Do You Want to Build a… NO!

This morning when I was driving the boys to school, I realized that I haven’t been out of the house in almost a week.  That little fact came to me when I stupidly asked myself, “where did ALL this SNOW come from?” 

Because, really…

  

An entire street lined with three to four foot snow banks as far as the eye can see.  You start to feel a little like the ball in a pinball game.  Don’t forget to hold your breath, make the sign of the cross, and attempt to pull over into a space where a driveway has been shoveled out if you need to pass another car coming the opposite direction.  This street isn’t big enough for the two of us.

Oh, I know you Northern Michigan, Minnesota, and New York  peeps are rolling your eyes at me right now.  What is 62” of snow among friends, right? To put it in perspective, it’s almost three times our normal snowfall.  We’re woefully underprepared for both the physical, because where do we PUT all of it and the mental anguish of yet another snow day.

Let’s talk about that, shall we?

There has only been ONE completely full week of school since December 20, the Friday our winter break began.  ONE full week of school.  We’ve had eleven snow days.  I hesitated to add ‘so far’ in there because we’re only mid-February and I’m afraid I’m going to Beetlejuice that one right up.  In a normal year, we’re lucky to have one, maybe two snow days… there is celebrating and sledding and hot chocolate making.  It’s the best thing ever.

Do you know what happens after you hit eleven snow days in roughly a month’s time? 

Parents start to lose their shit. 

And, as a bonus, you’re stuck in the house with the very little minions whose wishes and hopes and snow day rituals have gotten you into this mess in the first place.  OK, OK, that and the jet stream, but I’ll go ahead and blame them flushing ice cubes and wearing backward pajamas and sleeping with spoons under their pillows.  Or Disney, because who was the marketing genius that came up with this campaign…

You know what we could do?  Unleash Elsa on Ohio, you know… we’ll make everything Frozen!  Do You Want to Build a Snowman? It will be stuck in their heads for months!  It’s genius. 

Not cool Disney, not cool at all.

Finn was really upset about going to school this morning.  I tried to be as cheerful as possible about it while holding off from doing a jaunty little jig at the breakfast table, but I get it.  They are so far off of routine and the level of work they have to make up is so daunting that they don’t even want to go.  These poor teachers don’t know what to do either, you start a lesson and have to come back to it a day or three or a week later.   

Fingers and toes crossed that this is the second full week of school since December 20. 

I’m holding out hope that my sanity returns sometime in March.