My husband, Charles Ingalls

BabyGirl is on the mend. That's the good news. The bad news? Because she's well, she doesn't want to do her homework. Instead she has the strenght to fight & argue about it. The TV is officially off until it's done. For our boob-tube addicted bunch, that's really saying something.

To top it off, we're going to get hit with a pretty big (for our neck of the woods) winter storm tonight. We're in the running for anywhere from a half inch of ice & 3 inches of snow, to a wintery mix, to 7 inches of snow. Yikes!! Pretty sure that means no school tomorrow...and yet again the OT will be put off.

The worst of the storm is supposed to hit about the time Husband is making his trip home from work. This makes me nervous. Always does. He drives a 1994 Ford Ranger that's on it's last leg. He has to drive more than 10 miles through the country to get home. All this happens between 11 pm & 3 am depending on the night.

B.B.'s first Christmas we got hit with about 8 inches of snow. It was powdery & the wind kicked in to create drifts 2-4 feet deep or more. I went to bed exhausted that night & worried about Husband getting home. Because B.B. was so little & I wasn't getting any sleep, I drifted off surprisingly quickly (which was a blessing). In the night, I heard Husband make a phone call. I was glad to know he was home, but was more than a little shocked at the idea of him calling anyone, ever, much less in the middle of the night.

I got up to see what was going on and realized it was nearly an hour & a half past the time he normally came home from work. He was just getting in the shower, so I knew he'd just come in the house. I asked him what was going on & he said he just wanted to call his mom & let her know he got home OK. They work together & she lives 1/2 a mile down the road, so I didn't understand why he needed to call her. "She's still at work. She decided to wait it out in the canteen until morning." I asked why she didn't ride home with him & he said, "Because I walked home from church." I nearly flipped out.

He had driven the 10+ miles to the town where we go to church & walked the last 4 home through the country (not a route he usually takes). The thought of him walking 4 miles through thigh deep snow in the middle of the night with windchills hovering just over zero was enough to make me more than a tad crazy! I was so thankful that I had not been awake 20 minutes earlier to find him not home yet. I would have panicked. He had prepared for his trek without telling me so I wouldn't worry. He had his coveralls & winter boots in the truck (he normally doesn't take either one with him much to my chagrin) along with gloves and a ski mask. He didn't think it was a big deal.

His mom wanted him to stay at work with her but he said there was no way he was leaving me and the kids snowed in alone over Christmas. He was getting home one way or the other. I'm only glad I knew nothing of it until he was safe at home. It reminded me of the Little House book (On the Banks of Plum Creek, QM?) when Pa got caught in town when the storm hit & he spent 2 days in a snow cave 1/2 a mile from the house eating the girls' Christmas candy.

Tonight I know he's prepared...and I'm still nervous. Lord, take care of him please. We need him around here.