There was a snowstorm at the end of last week, followed by a not-entirely-freezing day(which allowed a little melting) followed by a night of howling winds and variations of precipitation from light pleasant sprinkle to hail, with periods of snow and sleet thrown in. This morning, although the sky was blue and sun shining, the thermometer on my kitchen window was still working its way UP to 20 degrees. So you can imagine the sheet of ice that encases not only our cute little snowman(sure, it strengthens him…) but also the bottom couple inches of my husband car tires. (My tires are usually more accessible due to the fact that we drive them around so much.)
A couple of useful things to know about me;
1. Monday is like my “reset-button day”. Chaos of the week before has settled, Sunday was it’s own kind of roller-coaster, and on Monday I attempt to pick up the pieces, look at the week ahead, plan out the general schedule of things, organize my planner and CLEAN. (Which generation of SAHM’s started using planners?!?) Monday is the foundation day for the rest of the week and although the week is not necessarily ruined by an “off” Monday, a good Monday makes the next 6+ days go SO MUCH BETTER!
2. (and this is part of why this particular Monday is so important)
I love to be alone! I love my family very much and my truly favorite times are when we are all together AND GETTING ALONG! But, I’ll be honest, my second favorite times are ALL BY MYSELF. I think better, I work better, everything just flows better. So much so that some days I’d even like to send the dog away for the day too!
Today was to be my last Monday alone for the foreseeable future. After this the kids have a vacation and my husband’s teaching schedule changes (I am sure I will write about ‘the new schedule’ another time!) in which, suffice it to say, he will be home on Mondays. This Monday was also important because the last I-don’t-know-how-many Mondays have been infringed upon by delays, holiday or half days or child(ren) home with illness (I’m thinking back to early or mid-November sometime) and because it is the last Monday of school before Christmas.
Knowing this would be my last Monday alone, I spent the time last night to really plan out my day. I had a layout of the day with blocks of time for certain things and even a priority list for each block of time. I planned my work and I was going to work my plan! (I should have known right THEN that there would be trouble.)
But today…ah today… a two-hour derail.
Okay, they are actually called a “2-hour delay”. For those of you in sunny California or, “freezes once every decade AZ”; a two-hour delay is something the school districts use to give the transportation department an extra two hours to clean up the roads in the hopes of still being able to have an actual school day. Because no matter how useless a bunch of squished up school days become, the districts still get their money from the state if the students show up. So, for the safety of the buses, and their precious cargo of course, schools call a “two-hour delay” and start exactly two hours later than the usual time. Don’t get me wrong, I often enjoy the extra time this allows me to stay under my nice warm down comforter!(Thank you to the grandparents that gave us that!)
It’s just 2hours you say? What’s the problem? The problem is that I have one child in each of our 3 schools with three different start times. Normally this works well because we only have one bathroom and I am able to keep them out of each others’ way. But for a delay, that means that the elementary school doesn’t start until just after 11am. In spite of delaying the beginning of the day they do not extend the end of the school day! Which means now that I have dropped my youngest off at school, stopped for 5 minutes at the library, stopped at the town hardware store and the corner deli to find a bag of salt (for the driveway not the table) my high-schooler will STILL be getting out of her last class at in about 45 minutes! That is SO NOT FAIR!
