Greetings from the great frozen South

Oh hi... it has been a while. So to let you in on what I've been up to since the start of the month, lots and lots of new semester fun.  Lots of good intentions to post have turned into early bedtimes and early mornings at school.  With a student teacher that needs some assistance plus the roll out of a major program I'm heading up at school... well I've been treading water.

But then we got an inch of ice on Monday night essentially shutting down all life in NC.  Add to it that school has been out for FOUR days and well, we are all a little punchy.  All has not been lost, as the ice lead to some awesome sledding for the boys and some cold mom standing outside making sure that the them of these ice days did not involve a Urgent Care visit.   This year mom was totally prepared with shovels, ice melt, and correctly sized snow pants for all concerned.

 *Note that Ben offered to break up the ice with a baseball bat.  Not a bad idea given it took mom and dad most of a day to scrape our driveway and sidewalks.

Ben convinced me that going down on our neighbor's skateboard was a primo idea.  *Note I let him once as we didn't have helmets with us. Our neighbor's daughter slid into the lake near our house while walking on the way home.  Mom went in after her and all was ok, but very scary and very, very cold.  Earlier this winter I saw a group of kids and their PARENT attempting to walk across a frozen section of lake. It was all I could do to roll down my window and scream, "didn't you ever see that Little House on the Prairie when even Pa Ingalls couldn't save the town's children from an icy death."

Come on, Parents... be a parent!

Poor Ian so badly wanted to make snow angels.  On Wednesday afternoon we had a crazy burst of white powder snow, perfect for a snowball fight, so it was kids vs adults (minus Bill, who was still at work.)

Speaking of work, our new Principal allowed us to log hours at home.  A first for me in the work at home revolution.  I've been grading lots of piled up work, but mostly I've been working on my National Boards renewal due in a couple of months.  The same process when I initially certified a decade ago, there were no children in the house (only that I was pregnant with Ben).

I planned out a YEAR IN ADVANCE how and when I would videotape and then write the supporting commentaries.  Needless to say, I'm amazed between traipsing around outside with the kids, cleaning up the kitchen a gazillion times, and hosting the 3rd grade posse that I found time to start planning writing the four entries, but I would say 28 pages later.  Yes... 28 pages of edited content and a serious timeline/plan for finishing established before the May 15th deadline, that I am secretly thanking these snow/ice days.

How did I spent last year's NINE snow days, might you ask?  Trying to avoid watching Air Bud with the boys and cursing the weather all the while applying for summer teacher workshops.  Since all of the traditional school make up days minus one are when I'm at the AP Gov't reading in Salt Lake City, I could care less when we make them up.

*Note that the joy of 3rd grade homework continued even with SNOW!  A week's worth of homework sent home on Monday.  I attempted to make it *fun* by convincing Ben we could curl up together and share a fire and blanket.  The family that does schoolwork together, stays together!