no snow "snow day"

I'm so sad to report that Houston did not get ANY snow yesterday! The weatherman should really not get my hopes up with predictions such as "3-5 inches of snow" when all we're going to get is ice. Oh well, can't complain too much because school was cancelled and I have a nice unplanned three day weekend.

I started off my long weekend in true college throwback fashion: drinking. Fortunately, this time I already knew school was cancelled the next day, unlike that time in college where we ended up having to get up and go to school hungover haha! I hung out with Michelle and the boys and played drinking games with wine. Let me just tell you, wine is a bad thing to play a drinking game with. Oh goodness haha.

Yesterday the roads were apparently icy (though the ones outside my house looked just fine) so I spent most of the day inside. What better time to bust out a sewing project! I'm not sure who reads this, so I'm not going to post pictures of what I made yet, but when it's finished in the next week, and I give it away, then I'll post some pics. It's cute, I'll say that!

After cutting fabric for what felt like years, I spent a few hours sewing and got the majority of the thing put together. YAY! Since we'd been cooped up in the house all day Tony and I decided to go to Armadillo Palace for dinner, drinks, and live music. I invited a number of friends to come with us, but unfortunately when we got there we found out the band was cancelled and they would be closing early. Bummer. I let the friends know not to worry about meeting us there, we had dinner, and then left. We ended up stopping by blockbuster on the way home and renting a movie to watch the rest of the night.

All in all, a good no snow "snow day" .... though I'm still quite disappointed that I didn't get to see any real snow!! Oh well, maybe next year.

Lessons Learned

I was talking to someone earlier about how I had been taking my kids outside more than once to play in the snow today. Their response was, "don't you have things you need to be teaching them?"

Don't I have things I need to be teaching them? Of course! Do you know what I taught my 8 year olds today? I taught them:

- work is not the most important thing in life

- people can surprise you

- when an opportunity presents itself, you have to take it before it is too late

- no matter how old you are, you are never too old to act silly

- life is supposed to be enjoyed

- to quote the Zac Brown Band, "it's the little things in life that mean the most"

- some people will do whatever they can to make you smile

and, I taught them that I really care about each of them. I taught them that I care enough that I put their happiness and what they wanted above what "needed to get done". I taught them that their opinions matter, and that they are important to me.

So, did I teach them the 3 branches of government today? No, I didn't. But you know what? I think I taught them more than enough for one day. We'll get to the 3 branches on Monday ...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

Today was one of the best, if not the best, days of this school year. It started snowing just as school was starting at 8am and it never let up. It's still snowing right now. I'm not talking little snow flakes, I'm talking monster sized snow flakes. The kind that are so big that when you look out the window all you can see is white. Today was one day I was glad that you can see out those big windows by the library from my classroom. I was able to watch it snow ALL day! I felt like a kid at Christmas. It was wonderful!

Fairly early in the morning I had my kids put on their coats and we went outside to catch snowflakes on our tongues and dance around in the snow. You should have heard the squeals of delight. Most of them had never seen snow like that before (yeah we got a little last year, but it was nothing like this). The whole thing made my heart smile :) I ended up taking them outside 2 more times later in the day just to run around and feel the snow for a few minutes. They were on top of the world all day! I got so many hugs and "this is the best day of my life, thanks Ms. McCormack" comments. I LOVE those kids to death! I wish I could share pictures here, but I can't post pictures of students on a public blog. Just imagine 22 kids running, screaming, dancing, and sticking out their tongues while staring up at the sky haha.

In the classroom we did minimal work. I mean really, I didn't want to be in school today and I wanted to sit and watch the snow fall all day, so I KNOW those kids felt the same way! We listened to a lot of Christmas music, sang along, and had a blast.

Christmas music, kids singing, laughing, and smiling, and snow ... what could be better than that? I swear the kids eyes just sparkled a bit more than normal today. There is something that feels very magical about snow falling. :)

It is so sad to me to think that tomorrow I will wake up and it will all be over. It will be like today never happened. The magic will be gone and it will just be another cold day. It makes me yearn to live somewhere where it snows often in the winter ... maybe someday ;-) ...

On the plus side, I am going to Colorado next Thursday night, so hopefully I will see some more snow while I am there as well.