It’s 8 AM on the first back to school after winter break.
Here I am, sipping coffee in the quiet house, gazing outside into the oh so
cold morning (record breaking cold at that) and the kids, wait, the kids are
still upstairs asleep. Because of that record breaking cold, we get one more
day of winter break.
I’ve discovered there are two schools of moms out there when
it comes to snow days, cold days, weather days – no matter what you want to
call them – two schools exist. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure
this out, either, just take a look at Facebook. That’s where you’ll find the
pleas of the one group of moms begging the schools to take their children back,
“Why close schools in single digit weather, that’s babying the kids,” they cry.
Do they forget that not all kids get driven to school and some wait for the bus
(unattended) in the wee, cold, dark hours of the morning? Do they forget not
all southern kids have North Face jackets and enough winter gear to keep them
safe on that wait?
The other side consists of the moms who relish the time
their kids are home. They’ll bake cookies and create Pinterest worthy crafts,
or maybe take 6 girls out to lunch or have a football game in their basement
for the neighborhood boys, feeding them bowls of homemade chili. Or maybe some
make up this side who just want more day to sleep in, avoid the rush for a bit
longer and have another homework free night. Either way, they are the ones who
send their county thank you’s via Facebook when the school closing announcements
go viral.
So yes, another day of winter break. I love it when I’m up
first and can savor those few moments of sleeping kids and quiet house. Right
now, I climbed over boxes of Christmas decorations, remnant needles from the
Christmas tree and laundry baskets full of clean pajamas to get to my computer
without spilling my coffee. I’ll take this so called snowless snow day and
enjoy one last day of winter break. Maybe the girls will clean their rooms or
get an edge up on studying for what’s yet to come. Probably not. I doubt we
will make that Pinterest craft, either. Well, maybe Kiyah will…And those days,
even those snow days, of PBSkids and early bedtimes are long gone. There will
be dance class and swim practice tonight regardless of closed schools and
single digit temps. I’ll still have to hurry someone along and make sure bags
are ready for the early morning tomorrow. But one more day, ahhhh…..thank you!
I’ll still be a tiny bit sad when I look at the boxes of
Christmas decorations that it seemed we just took out. Will there still be
excitement next year to decorate and pull each ornament out of the box and hang
it on the tree? Sometimes I feel like time is a big game and we’ve got to learn
how to play it the best way, savoring all of that time in between turns, even
when it’s not your own or something exciting isn’t happening in the game. Time
goes so fast, just like winter break, so an extra few minutes to play is
welcome. They’ll get back to school, Moms, no matter which camp you’re in,
don’t worry.
And I love this quote, it’s been playing a lot in my head
these past couple of days as the holidays and 2013 have ended… as Dr Seuss
says, “"Don't cry because it's over.
Smile because it happened."
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