All Good Things Must Come to An End

Thanks to a weather system that left us with a few inches of snow in our area we were out of school yesterday and today and have been enjoying some snow days. But the sun has been out a lot today and the roads are mostly clear so it seems we will be heading back tomorrow.

As I pleaded in an earlier post, don't laugh because we get out with just a few inches on the ground. It's not that we're looking for an excuse to be out of school, but rather that we are not well equipped to do much with it. Thus, it is safer to be out for a day (or two). With temperatures in the teens, I would hate to think of children freezing on a school bus that has become stuck in some ditch on a rural back road, waiting for a tow or replacement transportation.

I can't pretend that it's not fun finding out that you're out of school/work for a day, though. It's nice to have a day to just lay around and be lazy, play in the snow with the kids (although this snow wasn't so great for that. The wind was blowing so much while it was snowing here that the layer on the ground wasn't consistently thick, rather there were just large drifts in spots), watch movies, play games, eat some delicious soup and drink lots of hot chocolate.

Of course, if you really think about it we are not really getting any time off. The system in which I work and my kids attend have what are called "built-in days", meaning that we go longer each day to accumulate more days. That way, if we are out for inclement weather we don't have to make up that day. Unless, of course, we have already used up all our built-in days. Then it's into June we go, and that's not such a great thing!

One of the best descriptions I've ever heard of what it feels like to find out you're having a snow day is in an old episode of Designing Women called "Julia and Suzanne's Big Adventure". Mary Jo, in describing it to Anthony, mentions how excited she was as a child to find out Franklin Elementary was closed. I always thought this was neat because it was a reference to Annie Potts' hometown, Franklin, Ky., which is not too far from where I live. Potts was, of course, the actress who played Mary Jo. You can find this episode on YouTube. It just happens to be one of my favorites.

It's been nice to be home but I'm hoping we don't have anymore this week. John-Heath has his Christmas musical performance at school Thursday night and I would hate for it to be cancelled. He's playing Santa, you know. :>)