better question will I get back to doing my devotions and reading my Bible on a daily basis so I can strength my own spiritual growth?

The answer to all these questions is….. Well now that I realize all this I’m hoping I can turn it all around. I want my faith in my God to be stronger. Storm or no storm I know I need to rely on Him. I need to do my devotions. Not just to do them, but to get into them and apply them to my life. I need to keep my faith in God strong because without Him every day is a struggle. With Him I can’t do what needs to be done. Without Him I can’t be a good wife, a good mom or a good anything for that matter.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. James 1:3

 

Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger — she posts her weekly thoughts at KathleenSmith.org, her books, including Miscarriages: My Story, are available for order wherever print or e-books are sold.

Facing My fears

This week has been a struggle for me. I live in Upstate New York where it snows A LOT. We tend to get snow storms here. I like to watch the snow falling from the sky, but that’s about it. Driving in it for me is a no no. I have a bad record when it comes to driving in snow. It doesn’t matter what car or SUV I’m driving. The snow and I don’t get a long. If you’ve read my book Good-bye Brooklyn Hello Upstate then you will know how bad I am at driving in the snow. If you haven’t read it yet, may I suggest you read it and then you can find out for yourself. And yes I am shamelessly promoting my book in this blog.

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Where we live our schools have snow days. I like those days because I don’t have to worry about driving in the snow. Then there are days when it doesn’t look nice out, it’s snowing and there is still school. I dread those days. I do my best to get my kid to school on those days. More often then not I do a good job. I don’t like doing it, but you do what you have to do, right? Well usually anyway!

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Tuesday of this week the snow was bad. Bad enough that there were some school delays and such. Bad enough that I couldn’t see much past our property so I had to judge whether or not it was worth it to drive in that weather. My husband and I both agree it wasn’t so it was a snow day for us. I was really hoping Wednesday was going to be a better day. Unfortunately it wasn’t. The road in front of my house didn’t look bad so I started driving my daughter to school.

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Things were going ok until we just barely left our local town. I have no idea what happened with my explorer, it’s tires and the road, but all of a sudden it went out of control, across the road and into a snow bank. Thankfully some how I was able to avoid driving into the building I was heading towards. And some how there was hardly any damage done to my car. It’s possible I hit an icy patch with out realizing it. It’s also possible my tires went air born in the slush and all that. There are to many possibilities right not to say for sure what happened. And since it all happened so fast I’m not sure of anything at this point. By the time the tow truck came and got us out of the snow and I slowly drove us back home, I was a shaking nervous wreck who started crying. That accident that could have been way worse got to me so badly. Crying was all I could do.

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Thursday morning came along, it wasn’t snowing and the roads actually looked good for the most part. Problem is I was EXTREMELY nervous about driving.  I didn’t want to but I new I had no choice. This is where I had to face my fears. This is where I had to get back into that explorer and take my daughter to school. I was shaking the entire time. I made sure to go slow. Probably slower then I really needed to, but I was good with that. The roads were a bit wet, but not like Wednesday. Facing this fear was by no means easy for me. If anything I feel like it just proves how bad of a driver I am when it comes to snow and possibly slush.

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I can’t tell you when this fear will go away. I am hoping soon. For now I have no choice, but to keep facing it and praying God will watch over me. I suppose on the bright side it has been over four years since I got myself stuck in a snowbank or a snow drift.