I've missed this

The school may have not declared it a snow day, but I did. For the first time in my tenure as a mama, I got to tell bleary-eyed children that they got to stay home from school and laze the day away.

The sleet had begun in the middle of the night and everything was soaked and pelted as we awoke. The temperatures were going to dance on both sides of the 32 mark all day and I just didn't want to deal with having it all ice over before it was time to get them to school. Well, that's the official version, anyways. Rumor was that it was going to start snowing before the morning was up and I hated the thought of my poor little Texans being stuck in a classroom the only time it ever snowed real snow in their yard.

I can't exactly say we had a picturesque blanketing softening the landscape, but we did have enough to cover up the cars, porch and dirt. The girls were in and out all day, bringing friends with them to warm up just enough to go outside again. Charlie, still sick, made it out two or three times to experience the crunchy feeling of walking on snow. The girls, feeling pity for their baby brother, brought in bowls of snow for him to eat.

We spent some time at the kitchen table, practicing writing numbers and counting money. They read me a book or two each. I sent them to play and got out the griddle to cook breakfast-for-lunch and must say that there's something remarkable about the idea of a single surface that can make your bacon, eggs, pancakes AND toast just right.

After getting the call that work was closed for the afternoon, I spent most of the afternoon cleaning out the pantry, the cabinets and the top of the fridge. Got all my cake decorating stuff finally located in one drawer and got rid of the random bits of stuff that had fallen into the back of the up-high cabinets, unseen for the last year. I know it's a bit cheesy, but I got my kitchen back the way I like it to be, saved from the entropy that had encroached upon it.

Even though I was ready to sell all of them to the Gypsies around 4 p.m. when they were whining and arguing while I was trying to get things wrapped up, a warm snack improved their moods and the girls took turns playing with Charlie and tolerating him during his repetitive and anxious play that drives us all crazy. Melody said, "I wish I had autism, so I would want to play like Charlie does and could know how he feels." Sweet, precious kid.

After dinner, we snuggled up to watch UP and they're falling asleep one by one. Dixie's on Daddy under a warm blanket on one couch, Melody and Charlie's head on the same pillow on another. I don't get days very often where I just get to be mom anymore. All these jobs, all this paperwork, all this stuff that takes over my time . . . doesn't leave me a whole lot of time to just be mom.