As I stare at the fire that was made in the fireplace, our only source of heat, I think maybe I won't hate winter so much after all. I have always had a deep-seeded resentment for the cold, bleak winter months. They represented death, sickness, and cold, cold misery. I have also never had a fire. No wonder so many songs of winter, and Christmas that we know and love contain some reference to fire. Primitive man wove the fabric of his existence around it. The Cherokee Indians knew that if they carried their fire coal on the trail of tears that their culture would not be snuffed out, but would endure. The fires of my youth are still etched in my memory. The stories, the snuggling, the s'mores....Ahh, and now I own my very own.
My husband gets up at 4am every morning and then makes coffee and then wakes me up at 4:30 to read the bible and have coffee together before he has to go and face the world inside of time. Our coffee maker broke last week and we have been forced to use a percolator that has to go on the propane camp stove that serves as our primary stove top. This is located outside. It has gotten down right cold here since the middle of last week. Plummeting to the oh so cold temperature of 48 degrees high. Oh you northerners may laugh at my chill point, but I am also a southerner through and through. I get cold when the temperature hits 65. Let alone when it goes from 70 to 48 in a matter of days. It is a different climate here, we live in an elevated valley in the Appalachians, but I just wasn't ready. I am just not used to this! My winter clothes are still lost to a box in storage.What is a girl to do? Get her husband to make her a fire!
So I have told my husband if he wants me up I need coffee and a fire.
This is how that request/demand goes:
Monday:
My husband: "Baby, its time to get up". Me: "coffee?" Hubby: "Uhh, was I supposed to do that?"
Me:"uuhhh, coffee..." I go back to sleep.
Tuesday:
Hubby: Baby, time to get up." Me: "coffee?" Hubby: Uhh, I don't know how to do that" I go back to sleep.O.k. this is getting rediculous. If it took me this long to get something through my head he would be pretty upset. But oh no, I am supposed to just get up without heat or coffee? How is a girl supposed to work under these kind of conditions!
Wednesday:
Hubby: Repeat of every morning. Me: "Coffee?" Hubby: "Oh yeah, got it on the stove. Fire going too." I crawl out of bed. Go out to the living room. Wait something is wrong, I am cold. No fire....No coffee...Hubby:" well since you're up, I can't find the percolator, and I swear there was a fire....."
I feel totally duped.
Well since I'm up I have no other choice than to find the percolator before my eyes involuntarily close again, and I run into a wall or something. Oh, there it is... on the counter... by the coffee....
Really,you couldn't find that? Well gotta love him.
So anyway, here I am now, warm and cozy with a roaring fire, a cup of hot coffee, sweet rolls in the convection oven, and a quiet house with everyone sleeping.
I don't initially like getting up, but I do like being up completely alone. There are precious few minutes of silence in this house. The older 3 boys will be up momentarily, wondering where is the coffee, Then they will go out and split wood or some other chore before they start school. Then Manny will be up groggy and blanket in hand wondering where is breakfast. Then the 3 girls will wander out with messy hair and curl up on the furniture and also wonder what is for breakfast. Then it will be time to get the animals fed and watered, the older boys fed and then school and housebuilding...you get the picture. But for now, there is nothing but silence. Blessed silence And my fire.
Just like my ancesters, the Cherokee, I will not be snuffed out, I will endure! I have fire!
My husband gets up at 4am every morning and then makes coffee and then wakes me up at 4:30 to read the bible and have coffee together before he has to go and face the world inside of time. Our coffee maker broke last week and we have been forced to use a percolator that has to go on the propane camp stove that serves as our primary stove top. This is located outside. It has gotten down right cold here since the middle of last week. Plummeting to the oh so cold temperature of 48 degrees high. Oh you northerners may laugh at my chill point, but I am also a southerner through and through. I get cold when the temperature hits 65. Let alone when it goes from 70 to 48 in a matter of days. It is a different climate here, we live in an elevated valley in the Appalachians, but I just wasn't ready. I am just not used to this! My winter clothes are still lost to a box in storage.What is a girl to do? Get her husband to make her a fire!
So I have told my husband if he wants me up I need coffee and a fire.
This is how that request/demand goes:
Monday:
My husband: "Baby, its time to get up". Me: "coffee?" Hubby: "Uhh, was I supposed to do that?"
Me:"uuhhh, coffee..." I go back to sleep.
Tuesday:
Hubby: Baby, time to get up." Me: "coffee?" Hubby: Uhh, I don't know how to do that" I go back to sleep.O.k. this is getting rediculous. If it took me this long to get something through my head he would be pretty upset. But oh no, I am supposed to just get up without heat or coffee? How is a girl supposed to work under these kind of conditions!
Wednesday:
Hubby: Repeat of every morning. Me: "Coffee?" Hubby: "Oh yeah, got it on the stove. Fire going too." I crawl out of bed. Go out to the living room. Wait something is wrong, I am cold. No fire....No coffee...Hubby:" well since you're up, I can't find the percolator, and I swear there was a fire....."
I feel totally duped.
Well since I'm up I have no other choice than to find the percolator before my eyes involuntarily close again, and I run into a wall or something. Oh, there it is... on the counter... by the coffee....
Really,you couldn't find that? Well gotta love him.
So anyway, here I am now, warm and cozy with a roaring fire, a cup of hot coffee, sweet rolls in the convection oven, and a quiet house with everyone sleeping.
I don't initially like getting up, but I do like being up completely alone. There are precious few minutes of silence in this house. The older 3 boys will be up momentarily, wondering where is the coffee, Then they will go out and split wood or some other chore before they start school. Then Manny will be up groggy and blanket in hand wondering where is breakfast. Then the 3 girls will wander out with messy hair and curl up on the furniture and also wonder what is for breakfast. Then it will be time to get the animals fed and watered, the older boys fed and then school and housebuilding...you get the picture. But for now, there is nothing but silence. Blessed silence And my fire.
Just like my ancesters, the Cherokee, I will not be snuffed out, I will endure! I have fire!
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