Day Two Hundred Seventy-Two

Sometimes it's the absence of anxiety that makes you realize how much anxiety is "normal."

So, snow day! WOOOO! The whole build-up to it was wildly different than any other snow day I can remember. First, when the forecast came out, there wasn't the usual stress about it. Nobody from work called me to say they wouldn't be in the office. I didn't spend hours staring at a calendar and trying to decide which meetings REALLY couldn't be moved and which ones would best be delayed. I didn't care if the forecast was accurate or not because it wasn't going to change anything either way.

And, most of all, I didn't spend a whole lot of energy trying to figure out what to do with the girls. The big one can deal with an early release without assistance, but often activities continue to run even when school lets out early. I can't even begin to count how many times I've had to figure out how to make sure she got picked up and moved to another place in the midst of a snow storm.

It's a lot.

The other one ... now she is the REAL challenge.

Mila absolutely cannot get herself on or off a bus without adult supervision. So during kindergarten, if she had an early dismissal, I had to bail from work or call 14 neighbors until I found one who could take her. Even then, it was chaotic because there are two kids in this house and apparently I'm supposed to know where they both are? Or something? School cancellations are worse because there's nothing to be done with a small kid except to be home with her. Taking a day off is easy; taking a day off without notice is not.

Today, though. Today the girls woke up and wandered to their office just like they do every day. They did their school work and I did my work and it was all very ... normal? You'd never know there were flakes falling outside. Well, except for the part where Mila REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to go out to play. She was so motivated to go outside that she managed to finish her school day by 10:00 am. As in, she focused in a way I didn't know the kid was capable of focusing and just knocked out an entire day's worth of school work in two hours.

She then played outside all. day. long. Her little cheeks were rosy and red, her button nose resembled Rudolph's, and she was shivering as she stumbled back inside. And she was deliriously happy. She was so happy that it was almost like she had a sanctioned half-day at school and used the afternoon for fun which she has never gotten to do because during the Before Times, I wouldn't have been able to stay at work and watch her through the window and been totally fine with it.

So hooray for snow days! Especially these ones that don't cause a major interruption to all of life.