This past week we have had our first snow that has stayed long enough to shovel. One of the favorite past times of all my kids is building snowforts. We usually shovel all the snow from the driveway onto the lawn and then the kids shovel the lawn into big piles. If you look back a few posts, you will see the picture of one of the finished snow piles. Well, this year I felt a forboding about the forts and talked to the boys about making sure the forts were safe. I even took them to the second hand store to buy a table to put up inside the fort to make sure it was okay. Yesterday, the boys were outside in the crazy three and four foot drifts, shoveling snow onto their forts. I felt like I had to be outside with them. So I shoveled the driveway, and sidewalk while they worked on their forts.
Our neighbor came across the street with a snowblower and went through our three foot drifts. I stayed outside after he was done, helping scoop out snow and fortify walls. When I could feel my legs no longer, I ventured back inside. I asked R to go back outside, but winter is not his thing. I left them out there by themselves. When the younger of the two came inside, I asked R to go outside and check on J-boy. He did and reported back that J-boy was in his fort and said he could get out anytime. Unknown to us, a few minutes later, the entrance to his fort collapsed and he was stuck inside. He had a little area with a lot of air, so he figured that he could break through the wall, but he didn't want to wreck the fort he had spent days making. So instead he was trying to dig back through his two foot long entrance with his hands. He finally got so cold that he decided to just sit there for awhile. About 30-40 minutes later, I asked R if J-boy had come back inside. When he told me that he hadn't I asked him again to go outside and check on him. I came to the door when I heard R calling and calling J. I asked if everything was alright and R replied that J was stuck inside. R was frantically digging at the entrance but didn't know how he could get in. I quickly threw on my boots and mitts and came outside, knowing exactly where everything was in the fort because I had been helping them build it. I was able to tear into the wall at the spot where J was sitting. He was very cold and pretty shaken up. He was moving pretty slow and not talking very well. We brought him inside and warmed him up. When he finally warmed up, he informed me he is NEVER going in a snow fort again. I told him that it is like falling off a horse, you need to get back on so that you can overcome the fear. But in the future, we will always keep someone outside of the fort anytime, one of them are inside the fort.
It was a very scary experience for him and for us. However, I was very thankful for the promptings that I had had this week and during the day yesterday that I needed to be careful of their forts. This story could have had a very different ending, but thanks to a loving Heavenly Father, we were very blessed.
Our neighbor came across the street with a snowblower and went through our three foot drifts. I stayed outside after he was done, helping scoop out snow and fortify walls. When I could feel my legs no longer, I ventured back inside. I asked R to go back outside, but winter is not his thing. I left them out there by themselves. When the younger of the two came inside, I asked R to go outside and check on J-boy. He did and reported back that J-boy was in his fort and said he could get out anytime. Unknown to us, a few minutes later, the entrance to his fort collapsed and he was stuck inside. He had a little area with a lot of air, so he figured that he could break through the wall, but he didn't want to wreck the fort he had spent days making. So instead he was trying to dig back through his two foot long entrance with his hands. He finally got so cold that he decided to just sit there for awhile. About 30-40 minutes later, I asked R if J-boy had come back inside. When he told me that he hadn't I asked him again to go outside and check on him. I came to the door when I heard R calling and calling J. I asked if everything was alright and R replied that J was stuck inside. R was frantically digging at the entrance but didn't know how he could get in. I quickly threw on my boots and mitts and came outside, knowing exactly where everything was in the fort because I had been helping them build it. I was able to tear into the wall at the spot where J was sitting. He was very cold and pretty shaken up. He was moving pretty slow and not talking very well. We brought him inside and warmed him up. When he finally warmed up, he informed me he is NEVER going in a snow fort again. I told him that it is like falling off a horse, you need to get back on so that you can overcome the fear. But in the future, we will always keep someone outside of the fort anytime, one of them are inside the fort.
It was a very scary experience for him and for us. However, I was very thankful for the promptings that I had had this week and during the day yesterday that I needed to be careful of their forts. This story could have had a very different ending, but thanks to a loving Heavenly Father, we were very blessed.
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