"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted", Aesop
We didn’t get the 24 inches of snow that were predicted. It was probably closer to 8. Not even close, but the ice, sleet, hail storm that followed was pretty bad. It was a good call to shut schools throughout the state. The roads are sheets of ice and now the question is…what about tomorrow? Delayed opening? Another snow day? My guess would be on delayed opening but teachers don’t find out any sooner than everyone else finds out so we will wait and see.
I have always disliked winter, which is why I have been so happy this year. Sixty degrees in February was bliss! It didn’t start to get cold until March and now, with just one week left until spring we are about to get hit with a blizzard.
A state of emergency has been declared. Schools are closed tomorrow. 18-24 inches are expected. I am hoping for a lot less. The shoveling is going to be rough. Fortunately Dave is off tomorrow so there will be some teamwork out there when it finally stops!
We have had one of these “monster storms” before. School was called early, state of emergency declared and poof it fizzled out. I don’t even think we got six inches. Maybe that will happen again.
With my class over and lesson plans all done for the week, I am looking forward to a lazy pajama kind of day. Binge watching shows I haven’t been able to keep up with is on my schedule. I got the ingredients to make a big pot of gravy – or sauce as my dad reminds me to call it.
I will take a snow day now and then. I just want this to be it for this school year. Hope the blizzard takes it easy on us…
Today’s photo prompt was GUILTY PLEASURE. As a teacher, I love a good snow day once in awhile so I guess my guilty pleasure is admitting that I enjoy it as much as the kids do! Although this time, I didn’t have to wear my pajamas inside out and backwards or sleep with a spoon under my pillow to make it happen. I didn’t need to this time because with this storm’s anticipated totals and wind gusts, we actually got the call last night! That rarely happens. No alarms to set, no early morning phone call to wake us.
In the end, we probably wound up with about eight inches. Not too much, but just enough. The wind has been brutal though. Normally on a snow day, you would find me outside taking lots of photos but other than shoveling and walking Emmy Lou (who hates it) I have not ventured outside much. The sun did peek out a bit for awhile but not for very long. During that time a huge flock of tiny birds filled my backyard. They were so noisy you could hear them above the wind. I knew they’d have trouble finding food today so I broke up some crackers and threw them into the snow.
I tried hard to get photos of them but couldn’t get close enough without scaring them away. They weren’t pretty colors and blended into the branches, but they were super cute. It was too cold to go out onto the lawn to try for more so this is the best I could do.
As of now, school is on for tomorrow. I wonder if we will have a delayed opening…
I am tired of the snow. It is March. Only a few weeks until Spring, yet today, we are snowed in once again this winter.
There is something about a snow day that I love though. All four of us, stuck in the house for the day. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. It was actually kind of nice. I made a big pot of chicken soup that cooked all day, we played board games, I got some lesson planning done. Productive in some ways, lazy in other ways but nearly a perfect day.
All four of us went out to shovel the driveway and along with our neighbors got in done in record time!! It wasn’t too heavy. It wasn’t too even too cold. The boys even played outside in the snow for while I grabbed some photos.
Back to school tomorrow….we think. It is still snowing! Hopefully roads are clear enough by morning to get everyone back to normal because one day of all four of us stuck in the house together was fun. Two days might be pushing it 🙂
The dreaded “S” word. Snow. It was expected today. Right around dismissal of school. I wasn’t looking forward to it. The Kindergarteners were though! Everyday we track the weather and graph it on our calendar and this morning as we added another “cloudy” to the board, they asked me if it started to snow during the day could we change it!?? It never happened and I can’t say that I am disappointed. We might still get some overnight but I don’t think it is expected to be so bad. This weekend is another story – a Nor’Easter they just announced on the news. I hope it doesn’t happen.
Today’s photo prompt was “Meal or Play?” I had no idea how to go about this one. Our dinner, albeit a delicious one, wasn’t really one that was worthy of photographing. I decided to go on the “play” side of the prompt and build my own snowman. Not out of the snow we never received, but out of fruit from the refrigerator instead. A snowman much more to my liking.
Today’s “impending snow storm” turned out to be little more than a mix of snow, rain and sleet. I was trying to come up with a good name for what it has created – a bit of a slurry I guess. It is not pretty. It is wet and gross out there. Just enough that we needed to shovel, (well….Dave did:) ) yet not enough to be able to go out and enjoy it.
This is not the kind of snow I look forward to and after last year’s numerous snow storms, I wasn’t very happy to see it arrive this morning. My Kindergarteners were though! The minute the first flake fell, they were planning their afternoon outdoor activities. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it wasn’t snowman or sledding snow like they all thought it was!
It is amazing how much joy snow brings to children while for adults, it is burdensome and rarely welcome. I will admit, that when that first white, fluffy snow storm arrives, handing us a snow day, I feel like a little kid too. Today, is not that day. While I do NOT wish for much snow this winter, one or two of those perfect snow days will be welcome.
For now, I am grateful that I am inside my warm home as I begin to prepare dinner for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast. I have nowhere to be, nowhere to go and on this cold, dreary day, it is exactly how I want it to be.
Another snow day here in New Jersey today. The snow began falling around 5 this morning and it hasn’t let up at all. After a weekend of weather with temperatures of nearly 50 degrees, I think a lot of us were caught off guard – even with all of the weather forecasters telling us it was coming. I thought for sure, if anything we might have an early closing but our superintendent made a good call closing for the entire day. Even the local roads can’t be cleared because the snow is coming down so hard! It hasn’t slowed down and it has been going on for over seven hours.
I have to admit it, snow days are great, at least with my kids at the ages they are. I am not sure if I’d be saying the same thing if they were little and I was spending my day entertaining them! Instead, they’ve been inside watching movies still in their pajamas. Midterms were last week so they are all caught up with homework and all of my school work was done so it really is a “do nothing” kind of day. The house is warm and I have dinner for two days cooking on the stove. A big pot of sauce for pasta and a shepherd’s pie. I have begun purging the den and that is always a good feeling. I just wish they could have been more spread out! Now that we have used up all of our snow days, any more will result in us having to give days back! We finally have a Spring Break vacation planned, so I am hoping that doesn’t happen!
I am having a great time following along with the weather comments on Facebook. Some people love this weather and others hate it. No matter what though, people find a reason to complain. There is nothing we can do about the weather. We cannot control it no matter the season. Last week when it was so dreadfully cold, I was trying to decide where I could move to where I wouldn’t have to deal with freezing temperatures. All of the places I came up with had their own downfalls. Too hot in the summer, earthquakes on the West Coast, hurricanes and tornadoes in other areas. I guess I will stick to New Jersey. At least I get to experience all four seasons no matter how drastic they might be.
In a little while we will go out and shovel and clear the driveway so that we can get out tomorrow. We will get it done just in time for the “next big storm” headed our way tomorrow night…and then another on the weekend…..I am ready to wave the white flag! We surrender!
I have to admit, I really do love a good snow day! Yesterday’s early dismissal wouldn’t count as a “good” snow day. We didn’t even all get in until after 3 o’clock so the day was nearly over. I wound up cooking a huge pot of pulled chicken which is a good dinner for our family since each of us could eat it the way that we wanted to. Other than that, we did not get much done. We couldn’t even get a head start on the shoveling because it was snowing so hard! There just was no point.
For me, a good snow day is one that is called the night before. No early morning phone call to wake us up. No need to set an alarm clock, no worrying about getting homework done since we already did it. A night where we can actually stay up late and watch a movie or play a game! Nowhere to rush to in the morning. Just a day where we could get up late, make waffles and get things done around the house! Staying in pajamas not having to get dressed to go out… It all sounds luxurious and self-indulgent!
For me the worst part of a snow day ironically is the snow! Sure it’s pretty when it is falling but cleaning it all up is the worst! I love the silence and the beauty of the snow but I really hate being cold…and I am always cold! I bring a sweater with me wherever we go, even in the summer. My youngest son loves the snow. He and Dave were out in it for hours today snowboarding on the big hill in town. Sledding was never a big thrill for me. Growing up, our house had a big hill in the front yard, but I think it took up more time to bundle up enough to go out and play, than it did to take the few rides down the hill before I’d be too cold and want to go back inside! I I have tried skiing, but for a girl who really dislikes the cold, I just did not find it to be much fun.
In reality though, all those thoughts of a relaxing, “never get out of my pajamas snow day,” didn’t really happen today. Even though the kids slept in, Emmy Lou woke us up early and since the snow was too deep for her to walk in, Dave had to go out and shovel a path while I carried her out to the street for her walk. I think she just might dislike the snow as much as I do! So much for staying in our pajamas! Since we were already outside we just decided to start shoveling the loooooong driveway. Fortunately, despite the snow being so deep, it was light so between us and the neighbor we got it done fairly quickly… and surprising us in another random act of kindness our other neighbor came over and let us borrow his snow-blower for the biggest part of the driveway. That made the job go a little more quickly than normal. We had the job done in less than two hours and by the time we went inside, Drew was awake and we did have those waffles for breakfast. A nice hot breakfast is something we don’t get to have often on school days, so that was a nice treat.
I decided to make a big pot of Braciole for dinner and invite my dad and brothers. Unfortunately we did not have all of the ingredients so I decided to brave the roads and go to the grocery store, (so much for not leaving the house!) Before I left I went on line and I saw that there was a class at Viva Z. I had assumed they’d be canceled. I never get to a morning exercise class and since I was going out anyway, I decided I would go. Another advantage having the day off!
The roads were much better than I expected them to be. On a sad note, I had TWO wakes that I needed to get to this afternoon. If we had been at school, I might not have been able to get to both of them. The snow day made it so that I could get to them both. After going through two of them ourselves last year, I know how important it is to the family to be there so I was glad to be able to have gotten to the both of them.
Even though the snow day that I had envisioned in my mind… staying home in my pajamas, snuggled under a blanket on the couch, watching senseless TV all day long…. didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to, it actually turned into a really productive day off. Now….we just cannot have anymore before it cuts into our scheduled days off! Even though it is only January, I am ready for the snow to be over. I wonder if we can get through the next few months without anymore!?!?
A Project for Kindness 