Holy Snow Day In Georgia!

In South Georgia we rarely see snow… Other than my years up north, I can remember two times before now that it snowed: once on my sixth birthday (in MARCH) and again when my mom and stepdad got married and went on their honeymoon. To say that it’s something we’re not used to in this area is an understatement. Even after living up north for several years, I still cringe when I hear about snow in the south. I cringe because, well, we’re simply not prepared for snow in South Georgia.

When I saw the weather report, I knew what would happen… I didn’t know to the extreme, but I knew everything would get shut down. I went Monday, while the boys were in school, and did my regular grocery shopping, but picked up a few goodies to prepare for the possibility of being stuck indoors for a day or two. We southerners are made fun of for buying milk and bread when we hear of bad weather coming, but for some reason, I grabbed extra of those as well, just in case. Monday evening, I was not surprised when I got the call that school was cancelled for the following day, but I was thankful to have prepared.

When we woke up on Tuesday, the boys were confused as to why they were out of school… It was just cold. I refused to go anywhere though, knowing that the temperature was supposed to drop and that sleet and snow were supposed to be here by the afternoon. Afternoon came and went, and still there was no snow. My boys were thankful to have had a pajama day with nothing pressing to do, and spent most of the day watching videos from Amazon Prime. Finally, that evening, the snow came, and we watched it from the window while we drank hot chocolate.

The next morning we woke up to find snow all around us (about 4 inches). For the first time in years, I had the chance to play with my boys in the snow, and we had a blast! Because our town was simply not prepared for weather like this, I still knew better than to go anywhere, but I had to think of something fast… My boys are officially full-fledged Georgians like their mommy and they don’t like being cold! We came inside and decided to keep our day of fun going.

Even though it is so easy to get sucked into everything that technology has to offer, it was important to me to be able to show my boys that they didn’t have to have their tablets or the tv to have fun, that all we really needed was each other. We played Snakes and Ladders for what seemed like hours and then ate a great big supper before coming back to their room to read stories and play with their monster trucks and then watch the stars that their star projector projected onto their ceiling.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the third day off… That phone call shocked me. I love my kids, but two days on lockdown is enough to make anyone insane. If I had thought that it would be three whole days, I would have gotten more for us to do… Instead, here we were. I woke up at 5:00 and savored my quiet time, knowing that chaos was coming when they woke up to day three at home with mom and nowhere to go. I started wishing that I drank when my kids were home… A margarita sounded really good when I heard the first one wake up at 7:30.

When they got up, they ate their breakfast… Of course, I let my guard down and left the room only to find out later that the oldest thought it was a good idea to dump a half cup of sugar into his oatmeal and then add more water thinking I wouldn’t notice. This day is starting great was all I could think… I turned into the mean mom. I told him that he had to eat all of it. He said it looked nasty. I told him it wasn’t my fault, just eat it. An hour passed… He had eaten one bite. He threw the bowl to the ground. Not wanting to show that I didn’t have a clue about what I should do, I gave him his spoon and told him that he could either eat it off the floor or he could clean it up and then sweep and mop the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

Thank God that child didn’t call my bluff. He quickly cleaned his mess and then went about his way of finding something to do. To the game closet he went and found “Pick Up Sticks” (I believe this is his favorite because he has a head for strategy and math) and asked me if I would play it with him. We played about 10 games of Pick Up Sticks before the youngest decided that mommy needed to practice building balloon animals. All that this resorted to was laughter… We found out that still, without a doubt, mommy cannot make balloon animals; even with the step by step guide that I had.

I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to spend some time at home with two of the greatest kids on the planet… I will admit though, when my phone rang again and I saw the school’s phone number on the caller id, my stomach was in knots. But thank goodness it was just to tell me that today, school is in session, and mommy gets a much needed break!