The school district phone call woke me up at five, as my cell phone by the bed rang. Two hour late start due to snow and no preschool. Five minutes later the home phone, which is also forwarded to my cell phone rings, same message. Husband is just getting out of the shower so we briefly converse about the school change. I tell him to drive safe and he heads out to work.
I get up at six, feed the dogs, let the cat who is not our cat in from the cold, drink a cup of coffee and check my email. The boys wake up about fifteen minutes later and immediately start in building chair and blanket forts. I get a fire started and breakfast on the table. We have three and a half hours until Cody’s bus comes.
I start laundry. The boys play. No one shows any interest in going outside which is fine with me. It is dark and cold and the snow is more slush and ice than fun snowman snow anyway. The boys play with hot wheels, setting up a race track with a loop and launcher. I clean the bathroom and transfer the laundry from the washer to the dryer.
I give the boys a bath. While they are splashing and building funnel-washcloth-drippy machines I clean their bathroom and scrub the floor. The boys seem happy in the bath so I sort the mail and file random important papers, setting bills aside to pay later. The boys are done and the water is chilly so I towel them off and they run shrieking through the house buck naked. I sop up the stray bathwater and threaten the boys with underwear and clothes. They start up a game of naked hide and seek.
I clean the kitchen table and finish packing Cody’s lunch. The boys request a snack of pretzels. They eat sitting side by side at the table still naked, their wet heads bowed close together while they discuss the various shapes and letters they can make by eating certain parts of a pretzel. They praise each others ideas and I smile.
I finally get them dressed. They bust out their wooden train track and start madly building a series of tracks after I tell them we are out the door in ten. Sock and shoes. Jackets and a backpack. Into the car we pile because, even though it has not snowed a flake all morning, it suddenly decides to dump and the bus stop is a ten minute walk at best. I feel like a horrible mother because I forget Cody’s mittens.
Carter and I get back home. We bring in the empty trash can, wrestle the garden/wood cart from the backyard up the hill and around the garage to the woodpile to restock our mini woodpile by the front door. Leather work gloves suck in the snow.
We shiver out of our wet jackets and line our boots up by the fire. I crank up one of my Pandora radio station (think Los Fabulosos Cadillac’s, Manu Chao, and Buena Vista Social Club) and we make some homemade bran muffins. I wonder how we are going to fill the rest of the day.
That all happened yesterday before lunch. This morning there is already about 5 inches on the ground and it is still falling. The school called last night to report that there would be no school. I do not feel that magic snow day excitement that I used to as a child, in fact I am missing my morning alone time. Perhaps I need to grab some of that snow day excitement from my boys and (0nce the sun comes up) go out into the snow and make snow angels and snowmen with abandon. Then we can all come in, strip off our wet clothes to dry by the fire, and have a naked pretzel and hot cocoa snack.
I think I will opt for clothes just in case the UPS man shows up.
Shoes On The Wrong Feet 
I think that as moms we never really get a snow day anymore!! With the kids at home we are “on duty.” There is no opportunity to flop on the couch in our pjs and channel surf through terrible movies and game shows…or no lazy book-reading by the fire. Maybe when they are older? I guess enjoy the sledding for now!
I do miss the lazy snow days of my past but we had a good hour or so out playing in the snow before cold little hands drove us back inside. The clothes are drying out and the boys are playing trucks in the back room. When they start to get crazy restless I may weaken and declare it a special snow day movie time.
It’s not how you remember it because you’re the one doing all the work! Get out there and have some fun! Snow days are for sledding, snowball fights, hot chocolate, pj’s, and movies. End of story.
Very true. Sledding – check. Snowball fights – check. Hot Chocolate (sipping chocolate from Trader Joe’s) – check. Humm, maybe our afternoon will consist of pj’s and a movie. 🙂
I remember how excited I used to get by snow days. It’s quite sad that I never feel like that anymore. 🙂
I remember snow days feeling a little bit like a mini suprise Christmas day. I just got word that tomorrow is another snow day – I am not sure how many more sledding trips down the large hill by our house my body can take! 🙂 The boys are loving it though.
Ha!! wow I can relate, but let me tell you one other side…i was an at home daycare provider for 13 years ( my own kids are now 16, 10 and 7)..I recently went back to work out of necessity and I MISS the snow days..now they consist of .. who will watch them while i’m at work, if I can’t get the day off. Though its hectic and you lose a bit of precious “me” time…do enjoy it…cause it doens’t last forever 🙂 🙂 ( throw a snowball or two for me would ya? )
Good point. In just a few short years when the boys are both in all day school (or earlier if need be) I will be going back to work outside the house and will have that snow day worry of childcare. We had a great day yesterday playing in the snow and are planning to enjoy another snow day today. I will make sure to chuck a snowball or two for you. 🙂 Tomorrow the rain will be back and Mr. Snowman will melt.
I can completely agree with you – snow days are so different as adults. I agree with the others, though – we should view it as an opportunity for some of that elusive “quality time” (but that is easier said than done). We haven’t had a snow day here yet and I am missing it!
The snow today is really wet due to the freezing rain that comes and goes so it is not much fun to play in like it was yesterday. I think that when the “quality time” wears thin this afternoon I may bust out an afternoon movie. I have only done that two other times before and both were because I was too sick to take care of the boys and needed a nap. Today I just need a break. 🙂