Yesterday’s big thunderstorm has turned everything to ice today. Not only is everything covered in ice, it’s snowing lightly and the kids are out of school for a snow day. We’re under a winter storm warning and the forecast calls for 5-7 inches by noon tomorrow. Chances are tomorrow will be a snow day too.
Kids love snow days. My brother, Raymond and I used to watch the weather forecast in the winter praying for enough snow to cancel school. It didn’t take much - a snowfall of about 1/2 inch was enough to do it. Those winding country roads in East Tennessee really worked to our advantage.
It didn’t snow a lot in Tennessee where I grew up but when it did we took full advantage - snowball fights and lame attempts at sledding. One of our favorite games was Track - kind of a hide-and-seek game where you try to find everyone by following their tracks in the snow.
We didn’t have any of the snow gear that kids in the north have - no snowpants, no snowboots, our gloves were generally not waterproof. After an hour or two we’d stumble back inside, soaked to the skin and freezing cold. We’d dry off, warm up and head back out. It was glorious being out of school unexpectedly!
When you grow up you start hating snow days. Grownups don’t get snow days from work. We don’t like driving around on sloppy roads and it’s such a hassle making last-minute arrangements for childcare. Since I’m not working, I can just enjoy this snow day with my kids. Violet and her friend Kaley are rolling around in the yard making snow angels. Soon she’ll come in, soaked to the skin and freezing cold. I’ll make her a cup of hot chocolate, she’ll dry off and warm up. Then she’ll head back outside with a smile on her face because - it’s a SNOW DAY!!!!
NaBloPoMo Month comes to an end today. I took the challenge - and did it!
As the month began, I had plenty of things to write about. Good old George Bush and the election provided me with several posts. After a couple of days, I was feeling pretty smug about how easy writing a post every day was going to be so I confessed to you all that I was participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge.
Things started going downhill soon after and the remainder of the month was a rollercoaster ride of some good posts and some incredibly lame posts. Some days I would find myself staring at a blank screen. Nothing really coming to mind and wishing I hadn’t told everyone I would be posting every day. But that is exactly what kept me from copping out. Rather than giving up, I would just start typing and eventually I’d end up with something to post.
A really good lesson that I learned is that writing is a lot like many other things in life. You can’t always wait for inspiration to strike before you get started. You just have to start doing it and revise as you go along.
So I did it! Thirty consecutive days of posting. Actually, not only did I post every day in November but, all totalled, I have posted for 38 days straight and a total of 75 posts since I started this blog.
That worked out so well that I’m using you for my “No Dew Challenge” now. If I tell all of you all that I am giving up the Dew, it becomes that much harder for me to just give in to the craving.
Experts say it takes 21 days to build a new habit or break an old one. This is Day 4. I’m actually feeling better today - the ache in my head has subsided to a “clamped in a vise grip” level and I only think about having a dew every 20 or 30 minutes that I am awake. I am incredibly lethargic (i.e. I don’t feel like getting off my butt and doing anything) but not sleepy - I’m sure that’s because I wish I could just sleep through the next few days.
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