Ruminations on "snow days"

It's delightful to get an unexpected wondrous day of snow. It will probably turn out to be a five day break from the routine. Things are not supposed to get better with the snow tomorrow (if the weather forecasters are dependable) so there will be two days of school cancellation likely. Then comes the weekend, and guess what? Monday was a regularly scheduled school holiday for Presidents' Day.

Bingo, suddenly it is a five day gap in school. The plus side is that we will all get a chance to recharge, and in the depth of winter, that is a good thing.

The slight downside of all this? That probably won't occur to us until June when we are making up snow days. In the slightly oppressive 100 degree weather of mid June.

All things considered, I feel that our district was wise in calling school off early. I have already heard that some schools are going to be sending their students home in the middle of the day, some as early as 10:30. That is very difficult on parents who have already gone to work and then have to leave work to pick their little ones up or make arrangements for them to be cared for by someone else. I think that if the weather is snowy and it is projected to stay the same or get worse, it is wise to cancel school and make it up later.

It is going to make things challenging for us in advanced Ad Design though. We need to finish our projects by next Tuesday at the latest, so it will be a late night Tuesday night. I will have to stay there as long as necessary until I get the students to finish their work. I am very sad that we are losing time in class for the sake of the kids. I don't remember this ever happening right at the time that we have projects due for District. It will be a trick to get them all finished! A good challenge for us...

Snow is gorgeous. I am so happy to see the lovely whiteness covering our yard. Right now, the snow is coming down out of the sky in gorgeous big puffy pieces, it looks like Colorado. The best part is that it is still. No wind, no extra rain. Just the still, quiet snow. The whole neighborhood is blanketed and it reminds me of times in Kansas when it snowed when I was a little girl. I would go out and play in the snow so long that I was numb to the cold and it turned my nose and cheeks bright red and I wanted to stay out longer than my mom thought wise. I kind of wish I still wanted to get that cold, but age has taught me it is much more prudent to watch the snow from my doorstep holding a nice hot cup of coffee. (It keeps the old nose and cheeks nice and warm!)

Still, even if I have passed the point in my life where I want to be outside having a snowball fight, I still love to have an occasional snow day. I will venture outdoors with my camera later in the day, and I will have some snow photos to share. That is always a part of what I love so much about seeing the snow, it is such an opportunity to photograph something that we just don't see so often in this state. I know that the snow causes the world to slow down a little, and that is not only nice, but necessary every so often. Maybe snow is God's way of saying, slow down and relax a little. I like to think that anyway.