Snow day Schmo day

Ahhhh to be a kid on a snow day! I remember the days of waking up early, listening to the radio and smiling happily as they announced "District XYZ- CLOSED today", rolling over and going back to sleep for however long I felt like or until Dad came up to tell me I'd slept half the day away already. (hardy har har)

Now that same sort of announcement makes me groan with dread as I realize the kids won't be going to school and I won't be accomplishing any of the stuff I had planned.

The driveway was insanely packed with snow today. With the intentions of taking the kids out somewhere after lunch, I dragged them outside to start working on clearing a path from the garage to the road. Then I decided to start working on the mailbox area first as they won't deliver anything if there isn't the proper clearance. The plow had already been on our road so I thought it was safe. Ha ha. I should have known better. I had no sooner cleared a decent run in front of the mailbox than Mr Plowdriver comes again. To have our road plowed even once on a storm day is impressive. Twice before noon is practically unheard of so I decided to just be happy our street would be nice & clear. I told the kids to smile & wave at him as he was doing important work to keep our roads safe for us. He must have been the nicest plow guy on earth. He stopped the plow a bit before the mailbox, swivelled the blade so he could push everything off the road, across the ditch and into the field. Then he drove carefully by the actual mailbox, stopped again and did the same thing on the other side, leaving a huge clearance and the snowbank was pushed back several feet from the road so I had somewhere to dump all snow I was removing from the driveway. I couldn't believe it! He must have figured that if I was out there with 3 little kids, attacking that mountain of snow on my own, that I deserved a little break. The kids & I applauded & waved again and he smiled back & was off! (we were the only ones to receive this special mailbox clearing service!) If anyone knows how to send a note to plowdrivers here, please email me!

The snow in the driveway was thick & deeeeeeeeeeep! After over 2 hours, I'd only cleared from the street to the garbage box (maybe 6 feet?) The kids were having fits about all sorts of stuff, Sweetie couldn't get the garage door open to get a sled out (too much snow in front of the door and she didn't want to move any of it) then Honey didn't want to share the sled she was using (only 2 are usable at the moment), Lovey was cold and whine whine whine. After 2 hours I'd had enough of the noise & took them in for lunch, warning them that we were going back out after they ate. They were thrilled with this idea of course but oh well. Stuff's got to get done. I highly doubt Charles Ingalls put up with this crap from Mary & Laura!

I gave them an hour or so indoors while I baked some cookies and put supper together so it'd be all prepped & ready to pop in the oven once we got back inside. Then I gave them a 5 minute warning, "when the timer beeps WE ARE GOING OUTSIDE!". The timer is way more official than I and once it went off, they all trooped down & got their gear on with minimal fuss & we were back outside. After another hour of shovelling, I reached my garage. They played sooooo well for this portion & weren't really all that keen on going in but I'd had enough and when they asked for hot chocolate I was willing to give them whatever it took to go in! They got their drink & then I popped them in the tub and we were just about ready for supper when Murray got home.

Whew! anybody tired just from reading this??????