Charlie stayed home from school today.  Lola woke up right around the prayer call this morning because the power cut out (why is it that our power cuts and yet the local places of worship can still blast that lovely call?) and she was scared.  As I was laying beside her, bringing comfort and safety with just the presence of my big, large self, I could hear Charlie coffee coughing in the other room.  Poor guy just couldn’t get a wink of sleep because of the constant hacking.  (how sad is it that I started typing coffee instead of coughing?  I have a wee bit of an addiction)

After getting Lola off to school, I went for a nap because I’m also feeling under the weather.  During my nap I had the most amazing of dreams. 

It snowed in the desert!  We were driving down the very steep hill towards town, and the snow was piling up on the road.  My thought was, “We don’t have all-season tires!  This is so dangerous!”  As it turns out, in reality, we do have all-seasons.  Who knew?  It’s good to know that even in sleep, it’s safety first for me!  We were driving along, and I had my window open.  Children were playing off to the side of the road – as usual – only instead of dust and garbage, they had beautiful, white snow to play with.  I marveled at how quickly these children picked up on how to play with the white powder, packing it together into a ball and throwing it at each other.  Two children took their aim and found their target – directly through my window.  I could have been upset about it, but just the magical-ness of the whole experience was so captivating, that it didn’t matter that ice cold water was soaking into my seat. 

Not sure where this dream came from.  Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic for experiences gone by with Christmas coming up, and knowing that the likelihoodof a white Christmas is close to 0%.  Maybe my mind subconsciously recalled winters past when I put on my winter coat over my covering this morning because it’s so cold (close to 16 degrees!  Don’t laugh! It’s chilly!).  Or maybe my mind is doing some symbolic linking as the big celebration approaches in the desert.  The one where a goat is killed in remembrance of the time God provided a replacement for the sacrifice of Abraham’s son.  Maybe I was thinking about the joy of children playing in the purity of forgiveness and God’s mercy.