Snow Days = Insanity

The meterologists said we had snow coming. The meterologists said we had a chance for a doozie of a storm. For once, the meterologists were right on. Darn it. Here's part of the advisory I read on a local news stations website this morning:

A winter weather advisory remains in effect until 3 pm cst this afternoon.

Ice accrual of up to two tenths on all surfaces, including roads, will create very dangerous driving and walking conditions, especially when hidden by a layer of snow. Total snowfall in the advisory area will range from 1 to 2 inches in the south to 2 to 5 inches in the north (Yep, we are north).

North winds increasing to 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts will create considerable blowing and drifting snow through much of the day, especially to the north, and result in low visibility and difficult travel. The wind will also likely add stress to power lines and trees branches that are coated in ice.

The above is why I sat there shaking my head at God this morning. I let Him know that weather like this, in my opinion, is not one of his better ideas. However, since He really rocked it out with things like flowers and newborn babies, I'll cut him some slack. I'm sure He appreciates that.

Winter storms cause dangerous driving. It causes those who have to work outside to risk hypothermia and/or frostbite. It causes the risk of heart attacks as some are shoveling. It can cause broken bones if someone falls (I broke 3 ribs falling on ice when I was in high school). And worst of all....

It causes school cancellations.

When my kids were young, hearing that school was cancelled sent them into mega-hyper mode as if someone flipped a switch. When they were really young I used to just tell them school was delayed. That made them happy, but they didn't spaz out on me. At lunchtime I'd tell them it was delayed again. I'd do that every couple of hours. Then at suppertime I'd say "looks like you won't be able to have it today after all" and they'd go all Tazmanian Devil on me....but at least I only had to deal with it for a couple of hours, instead of all day.

The year 2000 was one of the worst winters I can remember. We've had snowy winters and we've had looooong winters (last winter comes to mind pretty quickly). But 2000 was unbelievable. Snow was piled so high along the roadsides it was like driving through a tunnel.

Ashley & Chelsea were in 5th grade that year and Austin was in 1st grade. They missed a total of 3 weeks of school that winter due to bad weather. T-H-R-E-E W-E-E-K-S. Being a stay at home mom meant I had 3 weeks of kids stuck indoors. They missed the entire week right before Christmas break. Do you know how wired kids are the week before Christmas break?? Do you know how crazy those wired kids get when they can't get out to burn off any steam?

I thought I was going to lose my mind.

That was when I realized just how wonderful the internet could really be. I started looking up any and all craft ideas and games. We made a different craft every day. My favorite was when I had them string popcorn. That killed a good couple of hours. We made different paper and felt ornaments, pine cone bird feeders, paper plate wreaths, and ice cream cone Christmas trees. I also printed out dozens of pages for coloring and other activities (Christmas word searches, crosswords, etc).

I remember kissing the grass when it finally reappeared, which was in what.....August? Ok, I kid. It was maybe April, but by then it felt like we had been stuck indoors long enough for it to be August.

Nowadays snow days are much quieter. I went into Austin's room this morning and whispered "School's been cancelled for today". He whispered back "YES!", rolled over and went back to sleep.

I'm pretty sure we won't be making any cotton ball snowmen today.