The Round-Tower

So after an incredibly warm fall and Christmas, it finally turned cold. We had a few small flurries and an inch or two here and the children turned hopeful gazes toward my own august self and begged for a snow day. I finally told them that taking a school day off for anything less than a foot of snow was at MY discretion and that white falling from the sky did not automatically justify such a day.  I did set a foot as an automatic default of one foot of snow. 

Last night as we left Cracker Barrel from having dinner with some friends in from out of town, sleet had begun to fall.  It continued through the night interspersed with a small bit of snow and into the morning. My children, knowing better than to turn said hopeful gaze upon me for ICE, instead offered a day of cleaning while being read aloud to.  This was a good compromise, especially since at least four inches of snow was in the forecast later in the day and we had an official ‘Winter Storm Warning’.

By mid morning, we just began ignoring the ‘warning’ part of that notice as the weather had finally begun to look like what I thought living in Illinois would look like in winter when we moved here. The sleet changed to snow at long last and we began to watch the snow accumulate slowly while the birds and squirrels kept braving the driving wind and precipitation to chow down at the feeders we replenished twice during the day. At lunchtime I declared an official snow day and by late afternoon the girls were doing hourly checks on the deck to see how deep it was. We had ten inches four hours ago at their last check, right about dark, and the snow has continued to fall.  Tomorrow will be a snow day too… I’ve a feeling it will have long since passed ten inches on the deck and we don’t get that kind of snow frequently enough to deprive them of the rare day off even if it hasn’t.  They’ll come back to their desks rested and refreshed, ready to give me their best once again. 

Sometimes a teacher knows that discretion is the better part of valor…