Let it

I should tell you about the snow.

Thursday, while we worked and went to school, tiny flakes meandered from the sky without purpose.

I noticed, hopeful.

I had just modeled writing a paragraph for first grade: "I wish it would snow. If it does, I could be cozy inside. I could also go for a walk with my family and take my dog Molly, who's never seen snow before. We could build a massive snow person. I wonder if Molly would knock it down?"

Fast forward to a conversation in the hallway with our secretary, faced with the decision about whether to call school and send kids home since our principal was at a conference in Arizona. Those meandering flakes had accumulated and were now threatening a safe trip home for our students.  We said YES, CALL IT, and so she called it and parents were coming to retrieve kids and an excitement suddenly competed with the serious chill.

The snow didn't yet threaten travel to my house like it did for so many of our wonderful commuting-from-Portland teachers so I stayed around an extra half hour before heading home. My cherubs would get home at the regular time; the district had called a two-hour early release which meant jr. high and high schoolers being bused home before elementary came home at the regular time.

Friday became a SNOW DAY. NOW they spread that news with e-mails, so there's no more sitting by the radio listening to Z100 and waiting for them to name your district in the list of closures like WE did back in the day. ("Bull Run, Canby..." "WOOOHOO!!!!")

Now it's Saturday night and snow still glows outside in our yard. It looks so light out when it's snowy. I love it. I have been a little aimless, despite this luxury of time and this cozy setting and this permission to go nowhere and be nowhere, as everything is cancelled. Sure, I've been doing the usual chores but I've also been smiling when I look outside and helping redistribute wet piles, letting an excited dog in and out of the snow, making hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies, watching movies, taking pictures of the snow while it's here.

Avery made snow into some kind of ice creamy slurry. Julia has been meeting her best bud Emily at "their spot" and playing. They used containers to create a snow wall, which then turned into a tool to help fling snow at each other. I got out with them for a bit and it was fun, brought out the kid in me like a treehouse or an ice cream cone.

The only one who reads this blog now is my kid's preschool teacher, (Hi Penny!) but if you are here reading, delurk and leave me a comment.  I will do some sort of giveaway to the readers who keep on comin' back. A little nugget from Filbert and Fern, how'bout, in celebration of the snow, that makes us hopeful, gives us permission to go nowhere if we want, that turns adults into kids again, that I hope sticks around for just a bit longer.