Snow Day!

Weather-wise, we're in the middle of a wintry mix, as the meteorologists love to say. It was snow-raining a minute ago, and now there are big, beautiful, fluffy snowflakes coming down, en masse. The satellite map shows solid white over us right now, but a huge purple zone is rapidly approaching: ice storm.

Every school, day care, and senior center in a four-county area is closed. Piano lessons for my younger ones were cancelled. So, it's a Snow Day in the Swart Homeschool!

We have a whole day ahead of us dedicated to playing in the snow (until the ice storm comes, anyway), snuggling up with books, maybe baking some Christmas cookies. Amazingly, I don't have to run to the grocery store for anything, and dinner is planned: a meatloaf I pulled out of the freezer, baked potatoes with sour cream, green beans almondine. (OK, in all honesty, the green beans are leftover from a little dinner party on Sunday night. I don't usually get very fancy on week nights, and green beans almondine is fancy, by my standards.)

The snow is coming down faster now and the purple ice monster is edging closer. We haven't had an ice storm in years. There is nothing as beautiful as the sun shining on an ice-coated world -- but it's a terrible beauty, as it destroys trees and anything they happen to fall on, causes car crashes, brings down power lines.

I hope everyone in the path of the storm stays warm and cozy today. And to all my homeschool friends: I hope you declare a snow day, too! :-)