Since the beginning of the year, the children have only had one full week of school. Every other week ... all 10 of them ... have been truncated by either delayed starts due to snow, ice, or bitterly cold temperatures. Or, cancellations if the wintry conditions are severe enough. Remarkably, the one week that they didn't miss any school, we received two snow storms - but the snow didn't start falling until 10 minutes AFTER the children arrived at school, and stopped by noon.
Last week, we received six inches of snow early Monday morning, which prompted the children to miss school on Monday - Tuesday - and have a two-hour delayed start on Wednesday. In order to make up all of the missed "snow" days, the children will now be in school until nearly July.
We still love it, though. Especially when we look out the window after a big snow storm and see the signs of winter wildlife such as a bright red cardinal perched in a tree...
Or deer tracks through the crisp snow.
Or perhaps best of all, our children that spend hours sledding down our steep back yard and once they get to the bottom, running up to do it again. Over and over and over - so many times - they're completely exhausted and can barely walk ...
So eventually just crawl up the hill, pushing their sled before them.
A winter storm, a steep hill, a canceled school day, a sled and siblings. Without a doubt, these are some of the key ingredients for the sweetest childhood (and parenting!) memories.
