Acceptance of snow days {ramblings of an emotionally conflicted ex-northerner}

There’s something about The Automated Phonecall that comes from The School District (that I still have no idea how I got signed up for because my son technically doesn’t go there) that just makes my blood boil.

As a child who lived in The North where Lake Effect Snow was a regular occurrence, I loved snow days. As a child who lived in The North where Lake Effect Snow was a regular occurrence, I didn’t get very many. Because The North is equipped. They have ploughs and salt and salt domes right off of the highways.

This is what they look like. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that not everyone knew what they were.

So if we got a snow day you better believe there was a lot of snow and ice. Going to school with a foot of snow on the ground or more was commonplace.

So this propensity Down South to not just cancel school but shut down pretty much The Entire Town based on The Forecast seems inane and mind-boggling.

Thus the anger.

But apparently there is Black Ice and Rural Buses and Fatal Accidents From Years Past and No Ice Domes and this thing called Safety First and the people who make the decisions to cancel school don’t make them lightly. (Or so I’ve been told.)

When I can see pavement and grass sticking up between white and I’m stuck at home with a 4-year-old for four-apparently-now-going-on-five days I’m wondering if they were considering my plight at all.

Which brings me back to acceptance.

Because as I watched the forecast all day Monday and watched the numbers at one point hit 8 inches of projected snow, I didn’t even bother wondering if there would be school on Tuesday. And sure enough they cancelled before the flakes even started falling.

So I did what any mother planning for a snow day would do: I traipsed out for a midwife appointment, talked my husband into stopping at Lowes for a shovel because we didn’t have one and “Honey…8 inches…we might need a shovel.” Then I ventured out around noon, avoiding The Crowded Grocery Stores, to take 4-year-old to The Dentist, because…priorities. Everyone’s out there buying bread and milk, but we’re gonna have clean teeth y’all. Clean teeth!

Then we hunkered in for naps, CSI: NY (or Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse depending on if you were an adult or a 4-year-old) and stayed up late watching TV while the Not Eight Inches started falling. There was also hot chocolate and marshmallows for The Grownups (but not for the 4-year-old because chocolate makes him Mean).

News of a 2-hour-delay for hubs work was actually a nice way to end the evening because it meant he could stay up even later than normal.

Miraculously, we all slept til 7am. And then because of Honest Toddler, I made pancakes and bacon and coffee while the boys played outside in the Not Eight Inches.

I felt very Betty Crocker and Serene and Aren’t Snow Days Nice for all of 30 minutes, which is about how long it took me to empty my coffee cup and remember (again) how much Making Pancakes is Really Not Fun.

Then we did what any rational snowed-in people would do: after dropping off hubs downtown we went to the YMCA to swim in The Empty Pool. The main roads were salted and cleared. One road was slushy. Our road was untouched but hey…nice and slow and we were fine.

At the pool, the lifeguard and I had a long conversation and when she found out how many places I had lived and she asked me what was my favorite I told her that I never wanted to leave North Carolina because I’d rather have it be 85 degrees than snowy.

Then it was home for lunch, a hot shower, and naps (or more CSI: NY, depending on whether you were an adult or a 4-year-old). Then we went outside to shovel play. Because by that point there really was not much snow left to speak of, at least not enough to sled on despite the Awesome Sledding Hill that is Our Front Yard.

So we played with shovels and I did a lot of Deep Breathing just thinking about how life is a slower pace Down Here and maybe it’s not so bad if everything shuts down every time it snows.

I was feeling a lot of ooey-gooey acceptance-ey feelings until I realized that my feet were getting very very wet (because when you live in North Carolina, buying actual snow boots for yourself for the one time a year you will use them is pretty low on your priority list).

Then we came inside for marshmallows (because we have no more hot chocolate). And I got another shower. I’m pretty sure my body is in shock from the hot-cold-hot-cold that have been my activities today. And I will probably get sick.

So that’s what acceptance of snow days looks like. Not getting (too) angry at Automated Phonecalls, venturing out in the snow on the Not Scary Roads, taking lots of showers, and preparing to do it all again tomorrow when we are only forecasted to get One Inch which means we probably won’t get anything.

Oh, and I made potato soup for tomorrow.

Y’all, I consider today to be real progress.

{And yes. I say y’all now. Ex-Northerner. Deal with it.}

Linking up today with Tuesday at Ten over at Finding the Grace Within, writing on the prompt Acceptance.