11:45 am on a Snow Day: I am sitting in my family room cuddled on the couch wrapped in my favorite fleece blanket and my kids are fighting in the next room. This is what I hear:
“Please close the flappy parts of your face!”
“Please don’t talk to me that!”
There are so many things to say about their interaction. Number one- I am so happy they used the word please! I think that is a first.
Second, I don’t think your mouth is flappy (I am assuming that when my son said the flappy part of the face he meant my daughter’s mouth). If I was asked, and I wasn’t, I would assume that the flappy parts of your face would be your ears.
And third, It has been a long, long, long snow day. The Polar Vortex is sweeping through Cleveland. I love saying that. Polar vortex is a phrase that I have bandied about importantly throughout the day. It makes me feel like a meteorologist, and really who has not wanted to be a meteorologist at some point in their life.
I have to admit that I am the first one to get excited on a Snow Day. I just remember the sheer, pure joy of waking up in the morning and finding the world covered in a blanket of white, and being told by my mother that there was no school. I love giving my kids the news that they have an unexpected vacation day.
8:30pm: I have to come clean. We did nothing on this snow day. We did not make snow molasses, snow cream or sno cones. We did not blow bubbles in the sub zero weather to see the different formations that can be made. We did not do science experiments, like boiling water putting it in a mug, going outside, throwing the water in the air and seeing it make snow. Yes, I read about these wonderful activities on the homeschool blogs that I subscribe to.
I worked on my computer and my kids watched videos the whole entire day. They only came up for air for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh! wait that is not true, my babysitter who loves my kids called me. I don’t really need her anymore, so she just comes over for fun every once in a while. (No, you may not have her number!) She had promised to stop by, and had a snow day, (she is in nursing school) and she made cinnamon buns with my kids.
She taught us the greatest trick. She often bakes with my kids. To find recipes, she goes online and googles “the best most amazing chocolate chip cookies” or “everyone’s favorite oatmeal cookies” and she gets those recipes. We haven’t had a bad cookie yet. Today she googled, the best gooiest cinnamon buns, and she found this:
http://heatherbays.blogspot.com/2012/08/gooiest-cinnamon-buns.html
They were amazing! (No, I still say, you cannot have her number!).
That was my snow day. Do I feel guilty that we were all tied to technology or the TV all day long- except for the gooiest cinnamon bun interlude- yes a bit! But so be it! Sometimes this is the way parenting is. Not great, not good, just very, very average!