Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Weather woes, and back to school, er, lessons

Two weekends ago we did have a bit of an ice storm, though the most difficult thing was icy roads from frozen rain, then sleet (piled up -- quite a lot of it), and then more freezing rain. What a mess. Yet it was just a glaze compared to the incredibly icy, no-electricity, winter wonderland that is eastern Oklahoma.

Each afternoon, all week, the public schools decided to cancel school for the next day, until the entire week had gone by. On Friday we were bracing for a bunch of snow... maybe snow and sleet... well, maybe it'll be just 2 inches of snow mixed with sleet... gee, it's not snowing Saturday morning as promised... in fact it rained a LOT all day long, glazing the trees with icy droplets, and cleared the last of the icy crud off pavement everywhere, and snowed for about an hour after dark Saturday night. Then the temp stayed above freezing all night and by morning it had all melted. I hear it snowed in Tucson, Arizona, though!

Amid that whole week of schoolkids home from school, bookended by weather drama, we did a little bit of lessons but never quite got in the full swing of our schooltime. As of yesterday, though, we did. The schoolkids were back in school, too, and the moms I know were soooo happy to have their households back in a familiar routine. My boys were far from thrilled, but they were so ready for the return of structure and challenge! Me too.

Late at night on that first icy weekend, the ice-encrusted tops of the trees caught the light from streetlights and outdoor house lights, and glowed in such a different way. That was wonderful to see.

After all the rain last weekend, and "warm" days (upper 30s), we had a nice setup for a white frost covering all open grassy places, and every twig and leaf on trees and shrubs in open places as well. All gone now, with the sun, but another fleeting wintry pleasure.

Now, back to Latin and math. Maybe we'll watch Survivorman for science this afternoon.

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