But the mom in me couldn't find time to blog. I was having too much fun playing with the kids in the snow.
As far as snowstorms go, this one was just about perfect.* It was wet enough for snowballs, snow forts and snowmen, and the weather was warm enough to spend lots of time enjoying it.
As heavy as the snow was, it was surprisingly easy to clear the driveway. All I had to do was push the shovel. The snow slid easy, so I could push it right off the sides of the sidewalk and driveway. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was nuts on Saturday, trying to shovel while the storm continued to rage. But Jeff had to work, which means he'd be coming in the dark, so I wanted to at least build up some sort of banks on the edge of the driveway to give him a better idea of where to turn in. As I shoveled, I could hear my dad's voice in my head, "It's only November. Push the snow past the edges of the driveway. I don't want to have to throw snow over big banks in February."
My children are too young to pass that lesson along to quite yet. However, there's a more basic lesson they need to learn now. The goal is simple: it's to clear snow off of the driveway and sidewalk.
AJ chose the driveway as the perfect spot to build a snow fort. "Can't you drive around it?" was his response when I told him he needed to build in the yard.Meanwhile, Sydney was happy to help shovel.
Over and over again she headed into the garden, scooping up a load of snow which she then dumped onto the sidewalk.
They'll have plenty of time to learn this stuff. As always, it's going to be a looooong winter.
*A side note: I'd referenced earlier that the storm was only "just about perfect." The reason for the less-than-perfect designation is that I got stuck driving on some pretty slick roads early Saturday afternoon. AJ just got a new prescription for his glasses, so I headed out early with the kids to accomplish two things: get AJ's glasses, and give Jeff a quiet house to sleep in. The weather wasn't too bad starting out, but in the "about an hour" it took to get the new glasses made, the stormed worsened dramatically. The drive home was terrifying. I counted at least seven cars in the ditch, one of which was upside down. A lot of silent prayers were said during the 45-minute drive that usually only takes 25 minutes.
If you've watched the news reports at all, you'll know the Twin Cities really not "nailed" with heavy, heavy wet snow. For a while we were getting an inch an hour. Several of our Channel 5 news reports made GMA this weekend. The Weather Channel people were in Minneapolis & Maple Grove. At one point I measured over 8 inches on our deck rail, and it was still snowing. Maple Grove got 12 inches. Over 200,000 power outages around the state - ours was out for 40 minutes - and some are still waiting for power to be restored. Wires & trees are down. The snow was so heavy that it took Dad two tries to do the driveway, and another one to do the deck. There was no PUSHING it off. You were lucky if you could do that. I heard at one point that we had had over 500 accidents in the Twin Cities, and over 400 spin outs. Thankfully the cold weather that usually follows a storm like that waited a day so a lot of it melted yesterday. Oh yeah....WE GOT SNOW!!!!
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