Snow Snow Snow

It snowed again!!  The snow started in the afternoon on Wednesday and continued through Thursday morning.  It did not stop until it had left another 6-7 inches (15-18cm) !!  It is only the beginning of December and we already have a foot (30cm) of snow on the ground.  It has been enough to disrupt our schedules.  We kept the kids home on Monday because of the snow, we skipped gymnastics on Wednesday afternoon, skipped school on Thursday and no Czech lessons on Thursday.  While the kids school did not close we chose safety over school and kept the kids home anyway.  The school is horrible about clearing parking lots and pathways and I refuse to drop my children off on a main road to cross the street and walk up a side street by themselves in slippery, snowy condtions.  I wouldn't allow that in good conditions so I certaily wouldn't allow it in snowy conditions.  The kids did not mind having a snow day though.  They spent a lot of time outside and loved it.  On Monday they spent two hours out on our road with me while I shoveled and they didn't complain once.  When I was finished shoveling we came back into our yard where they played for another hour.  On Thursday Jason also stayed home and even though he was working it meant I could leave the kids in the house or in the yard while I went out to shovel our road again.  They did take some time inside but by the time I came back from shoveling they were sledding in the back yard again.  It is nice to see them thoroughly enjoying the snow.  It is also great that they have reached the age to play together and have a really good time.  While the kids enjoyed playing I did some not quite so enjoyable work and shoveled our road for three hours.  For reasons unfathomable to me the people on our road do not shovel so I do the entire thing myself.  One of the men our our road spent an hour trying to get his car up the hill through 12" (30cm) of snow!  It would have taken him less time to shovel the entire hill!!  The lady a little further down the hill was outside with a BROOM!! Who shovels that much snow with a broom???  I then went past her and shoveled out in front of her house.  I did feel like I made some progress though when I got to the bottom of the hill and the lady I saw while I was shoveling after the first storm came home and took a brand new snow shovel out of her car.  Now, I didn't see her use it but it is progress over the digging shovel she had the other day.  Maybe by the end of winter I will have a little help shoveling the road.  I will admit though that it is very gratifying to drive on our road now and know that I cleared all of it.  It definitely gives me a "job well done" feeling.