Snow Day Sentiments

 

Since we've last spoken, I've become an arctic expert.  You see, here in Tennessee, we've had an entire five days of snow and ice.  We measured seven inches on our back deck when we thought the precipitation had ceased. But alas, more snow and ice fell.  We were thrilled.  I just know the stores have no bread or milk.  The kids here are probably wearing 37 light layers instead of a snowsuit, and plastic bags around their tennis shoes to keep the wet snow out of their socks.  They are having a blast.  We all know the bags won't work to keep any cold or dampness away, but we southern parents try it anyway.  Many of us don't think about snow day gear until an actual snow day shows up.  My husband and I have learned to just get the snowsuits and boots and coats when we purchase fall clothes for the kids.  If we don't use them this year, we are bound to have a snow day the next year.  In reality, we just love preparing for winter and the possibility of a winter wonderland.

I would love to surprise your inboxes with a multi-faceted unit study on snow that I pieced together easy-breezy over the last week.  I am here with a reality check, though.  There is no easy-breezy piecing together right now.  We've been playing in the snow, and I have been holding our new baby almost nonstop, exercising my sourdough starter, planning our garden, feeding everyone, rearranging our school space, contemplating when to take the Christmas tree down, and facilitating school on the couch.  I'm not exactly feeling easy-breezy.

I'm sharing these things to remind you that homeschooling isn't always aesthetically pleasing.  Today, we did spelling words and math problems on the couch.  We didn't even get to our read-aloud.  GASP.  I know.  No read-aloud on a snow day?  Nope.  Not today.  I'm not here to appease the aesthetic, I'm here to mother my children.  Knowing how to clean up is just as important as their schooling.  Education is an atmosphere, and the *atmosphere* needed tidying.  Who can relate?

This next week is our week of setting things in place so we can continue with an organized and enjoyable school year.  If you have to ditch the aesthetic for a while to have the bandwidth to reset yourself, then ditch it.  I'm currently resetting my laundry system because my old one is not working for me right now.  I'm making sourdough again because my children eat so much bread, and homemade sourdough is significantly better for them than any store-bought bread.  We rearranged some rooms in our home because some spatial things were not working as well as they were originally working.  Our crockpot is my best friend right now.  I need one of those trendy sweatshirts that read: "I'm in my CROCKPOT era."  

Big batch cooking, baby-wearing, meal-planning, and grocery pick-up are all great examples of how we are trying to use our time wisely so we can appropriately spend our energy on resetting certain systems that make life run more smoothly.

Happy Snow Week, friends.  Take the slow weekend to RESET whatever needs some updating.

Shalom Shalom,

Rachel

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