Daddy Days

We love the snow. It's so pretty, and as long as it doesn't interfere with our electricity, we welcome its arrival. During my Arkansas school days, my sisters and I REALLY looked forward to the snow because that meant school was canceled and we had a FREE day!!! When we lived in California, we didn't have snow days--we had "mud" days. It didn't rain very often, so when it did, we just had mud. Since we lived on a 2 mile dirt road, we ended up having a 2 mile mud road, which meant that on rare occasions we would be stuck at home until the road dried.

Even when I was working, I enjoyed being snowed in. Technically the days were not "free" because my job never paid for snow days--I had to cash in vacation or sick days. Niah doesn't have fond memories of snow days--maybe because her school never closed. The school stayed open which meant that the kids who didn't show up had to make up the school work when they came back.

Now that we are homeschooling, the snow doesn't stop us from having school. We may celebrate the colder weather with a hot cup of cocoa, but we continue on with our assignments as usual...which leads me to subject #2.

Occasionally TJ gets off from XPEDX a few hours earlier than expected, and he "surprises" us by coming home. The girls (and now T2, too!!!) are always very excited, but I have to admit...I haven't always been thrilled. My lack of enthusiasm was not because of TJ (though I'm sure he thought THAT a time or two!), but it was because of the crimp in MY SCHEDULE. I had a list of school assignments and household responsibilities that were not going to get done now that Daddy was home. Sometimes I tried to continue with school, but the kids' minds were not focused. Often times the end result was me just feeling frustrated.

Then it dawned on me . . . . we needed to substitute SNOW DAYS for DADDY DAYS!!! We now have a new rule: If Daddy is home, it's a DADDY DAY! We get to stop doing all school and just enjoy our Daddy. So instead of feeling frustrated, we just shut down and reschedule it to another day...just like everyone else does for snow days.

Now for the big finale!!! Yesterday it started snowing, and we ended up with 5-6 inches. All the schools in our area are closed. We normally do homeschool PE on Fridays, but that was also canceled. I went ahead and scheduled regular assignments, knowing that the kids would need something productive to do today. TJ was up early this morning getting ready for work, but after making some phone calls he told me that XPEDX would be shutting down for today. So. . . it looks like we get to have a Daddy Day AND a Snow Day!!!

In celebration of this fabulous day, I went straight back to bed (thanks, Sweetheart, for watching the kids). When I finally decided to get up, I went in the kitchen and started whipping up lots of comfort foods--cornbread (which I had to make twice because the first one didn't last long), vegetable soup, potato soup, and kugel for me! Yum! Yum! Kugel is a Jewish pasta dish made with caramelized onion, cottage cheese, sour cream, and egg noodles. I seasoned mine with salt and pepper and topped with sauteed mushrooms and zucchini. Other versions of kugel include adding cinnamon and sugar, topping with crushed graham crackers, and baking in a dish for about 30 minutes to crisp a little. The Hungarians also have a similar recipe called Turos Csusza but it calls for ham or bacon--you won't find THAT ingredient in a traditional kugel recipe!

Today has been a GREAT day! I have really enjoyed our Daddy Snow Day. I'm thankful that we (I) have gotten this issue solved. In summary, Sweetheart, YOU are now an official holiday!!!