Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Snow Days and Dr. Seuss


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."

So you probably figured out I’m in school two of the winter storm days…I love an extra cold day with my girls at home.

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