Snow Day

Yesterday, the News Channels kept reporting about this snow storm they were predicting, but the accumulation totals kept changing: 2-4"... no wait, 4-6"... or maybe it's 8-12"... yeah. So maybe a little, maybe a lot. I guess they finally settled on 13", or maybe they just stopped guessing? Whatever. I felt like I was coming down with something, possibly strep throat, so I decided I wasn't going to make the commute to work anyway. One less thing to stress about. Come on 13" of snow. You don't scare me! Fast forward to this morning. I woke up around 6:30 and checked my email to see that the kids did in fact get a snow day too. Yay! Back to bed for me :) So we slept in, had breakfast, ran to the doctors to find out that I don't have strep, just a nasty cold. Ok I can deal with that. So now what do we do? The kids don't want to build a snow man. They don't want to play games. They do seem to want to fight about what movie to watch, but mommy veto'd that game. I was scanning through the DIY & Crafts section on Pinterest and found a list of "50 ways to spend a snow day". I clicked through to find a list of 50 ideas as promised, but certainly not the type of list I was expecting. I laughed out loud, just imagining suggesting some of these ideas to my soon to be cabin fevered children, and thought I just had to share:

Another day, another snow storm. Here are 50 ways to spend a snow day:

• Make an abominable snowman. It’s like a regular snowman, but less friendly to passers-by.
• Practice multiplication and script with your kids. That’ll put them in a REALLY good mood. For older kids, break out the practice tests.
• Delete all of the expletive-laden “music” from your teenager’s Napster playlist on the family computer, while she’s not looking.
• Make snow ice cream, slushies or ‘tinis. Harvest icicles for the latter.
• Fill squirt bottles with water and food coloring and make art on the snow. Let your dog help out.
• Trudge around town for a store that hasn’t sold out on sleds.
• Wash the floors by hand. Or use a toothbrush.
• Do that mending and ironing you’ve been putting off since 2004.
• Groom the dog. Then suck all the fur off your couch.
• Make freeze-ahead dinners. The ones you wish you had right now.
• Go rooftop luging.
• Get kids the Lil’ Capt. Robert Scott Antarctic Expedition playset.
• Shovel through piles of climate change theories.
• Shred your pile of old documents. Better yet, multitask. Use them to light up the fireplace.
• Change the batteries in the smoke detectors, since you forgot during Fall Back.

• Find all the lids to the Tupperware.
• Play Monopoly with the rules that make the game go slower.
• Go through your junk drawer. Do not be afraid.

• Clean your silverware and jewelry. Alternatively, pine for silverware and jewelry worth cleaning.
• Sort mementos into keep and toss piles. Spend time poring over the keepers—after all, that’s why you’re keeping them.
• Make a master calendar for gift-giving dates. Shop ahead online. Or for yourself. Pretend there are sales.
• Invite over neighbors and children you rarely see for a potluck dinner.
• Make a list of all the things you love about your valentine for a card or scrapbook. Make stuff up if you have to.
• Actually use those cross-country skis, or skates or showshoes you were always planning to try out after a big snow. C’mon, you can do it!
• Put on your fanciest evening dress and jewelry, grab your cocktail and pretend you’re in an old movie. That sounds a lot better than, “Sit around your house and get wasted.”
• Scan old photos and make a photo book. Then force the kids to look at pictures of their parents when they were little.
• Do your taxes! April 15 only feels far off.
• Chug a shot and break open your financial portfolio.
• Order seeds and plants for your spring garden. Yes, spring will come eventually.
• Update your resume. Hey, it’s better than doing it at work and leaving it in the copying machine.
• Go through clothes (for you and your children) in drawers and closet. Try on and toss.
• Upload your CDs, finally. Now, this may be difficult: Toss the CDs and the CD player.
• Take out all the beach chairs, umbrellas and boogie boards and make a beach day in the snow.
• Google yourself.
• Collect all the pennies from the corners of the house, coat pockets, sofa cushions, jeans in the laundry. Maybe you’ll have enough for a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Then again, maybe not.
• Write a letter. You know the kind, with pen and paper.
• Make snowflakes out of paper. Tape them to your windows to block out the white piles outside.
• Teach haiku—five, seven, five—and make a book of illustrated snow haiku.
• Create air fare alerts for deals to your dream destinations.
• Play this fun game with your kids: Let’s Clean the Bathroom!
• You know that neighbor who won’t stop blasting music? That’s where your shoveled snow goes.
• Play family-friendly spin the bottle with your chore list. Hope it doesn’t point to you when it’s time to clean toilets.
• Mani-pedi, scrub or mask, deep condition. You choose the body parts.
• Bubble bath. Turn down the lights, light a candle and pretend you’re in a spa. Doesn’t do it for you? It’s not completely impossible that a real one is open.
• Experiment all day on devising the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. Tasting mandatory.
• Begin your memoirs.
• Take pictures of all your belongings to inventory for insurance. Now do a written inventory.
• Sleep. If that doesn’t work, make some nookie!
• Send hate mail to your friends and relatives in warm-weather places. Or block them on Facebook.
• Look at Florida real estate online, so you never have to read this again.

By the way, This does not look like 13"! But, it is still coming down, so I guess, we'll have to see. It's too dark out to get a picture of what's come down since noon, but it still doesn't look like 13"

Taken at 11:30am