Missing Michigan

It has been snowing here. Every day some snow. When we lived in Michigan, I expected snow every day for a prolonged period of time. Shoveling the drive and the walk to the mailbox was just one of the chores of the day. But this is Uniontown. Snow like this is unusual.

Since we are smack dab in the Appalachian Mountain range it is especially difficult to go anywhere with snow like this. School has been canceled for a week. I don't have school age children so I am unclear on today's plans for yellow busses on increasingly narrow hillside roads. I just know that I am able to get a dentist appointment easily because others have canceled their own.
So at home with two little ones we go about our every day with few changes

• Chris takes the van to work so I can have the four wheel drive, he who cares more for our safety than his own, sacrificially loving his family.
• we aren't outside as much, the snow to Abigail's waist, I insist on outdoors this afternoon even if it is just the driveway.

but life with two little ones doesn't change with the snow, before it snowed they filled home with voice, since then they fill home with voice.

This does though make me think of those we left behind when moving here. The friends, the church, the house all changed with the years we've been absent. And I miss them. I am not one to stay in touch. I have seasons when I try to keep those friendships as they were when we were in proximity. But I do a poor job of it. It isn't as if I don't want to be one of those women who have friends from all over, who email and facebook and letter write and make calls. I really do, but somewhere the time passed and the changes created in the passing of time become so overwhelming. I can't figure out what to say. It is almost as if we are starting over.

How do you stay in touch? What do you expect from your distant friends? Seriously, I really want to know.