Yesterday was our first school snow day of the year. I’m not sure why it was a snow day. There wasn’t a particularly large volume of snow. Maybe the school system needed to use up the days before they were lost to spring weather.
This meant I had to take a vacation day from work to stay home with the boys. I don’t like having to spend my vacation days in this manner. I prefer to save them up to use when everybody is in school and I can stay home alone. So far, I’ve only been able to do this once; it was pure bliss.
After breakfast, and a break for some light roughhousing, we used the morning to catch up on our reading and do some homework. Buster lags a little bit in reading. That’s why it amazed me how willing he was to help his little brother do his homework. Buster helped Big Man sound out words on his list like a professional tutor. He showed more patience than I did when Big Man hit a difficult patch. Maybe he’s supposed to be the teacher instead of the student.
In spite of all the attempted murders, they do care for each other.
After lunch, we went out and played in the snow. By this, I mean I shoveled while the boys frolicked. It was the least amount of snow I’ve know to close a school, so the shoveling wasn’t bad. I didn’t even get sore or feel the need to swear when the snowplow went by later and pushed the street snow back into our driveway. It just wasn’t swearing snow.
Pulling little brother.
The tables turned: Pulling is not a fun as big kids make it look.
In the end, it wasn’t a bad vacation day spent.
Today was worse. School was closed again. This was a mind-boggler to me. There was hardly any new snow, and the roads seemed fine.
Today was fort-building day, which keeps kids from murdering each other, but is kind of messy for a living room.
Fort Living Room. Established to protect the TV from marauding parents.
It helps that none of the garrison of this fort is very tall.
Meanwhile, I worked on our washing machine, which decided not to run at all. I got it to work, but not quite the way it’s supposed to work. I’m not sure how my wife will like my cobbling job. She may press for a new machine. This is going to be a hard battle to lose. It’s one of the those where you know the exact problem, but the machine was manufactured to prevent you from getting to it without breaking more parts.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. The school still has a few snow days in the bank, so it might turn out to be too sunny for school in the morning.
Snoozing on the Sofa 
Good job utilizing the snow day! We used to just screw around, and our mother didn’t care (it was the years before she had to work). In fact, Rome NY was the district that almost never closed, back in the olden days. But what I meant to say was how awesome about Buster helping Big Man with his reading. They say the best way to learn something is to teach it to somebody else.
I remember listening to the radio, waiting to hear if our school were on the list of closures. Now, every family gets an automated phone call. I guess it’s more effective, but it kind of takes the magic out of it.
Buster is a much better teacher than his own homework would lead you to believe.
Hysterical, as usual. By the way, when my son used to make forts and empty all his toys onto the floor, he’d call it a beaver dam. Truer words were never spoken.
I think every beaver would agree the dams are much more fun to make than clean up.
I don’t think any beaver has ever cleaned up after himself.
That doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
We can all dream.
As we should.
The kids had a snow day here yesterday but it seems the schools are open today. The winds were a whipping yesterday and all throughout the night but the storm was not nearly as bad as what the “professionals” said it would be. They must have a monetary interest in the groceries stores, getting a certain percentage when the sales are sky-high due to “really bad storm warnings”.
We used to do the forts as well. For kids it is a riot. Adults is another story. They have a mess to put away.
I’m hanging onto my washer and dryer as long as I can. I don’t want to make you feel bad so I won’t tell you how long I’ve had mine for. The new ones these days were not made to last more then 5 years or so, and when they do break, they are not meant to be fixed either. High way robbery, that’s what that is!
I’m proud to say the boys cleaned up their fort all by themselves with only a moderate amount of nagging from me.
I still have a few ideas on how to get the washer running the way it’s supposed to. I will just need another snow day to work on it. Meanwhile, it still works; just requires an extra step or two in the process.
Good luck with that machine, Scott. And a big bravo to your boys! My goodness, they are growing up! What do you know about that? Seems to be someone is teaching them consequences and responsibility. Nice!
Someone is trying to teach them. It’s always an uphill battle.
My school days may be loooong ago now, but I still give myself snow days when the weather is inclement. One of the benefits to being able to work from home! (I still have to shovel, though.)
I’m waiting for someone to invent teleshoveling, where you do it from inside the house on your computer.
I’m shocked there isn’t an app for that yet.
I’ll start working on that as soon as I finish the app that puts children to bed.
Wow we got a huge amount of snow and no snow days up here for kids. I mean at least three feet if not more just over night not to mention all the snow that came the next day. They don’t plow, or take care of the roads. I guess that’s the joys of living in Northern Alberta. Up here you wouldn’t need to take holiday time for snow days..
The Joys of Northern Alberta sounds like it would make a great book, or TV show. Maybe you should contact the Discovery Channel. Or add some poison and a love triangle so Lifetime Network will be interested.
Ha that’s very possible the drama up here is insane too. Transient gas and oil city. The crime is rampant, people are mean. I could go on but you have the idea.
These spoiled kids and their snow days. And then we get people who call in to work every other day…
But now you made me want to build a fort…
Building a fort will surely make you forget your troubles.