Exciting things are happening at our apartment this morning. By exciting, I mean that the world outside, overnight, has been transformed from a warm January in which I wear shorts into a crazy-cold February covered in a thick layer of ice, with more freezing rain still falling. Um, what? Did I mention I was wearing shorts, like, yesterday?
My sleep schedule is a little off right now, due to being sick and cranky and tired for the past five days. I pretty much just nap when I feel like it and to heck with trying to get in 8 hours at night. Kind of goes against my neurotic nature, but, oh my goodness, I've had some *awesome* daytime sleep in the last few days! So that's why I popped out of bed at 4:45 this morning for no apparent reason. Since I was up, it seemed like a good idea to check our school district web sites for delays/closures. Monkey Boy's district? Closed. My district? Closed. Not that I was going today, either way, still having no voice above a whisper. Not that I'm bitter. Anyhow, my husband's district? Still holding out hope that they could declare the world safe enough for students & staff to somehow get to their campuses. They're always the last district in our area to decide what to do. I can't decide if the superintendent is an optimist or grew up in Alaska.
I woke up my husband just enough to tell him the news (well, non-news, in his district's case) and then proceeded to turn off the alarm clocks. He snorted (or snored, I couldn't really tell if he was awake) and said he couldn't wait to see what time Monkey got up today. You see, Monkey, like many children, has a built-in goof-off-o-meter. On school days, when I try to get him up at 6:15ish am (his alarm clock goes off at 6:00) there is a great weeping and gnashing of teeth. He is small, sleepy and cranky. He cries. He yells. He claims he is "sick". Now, you may be thinking, okay, the kid doesn't like school. However, the same thing happens on weekends when we get up at 7:00 am for dance class on Saturdays and church on Sundays. Now church enthusiasm may be on-again, off-again, but this kid *loves* dance class, so I don't think it's a motivational issue. Again, it's that goof-off-o-meter. There appears to be something very satisfying about waking up very early, all on your own, and not having anything to do but irritate your parents for several hours hence. This is the kind of data I want to graph. Yes, I realize that makes me even more of a nerd, and I'm okay with that. I'm also working on a list of things Monkey needs to get done around the house after eating his cereal and watching Mickey Mouse club this morning. It's going to be one of *those* days. We're not going to all sit around and annoy each other today, something productive will happen!
A winter photo I took as a teenager in Oregon.Much less bi-polar weather there than in Texas!
How do you spend snow days with your family? Yes, I'm calling it a snow day, even though there's no snow, because inclement weather day just doesn't really roll off my tongue. My favorite snow day ever was on my "golden" birthday (when you turn the same age as the day of the month in which you were born). Being a Valentine's baby, that was when I turned 14, the only time it ever snowed in Portland on my birthday (during the time in which I lived there, anyway). My mom literally spent four hours slowly driving to my best friend's house and back so that she and I could hang out and build a snow fort and drink hot chocolate and basically goof off because there was NO SCHOOL ON MY BIRTHDAY!!! I remember the excitement like it was yesterday. A snow day is sometimes unexpected, but almost always a welcome reprieve from real life and exciting for kids of all ages. It can also be a compliment. On Ugly Betty, one of her love interests, slacker musician Jesse, calls her a snow day after she does something sweet for him. One of my favorite snow quotes is the following, by an unknown author: When it snows, you can do one of two things: shovel or make snow angels. I'm going to try to figure out how to get Monkey to do the latter today. Metaphorically, that is. You can't really make snow angels in freezing rain ;-)
For the record, my husband's district finally just decided to close. I guess the superintendent is from Texas, after all!
As a home-school, we still have school. The kids hate that--but I point out that they have flexibility throughout the school year that others don't. So when they're done with their work, they go out and enjoy the icicles and snow. When they were young, I'd let them meet up with public or private school students who had the day off, to sled or make snow angels.
ReplyDeleteWe have a variety of wintery weather here in the Midwest for our kids to experiment with.
Thanks for your comment on my "Keep Me" Review. I was laughing so hard when I read it! Isn't that picture funny? I definitely wear pants while wearing the Jordy Jacket! haha! Thanks for being a reader!
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