Snow Day

Can you still call it a snow day if four are home schooled and the other had a scheduled day off for winter break?   Over 300 schools in the area were closed today due to the snow.   I think I heard that this was our first official "winter storm".  All the other snows were little clippers or lake effect snow, and this one was an actual winter storm with a low pressure or something meeting something else, blah, blah, blah.    Anyway, we were blessed with another 8 or so inches of heavy snow which means...packing snow!  And, of course, that means snowmen and snow forts. 

The porch railing measured 7 inches

Actually, the week was a little different for us.  The kids were asking to go sledding and ice skating again, but I wasn't sure how to fit it in.  (I know, I know, my kids are home schooled.   Flexibility should be one of the benefits!)  But I like our schedule:   school work in the morning, finish up after lunch along with practicing instruments and other chores, then playtime.  So how do you fit in sledding and ice skating when you have piano lessons followed by BSF on Monday afternoon/evening, dental appts all afternoon in Big Rapids on Tuesday, and Homeschool orchestra on Wednesday afternoon?  

You let go of the schedule!:)

We decided to flip school on Wednesday and ice-skate in the morning and take our school work to the Home School Building while Nicolas had orchestra practice.  This worked so well we decided to do the same thing on Thursday morning for sledding.  We desperately needed a library run so decided to go to the library when it opened at 10:00 and then drive right over to the sledding hill.  We knew we were in a winter storm warning, but the snow wasn't supposed to arrive until after 1:00.  The weather forecast missed that by a few hours and at 10:30 when we arrived at the sledding hill (only ones there!) it was already snowing buckets.  By the time we drove home an hour later the roads were becoming yucky.  The kids insisted it was more fun sledding in the snow, but I actually think it is more fun to see where you are going when whizzing down the hill on a piece of plastic.

We had already planned a sleepover in front of the fireplace Thursday night since Caleb had a scheduled winter break on Friday and Monday.   Knowing it was snowing an additional 4 inches outside during the night just made it that much more cozy.  We usually do not have much scheduled for school on Fridays, so the kids just finished up some lagging projects.  We made it an official snow day by making fried bread for lunch.   Russ remembers his step-mom always making cinnamon rolls on snow days and using the leftover dough to make fried bread.  Topped with butter and a little cinnamon/sugar they make a yummy snow day treat!  

I had some Rhodes dinner rolls in the freezer that needed to be used so thawed them in the fridge overnight.  When rolled out to flatten, they made the perfect size to fry up!

Unfortunately, Russ did not have a snow day and he left for the seminary as soon as he was able to clear the driveway.   We had a huge pile from the snow plow at the end of the drive.  Actually, we were really surprised to hear the snow plow come by on our street at 10:30 or so last night.  Usually, it takes anywhere from 2-5 days for the plow to make it to side streets.  What made it even more odd, was that snow was still falling quite heavily.  We soon figured it out when we heard this huge "glug" from the laundry room toilet and heard loud machinery at work outside.  Evidently the city needed to clear the street to get to the manhole to work on the sewer.  

We are heading to Hudsonville tonight to share a meal with a family from church.  I am guessing the main roads are pretty clear (and in front of our house!)  And, oh, did I mention I am so grateful the kids' dental appts were on Tuesday, not Thursday?  Big Rapids is one hour north and that area actually had closer to a foot of snow.   The dental clinic does me a favor and lets me schedule the kids all in one afternoon, but the policy is really not to have more than two from the same family scheduled on any given day.  That prevents huge blocks of empty time if I had needed to cancel or couldn't make the trip.  When I signed in on Tuesday and told them "the Herman family," was there the receptionist exclaimed, "Yeah!"  And Caleb (who went last) said he overheard the dentist (new guy) saying to the hygienist (same one we always have), "You were right, they all came."  Since this must stress them out to bend the rules for us I am doubly thankful that I didn't have to cancel for snow! 

Zoe loves the snow.  She whines by the door just to have someone go outside to play with.  She did get a little too friendly with Caleb's snowman, though.