Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the (space heaters are) so delightful
Since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Man, it doesn’t show signs of stopping
And I’ve brought some (microwave pop)corn for popping
The (zooms) are turned way down low
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
A snowstorm was scheduled, and a snowstorm came.
It arrived much earlier than expected this morning and hasn’t let up since. Not only that, but the storm also plans to stick around for another day or so. That is what the forecasters predict, but I have learned never to put too much faith in those predictions.
While I was outside digging out the cars, driveway, and mailbox (just in case the mailman is feeling very adventurous and decides to visit in his mail truck today), the kids were inside on zoom.
Our school district modified snow days this year after, I am sure, listening to many different complaints about 100% virtual school on snow days.
Snow days are now officially half days. UNLESS you would like for your child to have a mental health day. If so, just send the request to the attendance office.
When we chose to keep Declan out of school for our last two snow days, we marked him as sick. This turned out to be a problem as the nurse had to get involved to be sure the ill child was not experiencing any COVID symptoms. I am sure others used the sick day excuse too, so mental health days now are an available option to excuse an absence.
Since it is still actively snowing and the school day is now a half day, we decided to have the kids stay on zoom. Snow day play can commence after school.
Zoom days are generally really tense days for me. The big kids are in their rooms sitting through their classes, but Declan sits at a desk ten feet from me.
I have had to listen to the discussions, the confusing moments, the questions, the chatter. My least favorite term is “break-out rooms,” where Declan is placed in a virtual room with his 1/1 aid and another student to get work completed. Unfortunately, NO ONE IS ON MUTE in this room, and the background noise is loud and constant. On zoom, I get no break from Declan’s virtual day. For almost a full year now, I have listened to everything. My mood on zoom days is cranky at best.
Until today.
When I came inside from shoveling, I was met with silence. I wandered around until I found Declan laying on the ground, looking at his iPad –
WEARING HEADPHONES.
This day, and all future zooms, have a much shinier silver lining! I can think again!
The snow, rain, whatever coldness falling from the sky, continue as the day goes on. I marvel at how much snow has accumulated and wonder how much more is yet to come. I will soon be shoveling again while the kids start their snow play when school is over.
We’ve received our warnings for possible outages from the power company. We hope to be prepared if we end up without power.
But with or without power, I can rest assured the house will be quiet. Earbuds are my new best friend!!
For us without power is little difficult because we have electric stoves in apartments and cooking becomes a challenge.
We lost power for four days over the summer and I remember how challenging that was and realized how much we take for granted. If we lost power now, we would lose our heat which would be no good. I hope your power is restored to you as quickly as possible!
Yeah, power has been restored here for now. We had no power outage since yesterday morning and trying to consume as much less electricity and water as we can.
Wow, that’s an impressive covering of snow, Robyn! However many problems it causes, though, I have to admit it looks really beautiful, so I’m glad to have popped back into the blogsphere in time to see your lovely pictures (and the dogs look so cute!). We’ve had quite a bit of the white stuff over here too this winter, perhaps it’s to cheer us all up. Still, keep calm and shovel on I guess, and enjoy the sound of silence! 🙂
Keep calm and shovel on sounds like a perfect motto right now! Thank you, Alli!
Our 11 inch snowmageddon topped out at three inches. A total bust. I had a zoom meeting this morning and I too used headphones (the big over-the-ears ones Eli decided to replace when he was eleven). I think I looked pretty stupid, But really, three of us were zooming. Too much talking for my quiet house.
Oh my goodness, this morning at 10AM a neighbor posted her ruler measuring 8 inches of snow and it only went up from there. It hasn’t stopped yet. Now we are onto the freezing rain. The inches are going down, but not in a good way. I think we are in this band the meterolgists are now recognizing “got hit harder than we expected.” My parents are about a half an hour away and were in the exact opposite category from the same report – “Not as bas as we expected.”
I have no idea why I didn’t push the headphones or earbuds sooner. I guess I figured he wouldn’t wear them for as long as the school day, or any part of the day. Early this morning I pictured myself hiding in my room today with my laptop (and a staring cat) but was pleasantly surprised. Now, I am not sure I can ever go back to listening to his all day zooms again.
I envy you! Ben’s Zooms are only supposed to last 30 minutes and we’ve done that once I believe, but we have a hard enough time even getting him to sit still… and he’s the one doing all the chattering. They put him in a breakout room cuz he’s disturbing the other kids😂😂😂 I really can’t understand why they keep making him do it🤷🏼♀️
I do NOT envy your snow. No thanks. I won’t tell you about our weather today.🤐
Finger’s crossed you keep your power 🤞 gotta have that tablet or phone!!🎶💃🏼💕
The earbuds were absolutely wonderful. I had to pack a couple of pairs for individual testing for reading and math at the school and I guess he got used to them – Praise God! I hate zoom because it is at least 6 hours of listneing to Declan, his entire classroom, and the families being families around his 1/1 virtual sessions. Hopefully, that is all a thing of the past! I love his use of earbuds!
This snow is no joke. I have shoveled, and then shoveled, and then salted, and then I tried to change up our trash/recycling toters for their days and slipped the whole way up and down my black ice driveway. I was using the car door handles to try and pull myself along. I was hoping for a clearer day tomorrow, but who knows what is coming next! Thank goodness we still have power. Phones and tablets are on (as well as my reading light 🙂 ) Whew!
I’m glad you got such a nice and relaxing day, despite the snow. I’m glad the school district has relaxed their stance on snow days and recognized that everyone needs a break from time to time!
I remember the long stretch last summer of your power outage. I hope you don’t have to experience the same this year. Good luck and all the best and fingers crossed!!! 🤞🏻
I’m sorry! I just dug your comments out of my spam folder. I am not sure why they ended up there. Sorry about that!
The kids did well with virtual school (and headphones – whew!) and then snow play. We got hit with about four more inches today yet they still called for in-person school. Everyone is home now, thank goodness! I was getting worried!
No worries! WordPress is so weird sometimes. I use the phone app and find it weird sometimes too.
Glad to hear you all had a good virtual school and snow day! 😊 And four more inches of snow is intense!!!
WOW! That’s a lot of snow! I’m glad the earbuds are working out and giving you some silence instead of chaos. The dogs are so cute, thinking they are stuch when they aren’t. I hope your weather gets better quickly and you don’t lose power!
Thank you so much!
It looks so beautiful, we never get snow like that !
Some years we don’t get any snow at all. I think this winter is making up for the past two years!
That’s proper snow. Please tell me you had a go at a snow Angel. Break Out Rooms are the worst. I just wish they would sit down with parents and the children and work out a better way of doing this. I’m kinda hoping our schools reopen in 2 weeks so they switch off the online system and end zoom for Hawklad. Hope the power keeps on for you.
I didn’t – I stuck to shoveling the cars, driveway, and street surrounding our toter and mailbox. I was wiped after doing that a few times! The snow kept up today too. It was much lighter, but just kept coming down! Crazy. So far, so good! Fingers crossed we keep going!
We spent a lot of time in Florida, early on. Our dogs, when we moved to Tennessee, seemed to think snow was a bad practical joke that they were not in on…
The snow is currently higher than our pug, who, as a rescue, also came up from the south. I so wish I knew her story and how she came to be a rescue. But anyway, she is so not smitten with snow or anything involving water from the sky. Her “allergy to water from the sky” comes into full effect and I wonder how she will survive her potty walk!