On May snow days and frog rescue

Hey y'all.  Happy May!  I just love this time of year...the birds chirping, the flowers blooming, the sun shining, everything greening up, Mommy's day coming...

 

 ...the 6+ inches of snow that fell overnight... 

Note to self: next time you buy patio furniture, get the kind without cushions.

It sure is pretty, though. 

So this morning, the boys and I were out shoveling.  Why, you ask?  I mean, snow at this time of year melts within days--why bother?  Well, consider:

1. Our driveway is fairly long, as driveways go, and from the house, it goes down, curves to the left, and then goes up again to the road, fairly steeply
2. I am not a very confident driver.  I tend to go slow in snow, especially around curves like in our driveway, and although I have tried, I cannot for the life of me back-up our driveway (in other words, if I get stuck in the driveway, I really am struck until a better backer-upper happens along.  Or the snow melts.  You know, whichever comes first).
3. Hubby took the 4WD vehicle today.

All of which leads me to believe that I will not be able to get out of my driveway with my vehicle unless I shovel.  And even though I have nowhere to go (until 4:30), I do like knowing that I could go somewhere if I wanted.

And that was a nice side tangent, wasn't it?  Oh, why wasn't I snowblowing, you ask?  Well, my friends, this snow is too wet for the snowblower.  AKD tried, but didn't even get a full swath done before the chute clogged.  Bummer.

So, shoveling it was.  Well, OK, I was shoveling.  The kids were around the side of the house, where the pool is, being awfully quiet for a snow day.

I just went with it, because, you know, shoveling is my zen (by the way, our faithful friend is still with us).  Oh, maybe that should have been one of my bullet points up there: shoveling is zen.  And as a mommy to 3 boys, I don't get a whole lot of quiet.   

Anyway, turns out the boys were trying to rescue a frog that was clinging to some icebergs in the pool.  His throat was all puffed up to make his own personal floatation device, and he was hanging on for dear life.  Frogs are cold-blooded, remember, so with the water temp at right around 32 degrees, there wasn't a whole lot more he could do than that.  He must have thawed out from his frog-cicle hibernation when we hit 70s and 80s (just two days ago!) and then he was stuck when the weather turned cold again.

My boys, they have a special place in their hearts for frogs and toads (remember this?  And this?  We're going back there this summer), and if I'm being completely honest, so do I.  I have many fond memories of catching tadpoles and frogs and attempting to keep them as pets.

We just had to rescue the poor little guy.

 

And yes, I let them bring him inside to warm up.

 

They're already plotting ways to get me to let them keep him.  Oye.