Snow Day

It's a snow day here in Seattle, and I mean that in the most third grade way possible.  Literally, about three inches of snow on the ground and schools are closed, city buildings (probably) shut down, buses running snow routes, etc.  It's so great!  If you aren't from Seattle, you may think we're a bunch of wimps.   Au contraire, mon ami!  It is wisdom that drives us to close up shop, stay home, and refuse to drive on our ice-covered hills.  The slip-sliding is so bad that many people have to park at the bottom of a hill and walk up it in order to get home safely.  Humility allows us to see that the work-a-day world will not actually fall apart without us.

Tuesdays happen to be my busiest teaching day, but looking out the window this morning made it an easy decision to cancel my morning classes.  Well, the Mommy/Baby class that I teach in Bellevue was canceled for me, but I called my local students and kept my studio closed this morning.

On the radio they're soliciting listener reactions to all this snowy weather.  What are people doing with the time home?  Are they starting to feel housebound?  How are they managing?  I find this funny.  It assumes that staying home, away from work or other commitments, is a waste of time or in some other way not what people want to be doing.  Surely they will become bored, feel listless...after all, nothing will "get done".  Ummmm, who are these people whose homes run so smoothly (in spite of 40+ hour workweeks) that there's nothing for them to do on a Tuesday at home?  I have been doing things here and there since our first snow day last Thursday, and still I plan to:

• finish knitting the sweater I started almost two years ago, sew in ends on a baby blanket, and a handful of other "finishing" projects that have laid in my stash for too long
• do laundry
• clean the upstairs bathroom
• vacuum
• take it easy to alleviate my cramps (between the other "to do" items - ha!)
• meditate
• watch a movie I rented last night
• try to find my website (I lost it trying to get it to forward - a thing that was supposed to be easy but resulted in my website being lost in [cyber]space)
• maybe teach my evening yoga class

And we're only two grown-ups and a dog!  It seems to me that there's plenty to do, it just isn't the kind of work that people consider worthwhile - it's the kind of stuff you do when you have to, as in "I have no more clean socks to wear and it'll take me too long to knit a new pair.  I guess I should do a load of laundry."

For me, it's all about perspective.  I wouldn't say housework is my favorite activity.  On the other hand, the fact that I have a home to clean, that I have the kind of schedule that allows me to do housework when I want to, my ability to choose to do it with a sense of joy - these are all blessings.  This snow day, another opportunity to take care of some things that, yes, need to be done, but that also underscore how wonderfully full my life is, is a great day as far as I'm concerned.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've a load of laundry to fold.  Happy snow day!

Comments

[Kerrie]

I never considered that you'd actually be blogging on your blog! No idea why I didn't think to look sooner. :)

Hope you're enjoying your snow day as much as I am.