The Weather

Sharon is a ton like her brother. They love to listen to the police radio (I just don't get that!), watch the news (also don't get it...I hate watching all of the bad news; BRING ON the good news!) and loves to watch and analyze the weather. It's one of those things that I find I have to take deep breaths and just be patient...or tune out...I am getting much better at tuning out :)

But weather in Illinois is obviously much different than weather in California. Sharon has lived in many different places actually, so she has experienced some snow and some cold weather. Generally it has been short-lived. So snow this year was a bit of a fascination for her..until she had to go outside and help her brother shovel it.

She likes to help, so it isn't that she was not willing to help shovel (awesome for me!), but it is more that she watched to see what my husband was wearing and then would just wear the same. BZZT, wrong answer!

My husband has a heavy, thermal sweatshirt that he wears nearly 100% of the winter no matter how cold it is. Sometimes he layers under it, but much of the time he doesn't because he is a big guy and doesn't necessarily feel the cold in the same way as a smaller person might. Sharon's similar sweatshirt is for those in-between days. Totally not adequate for the cold. So imagine her surprise when she walked outside in the sweatshirt and was blasted with frigid temps and snow. Yipes!

This has been another challenge with her...thinking for herself...making the right choice. Mom generally told her what to wear too (also when to go to the bathroom, what and when to eat, the time, etc...my eyes just bug out thinking of it all. How tiring for my mother-in-law...if only she had let Sharon try). So we struggled this year trying to get Sharon to look at the thermometer before she went out. We struggled with her to understand that a pullover sweatshirt likely was not going to keep her warm while she sat around the house (we keep the house at 64 degrees to save money...would have been cooler yet if Sharon wasn't home during the day). She needed to be layering. Gosh, I can't even begin to think how many times we had these conversations...STILL have these conversations. She's just not used to thinking for herself.

So besides the fact that she was fascinated with all the snow we had, how cold it got and how LONG the winter was. We now deal with her terror of thunderstorms. I mean as in, she is really afraid of them. I still remember the first time they visited Illinois from California. Mom and Sharon were sharing a bed in what was then the spare room. We had a thunderstorm and the next morning mom had said she didn't get much sleep because she stayed up to hold Sharon and rub her back.

Really?

Conversations with Sharon about independent living have included the fact that she is just going to have to get used to the storms. We have taught her to try counting from the time she sees the lightening to the time that the thunder strikes so she knows how many miles away the storm is. She said that doesn't work for her. I guess we need to be with her to make sure she is actually counting, trying. More likely she is waiting for someone to count for her. I mean, my five year old can do this.

Let me take a moment to apologize for my cattiness. This just gets a little frustrating. She most often just doesn't try.

Onward. We have also talked to her about the fact that, unless there is lightening, there is a great chance she is going to be outside in a storm while working at the garden center. We ask her, "What do you think is going to happen if there is thunder while you are working?" Her answer, "I'm going to run inside and hide." BZZZT, wrong answer. Our response, "Sharon, you will go inside only if the supervisor tells you it is time to go inside." Her response, "Oh maaaaan. I guess I have to get tough and get used to storms."

We haven't had a tough storm in our area of Illinois just yet. We have missed most of it. Only one lightening storm (of course it was the first storm of the season) and Sharon shut all of the blinds. Ummm, well, at least she stayed in the living room and didn't go cowering onto her bed.

But the next storm I encouraged her to look at the lightening and see how cool it can be streaking across the sky. She said she did (I was at work). I'm not sure if she did, but I hope so. Because storms are way more fascinating than a stinkin' police radio and bad news on the television!