Monday the kids played in the back yard, swinging and sliding and playing hopscotch; Tuesday the temperatures dropped significantly and by mid day their hopscotch spot was covered with snow that kept on falling into the night. Georgia weather is fickle, y’all. Except in mid summer, when it’s just varying degrees of hot-as-the-sun.

Snowpocalypse: snowed out instead of snowed in.

By the end of Tuesday there were so many abandoned or stranded cars along the roads that people said it looked like a zombie apocalypse had come. There were school buses stranded, and thousands of kids stuck overnight at schools; people spent the night in cars, at work, in kind strangers’ homes. Ken made it home that afternoon but several of our friends spent the night at work, some left their cars and walked the last few miles home, and some spent a very cold night in their cars! This was a result of a storm that came quicker than anticipated, schools and businesses all shutting down about the same time, and roads re-icing as fast as the [few] salt trucks could try to de-ice them.  It was a serious MESS, y’all. But there were plenty of Good Samaritan stories to come out of it all.

Snowy fun + memory-making

One of my favorite childhood memories was during another of our rare snowstorms when my dad made a sled from junk in garage, including an old shower curtain rod for runners, wood paneling for the base, and a scrap of shag carpet for padding. We spent what seemed like the whole day playing on that homemade sled.

Kathryn has only seen snow like this a few times, and the little ones have never seen more than a few flurries, so this was exciting stuff. Of course, it was also C-O-L-D so their desire to play in the snow was superseded by painfully cold fingers. The first day they lasted about ten minutes. The next day, when Ken took them sledding, they made it maybe 30 minutes. We just don’t have the clothing for this stuff! When they came in from the cold big sis invited the little ones to snuggle up on the sofa with a blanket and listen to her read Beatrix Potter stories.

Very appropriately, the sled they used is one my dad gave Kathryn a few Christmases ago; he’d have gotten a kick out of that.

Snowpocalypse laughs at routine.

We’d hoped to get back to some semblance of a routine, but the snowpocalypse threw that off! All of our enrichment activities (band, choir, Choi Kwang Do) were cancelled, and the snow outside proved too much excitement for the kids to ignore! Plus, Kathryn has had a lot going on in preparation for her bat mitzvah coming up tomorrow.

Since our routine has been out the window anyway, I’ve been trying to finish putting the house back together after our flooring project. Facebook yard sale groups have been handy to sell some old furniture (because I’m a recovering furniture pack-rat), and I’ve been selling books on Amazon to clean off and consolidate some of our bookshelves. I’ve also bought a few new pieces of furniture, sewed new curtains for the living room, and have generally been trying to simultaneously simplify and beautify…

…but NEXT WEEK, y’all, some routine has got to return!

–> I’m linking up with Kris and Mary today; join us!

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »