Iced

We are now the proud owners of a backyard ice rink.  Constructed entirely by Joe.  We didn't even own skates before he built it and the kids had never skated before.  I saw something on a blog or the internet last summer and mentioned offhand to Joe that it would be cool to have a backyard ice rink, not thinking it would ever happen.  But one of the best things about Joe is that once he sets his mind to doing something, it. gets. done. He was dogged this fall, spending weekends shuttling back and forth to the home improvement stores, setting up a frame made of plywood.  When his dad came in October, they spent hours out there perfecting the plywood frame.  And then it was just a matter of waiting until it got cold enough to really keep it frozen.

In a weather twist of fate this year, we had a crazy cold November and then one of the warmest Januarys that anyone can remember.  In mid-January, he filled it and we enjoyed an awesome day learning to skate on our own private rink.  That's day, singular, not days, plural.  After the initial feeling, freezing and euphoria of a rink in the backyard, we have had a few weeks of a pond and then a slushy mess.  The next day the temperature in Iowa got to 50 degrees, which never happens, and then stayed there. For weeks.  And went up to 58.  I think it might have been the warmest January of my life. We ended up taking the kids downtown to the outdoor ice rink for four weeks of lessons to get the basics.

Who would ever have thought I would be rooting for the return of cold temperatures?!  But it is back to the reality of a Midwest winter now and Joe was out there today with his homeboni (a true device--a home zamboni that he bought on the internet), resurfacing the ice and getting ready for the weekend.

I read a book recently called The Five Love Languages that talks about the different way people express their love for one another. One of the ways is through what the book calls acts of service, or doing things for other people, from paying the bills to cooking dinner to things like this backyard ice rink.  Acts of service is definitely one of the primary ways that Joe expresses love.  I am hoping the kids will remember skating on their own backyard ice rink when they grow up and how much work their dad put into it for them.