snow

monday morning, my husband sauntered downstairs wearing khakis, flip flops...and a hawaiian flowered shirt. i vaguely remembered him mentioning something over the weekend about wearing this, but wasn't really paying attention. (whoops.) i basically ignored his wacky get up and went on with making my eggs. (i may have raised an eyebrow his way.) shortly after, he yelled, "ALOHA!" and threw a "hang ten" symbol in my direction when he was walking towards the door for work. i silently gave him a thumbs up...and then flipped him off when he was around the corner. (i'm not a morning person by any means.) after he left, i sincerely hoped that his shirt had something to do with a "special" day at school...and that he didn't lose his mind on that fine monday morning. (it was 26 degrees outside.) anyway, i went upstairs to wake up my two cherubs and was pleasantly surprised when no one had poop in their pants. smelling shit first thing in the morning makes me even more salty than normal. (imagine that.) both of my kids are not chipper in the early hours either, so when i wake them up...it's kinda like a trifecta of pain between us. moreover, since their birth, i have had to give up luxuries in the morning, such as showering and hot coffee. i now wash my ass at night and sip a lukewarm filled travel mug on the way to work. i'm okay with all this though, because i know all the other awesome mommy moments balance things out. (no sarcasm there, i promise.)

so enough with monday and motherhood mayhem...today there was a chance of snow. (what!?) at this point in the year (ahem, almost the end of march.) i am over it. (over the snow that is.) i'm really ready for spring. however, something magical happened today in my classroom. something that i felt the need to share, because it changed my perspective about snow...even if it is happening in the spring. as my students were sitting on the carpet this morning (and i in my rocking chair), the white stuff starting falling from the sky. believe me, i am no match for mother nature when it comes to snow and i will be the first to admit it. i know as soon as one of the kids spots it, all hell will break lose and someone is going to squeal. sure enough, one of the little boys was walking back to get a tissue and happened to look out the window. he yelped (loudly), "SNOW, SNOW! LOOK AT THE SNOW!" (oh crap.) all 34 eyeballs on the carpet turned around to gaze out the window and all concentration on the story i was reading was lost. there were screams, yells, giggles, and full on belly laughter from some of them. i slowly closed my book and said, "we can go to the window and take a peek." so i called them two at a time to walk to the window. two at a time, because if i would've said "go" there would've been a stampede. they were mesmerized and stayed there staring for a good 5 minutes. (i shoulda snuck out to the teacher's lounge for a cup of coffee or something.)

here's the thing...these kids have seen snow before. with the winter we've had...they've seen lots of it. however, each one of them acted as if it was the very first time they were looking at it. they were all in awe...over precipitation. truth be told, this happens often in my classroom with lots of things other than snow. for instance, their enthusiasm for play doh, a new story, a puppet show, a song, learning something they didn't know before, a joke, a new box of crayons or a fresh pack of markers...anything, really. kids get excited about everything. as adults, we have lot to learn from them. as the snow continued to fall outside (straight through my language arts lesson), i couldn't help but feeling like every other adult on the east coast...i was OVER IT. if mother nature was standing in the near vicinity, i would've sucker punched her in the vagina. (i'm sorry, i would.) i'm dreaming of beaches, flip flops, and short sleeve shirts...not more snow. however, in this moment, these kids somehow made me not hate it. (some of them would just randomly look out the window and smile about it.) finally, i told them if we got done our (mandated) morning work...we would go outside and play in it. they legitimately lost. their. minds. we took a couple of deep breaths and got back to work. when we finished up, they put on their coats and lined up at the door. again, their excitement was palpable. (they were going nuts, actually.) when i opened the doors to the outside, each child burst out as if shot out of a cannon and almost every one of them did the same thing...they put their heads back, tongues out, and tried to catch the flakes. (awesome.) then most were jumping, dancing, and prancing around in it. (it was fun to watch.)

in order to make our outdoor adventure educational, i brought out some black construction paper and mini magnifying glasses for each of them to use. they caught the snowflakes on their paper and then got to look at the different shapes under their magnifying glasses. (they LOVED this.) i talked to them about symmetry and how each snowflake is unique. i didn't have a lesson plan to go with this activity, but i know they still learned something. when we got back inside i wrote the word "snow" on the chalk board. we did a shared writing activity about the white stuff. they had to give me words to describe the snow or how it made them feel. they blurted out words like, fun!, excited!, white!, wet!, happy!, awesome!...to name a few. (the exclamation points were necessary, because that's how they said them.) so after doing this, my saltiness for the snow quickly faded and i saw the bigger picture. the snow is going to melt. spring will (eventually) be here. we need to stop whining about winter and (as my dad would say) suck it up! it seems that summer brings out the best in people, and winter brings out the worst. however, when seeing it through a child's eyes...it really doesn't matter what season it is or what the weather is outside. they live in the moment and soak up each day for what it's worth. we can all learn from that...or at least i did.

as i left the gym after work this evening, my husband sent me a text that said, "ella is convinced we changed her name to honey boo boo." i wrote, "i don't even know how to respond to that." first of all, she's never seen that show, nor knows who she is...so i have no idea where she got that from. second of all...what!? that's hilarious. when i walked in the front door, carrie was sitting at the table and she was coloring. with markers. all over herself. (hands covered.) i came around the corner and said to my husband, "umm...why does carrie have markers!?" butch said, "no worries! they are WASHABLE!" (ok then.) she seemed to be having a good time, so i just let it go and shook my head. (i was just glad they weren't in her mouth.) honey boo boo (i mean, ella.) was singing some crazy song, dancing around the living room, and yelled that she just added a sticker to her new chart because she peed in the potty today at the sitters. (woohoo!) as i sat down to write, the snow was still falling outside and i couldn't help but think about the little ones in my classroom today who were overly excited about this precipitation. although i am still not pumped about it, i definitely gained some perspective on the account of a bunch of five year olds and their (awesome) behavior today. before i put ella to bed, she hopped up in the bay window and yelled, "LOOK MOMMY! LOOK AT THE SNOW!" and suddenly my day came full circle. moreover, i won't be borrowing my husband's flowered hawaiian shirt or telling anyone to hang ten anytime soon with this weather...but i hope i can try to live in the moment more often. i plan on channeling my inner child until spring weather arrives, maybe you should, too, if you want to be less miserable. hey, i can even mail you a mini magnifying glass for good measure...or maybe a fresh pack of markers.