Our school system schedules too many days off. Of course, this is just my opinion. Yes, the teachers need days to prepare for conferences, have clerical days, inservice days, etc ... but, man, there are so many. Then again, maybe it just seems that way to me.
I'll be honest, I love the thought of having my boys home from school so that we can make a special day of it, do fun things, and make some memories. Yup, all for it ... JUST NOT IN THE WINTER! Winter time just doesn't work for me.
Regardless of what I try, when the boys have days off in the colder, snowy months, my house seems to become a three ring circus and all I see are blurs of children running past me when I'm trying to organize "craft time" or "game time". Due to the number of times I have to say it, a recording should be made of me screaming, "No running in the house!" and "Please, can't we all just get along?" This would make it much easier on my throat that is starting to feel a little scratchy.
Yesterday, the boys had another day off school (2nd one this month) and of course, the 50 degree weather we've been having all week, transpired into upper 20's and a winter weather advisory.
Jake did nothing all day expect beg, and I mean BEG, for one of those Tamagotchi toys. This must be the new "craze" that every child must insist on having ... play with it for 2 hours, NON-STOP, and then throw it in the toy box and never even look at it again. Yeah, I spent 2 hours driving to every Walmart and Target it the vicinity looking for a Tamagotchi that my smart mouthing son does not even deserve.
Drew whined for 20 minutes straight to go outside and I finally gave in and allowed him to. A weeks worth of warm temperatures, a bit of snow left on the ground, and a creek that runs through our backyard. Do you want to guess what happened? Yes, he showed up at the back door covered from head to toe in MUD. Not just a little mud. I'm talking hat, coat, gloves, snow pants, and boots COVERED to the point I couldn't tell you what color any of those items are. That kind of covered. Not my idea of fun. A picture would have normally been snapped to share with you and so I could laugh about it later, but I so wasn't in the mood. AT ALL!
Emily discovered a pair of scissors in the craft bin (that I had out to create a little quality time. What was I thinking?). Mind you, they were child scissors with the rounded edges making them perfect for little ones. Especially small children on a mission to cut up their brother's fuzzy poster he just completed and leave it in about 3,399,231 pieces for me to clean up off the kitchen floor ... while brother laid face down screaming in hysterics that all that hard work coloring was for NOTHING!
Molly ... well, there is nothing that I can tell you she did that she doesn't do every other day of her life. Just being 22 months old is enough, don't you think?
Guilt just pours over me when I look at my sweet little angels, the sames ones that I could not imagine living without, and wish for nothing more than them to go out and search for some traffic to play in. Of course, we live in a pretty quiet neighborhood, so finding some traffic to play in is pretty much out of the question. (Side Note: Though I did get a note from the school telling me Drew was playing "chicken" with the school bus when it arrived at the bus stop to pick them up for school the other day. Yeah, that's nice! Am I raising a moron? Hello!)
The day ended with the boys watching the weather forecast with me ... remember that Winter Weather Advisory I was telling you about? Up to a half inch of ice ... then up to a foot of snow on top of it. All this will arrive this afternoon and tomorrow. The kids are already making plans to wear their PJ's inside out on tomorrow night, which is what they do when they are hoping for a "snow day" the following day.
You watch ... that will happen ... and I'll have another "yesterday" on Monday!
The joys of motherhood, eh?
