So, the snow day thing.

Ok, let me say this: I understand that there was an incident here in NC in 2005 that was similar to what’s going on in Atlanta now, where basically nobody was prepared for the snow and there was gridlock and people were stranded on freeways for hours and hours and it was a huge mess. (I asked Chris about it and he said, “yeah, that was the day my commute took over 8 hours.” Which: WHOA.) I get it. Better to err on the side of caution and all that, right?

They canceled school on Tuesday “in anticipation” of snow. Only it turned out that the snowstorm was moving much more slowly than anyone expected. So it didn’t actually start snowing until sometime after 6 p.m. Which means the kids could have gone to school and gotten safely home LONG before the snow started. But whatever, they made a judgment call.

Then school was closed on Wednesday and Thursday (today), due to legitimate, real snow and ice on the ground. And hey, that’s fine. It sucks for my work productivity because it’s really hard to focus when the kids are here, but I get it and I’m fortunate to have a job that allows me to have the flexibility to work from home when I need to be here with the girls.

And yesterday had its moments of being fun. The girls wanted to go play outside and they were both singing, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” from Frozen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lDcPm-KRw
(That last verse always makes me cry, btw.)

It all sounded very fun and exciting… until we got outside. My kids are delicate Southern flowers, so they were game to play in the snow for about, oh, 20 minutes maybe. Then they wanted to head back inside and drink hot chocolate. Which is sort of how I feel too, so I understand that.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

After we came back in, I turned on a movie for the girls (Beauty & the Beast), and Lucy promptly passed out on the couch in her long johns.

I cleared off the end of my desk for Catie, and I set her up to do some of her homework from school, so she wouldn’t get too far behind. I had this nice mental image of working away while she quietly did her math problems, which… hahaha. Yeah. No. There was whining, and “I don’t wanna do homework,” or “You have to help me with this part,” whatever. There was no concentrating on my work happening at all.

When she finished, she asked if she could do an art project, and this is why I’m grateful I stash away this stuff whenever I can. I got out some little plaster figurines that come with a set of paints to decorate them, gave her one of my old paint-stained t-shirts to keep her clothes safe, and let her go to town.

She had a blast. She’s way better at art-type stuff than I ever was.

The problem is, I kind of used up all of my “creative ways to keep the kids entertained at home” ideas. I admit, I’m more of a “let’s go out and do stuff” mom. We go to the playground, we go to one of the museums, we go walk around the mall, whatever. But when the roads are icy and it isn’t safe to drive, all of my normal “let’s go out” options are gone.

Today, thankfully, even though the schools are closed, the girls’ daycare is open, so I was able to drop them both off there, and they were so happy to get a chance to play with other kids. And I’ve been able to catch up on some work, which has been great.

My main complaint about the snow days? Apparently I didn’t read the fine print when I opted to put Catie in a year-round school. Because I just learned that year-round school doesn’t have “emergency days” built into its calendar, so when the kids have a snow day? It means they make it up on a Saturday. And after this week, it means they’ll have 3 different Saturday make-up days.

The first make-up day is supposed to be this Saturday (as in the day after tomorrow), when my sister is flying in from Texas for the weekend. And you know what? No. I’m sorry, but I am not sending my kid to school on a Saturday. Not this Saturday, not any Saturday.

I understand that scheduling is difficult, and it’s hard to manage the calendar for a year-round curriculum, but no. Nope, no way, not gonna happen, nuh-uh. And I’m not even going to make up an excuse and say that she’s sick. If I have to send in a note, I’ll write, “It’s Saturday. We have plans.” That’s it.

Because, when it comes down to it? I work full-time all week, and that weekend time that I get with my girls is precious. And it’s FIRST GRADE, so I’m pretty sure that if she misses a few days here and there, it’s not going to prevent her from getting into a good college later.

Fortunately, it looks like most of the ice has melted today, so we should be back to normal tomorrow. Fingers crossed, anyway.

(For the record, I still mostly love the year-round calendar and I really like Catie’s school in particular. This is just one beef that I have with the county school system’s administration.)