Snow Day Musings

As we approach our 3rd snow day in a row, let me take this opportunity to observe the following:

Snow days as a "single mom" of two preschoolers are vastly different from snow days as a single person!

When we first found out Andy was going overseas, I made a list of different activities the boys and I could do to keep busy.  It's amazing how only one change (the babysitter quitting) caused two other changes (a new daycare every morning, and a new preschool class every afternoon) that after only one week had us desperate just to stay home.  The list of activities was no longer needed.

And so, after three weeks of the new routine, the possibility of a snow day sounded pretty good.  The chance to stay home for a day, and avoid all the running around without any guilt for "skipping" preschool, was going to be good for us to catch our breath.

I was thinking back to my first year of teaching, when a snow day meant anxiously listening to the radio for the cancellation, calling my mom to see if she had the day off too, relaxing in my p.j.'s in front of the Today Show, drinking hot chocolate, and spending the whole day reading.  We had five such days in the first year of my career, but never three in a row!

Yesterday was my first official snow day as a mother of two.  We watched some TV, ate some junk food, and enjoyed not leaving the house.  Then came the second snow day.  And tomorrow another one!  The kids have really been pretty good; I'm the one who has the problem letting go of my plans to get a lot of cleaning done, or a lot of reading done, or even a lot of grading done.  It's taken two whole days to get two loads of laundry done, the house vacuumed and dusted, and half a book read.

It's all about perspective, and I need to get some.  Tomorrow my goal is to just do some fun things with the boys.  I'm sure I can accomplish it, and it's much more important than a clean house, anyway!