Pondering with a Purpose - Winter Solstice

Thursday is here and it is the first day of my vacation - 12 days off of work - was supposed to be 11 days but I ended up taking an extra one! Being that its Thursday it's time to do a little "pondering" with Brenda from Fiction with a Purpose.

Her rules are really easy:

1. Grab the Pondering with a Purpose Badge (in her sidebar)
2. Look at the week's prompt
3. Post something on your blog that relates to the prompt - it can be a story, a poem, a picture -- anything you want it to be.
4. Go back here and add the URL from your post to the linky list on Brenda's.
5. Go check out the other bloggers who have added their links to the list.
6. AND most of all.... Have fun!

So this week the subject is:  Winter Solstice

I love reading Brenda's posts because it seems that our lives have gone in basically the same directions. Today however, our memories of the short winter days are somewhat different. When my kids were little I lived in town and my house was basically "Grand Central Station" for all the neighborhood kids which I didn't mind at all because I always knew where mine were and what they were doing. The main reason I moved to the country was because when the kids got to the high school years I basically had no privacy at all. I had 2 of my sons friends who were "dating" and their parents didn't approve so they would meet at my house. I tried to stop it but these kids were like my own - had grown up being at my house all the time. They would be there when I got home from work - and I HAD to work.

But that is another story. Back to the winter solstice - In the winter there was no "outdoor" playing and I would have all these kids in my house EVERY night. I think I fed at least two extra kids every night for about 6 years. Not that I minded but as any single mother knows, sometimes it's tough making ends meet. But we made it through and although I sometimes felt that I was losing my sanity, it is now a good memory. They were all good kids. The boys would even have the snow shoveled from the drive to the house when I got home. Then they'd be in my son's room "building" something or making circles through the house with their cars and trucks. The girls spent time in the kitchen - but mostly in front of the mirror "fixing" their hair or trying on clothes. The house was never quiet. Unlike now - my house is VERY quiet and I really miss those years.