We thought FOR SURE school would be canceled here on Thursday. We're not used to sub-freezing temperatures in southwest Missouri. And 58% of the children in our district are on free or reduced-price lunches. Many of these kids are poorly suited for cold weather, lacking warm coats or proper shoes. Without socks. Or gloves. Or hats. Most of them walk (up to two miles) or ride the school bus. Yes, it's a toss up as to whether or not having these kids at a warm school building with a hot breakfast and lunch is better than them staying at a home that may not be adequately heated and perhaps with less than ideal food, but I'm still of the opinion that it's better to keep everyone at home than send them out in such frigid weather.
The superintendent did not agree with my thinking, and we went to school.
I shall now make myself find Ten Things of Thankful that we are experiencing this hideous weather system and forced to go out in it.
1. Layer upon layer of clothing makes EVERYONE look fat.
2. If we had HAD school canceled because of the cold, I would have stayed home and baked all day, and then it wouldn't have been just the layers of clothing that made me look fat.
3. I do love wearing a hat in the winter.
4. Kitties are very snuggly and warm and always willing to cuddle with you.
5. You remember how, in the hot, hot summer, you get in the car after it has set in the sun for hours and the metal part of the seat belt touches your bare leg and nearly gives you third degree burns? Yeah, that hasn't happened this week.
6. I pull out my minkrat coat and wear it everywhere. My mother in law bought a full length, fake fur coat for herself from QVC about twelve years ago. She is, shall I say, short and a little on the wide side, and, although I never actually saw her in the coat, I suspect she resembled Nanook of the North in it. She gave it to me, and while it's big enough around for me and at least one other person, it nearly reaches my ankles and blocks any and all wind. And makes me look like a pimp, especially since I wore it this week with a hat and big sunglasses. I want to wear a sign that says, "It's FAKE!" as it looks and feels pretty realistic, but I just sail into Walmart in it, pretending not to notice the glances and outright stares of other customers.
7. Snowman crafts at preschool are a must when it's cold. We painted the bottoms of our primary kids' feet white, pressed the foot onto a piece of dark blue paper, and turned them into snowmen.
8. There's no snow or ice falling out of the sky.
9. It's great weather for straightening curly hair. No warmth in the air means no humidity, and THAT means no frizz.
10. Only two months and 11 days until spring officially begins!
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| Pouty school-shoulda-been-canceled face. |
Are you staying warm this week? (And if you live somewhere like Florida and it's "only" 60 degrees or something, please keep your pie hole shut.) Find your thankfuls in this week and link them up, below.
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Frist??? I never have been before. I HAAAAAAATE the cold as well. You are rockin' the pimp look.
ReplyDeleteFRIST! Really, if it's going to be this cold, then we should have snow to look at. And thank you - at least I'm a WARM pimp!
DeleteBryan and the 13 year old are in Texas for his trip. They just finished 2 rounds of putt putt. It is 30 degrees in their area of Texas. They have every right to complain, I'm thinking! All public schools here were either delayed or canceled, but the school where my 3 middle kids go didn't even have a delay. No buses. No bus stops. No kids freezing to death. Th school they go! Preschool, though, was cancelled. Happy dance for me!
ReplyDeleteSorry you had to go, though. I know how much you like your days off.
Your family manages to bring unseasonable temps to warm climates, don't they? Brrr! I really do like my snow days (or cold days). Bonus days!
DeleteZipping my mouth here. You're welcome to come visit.
ReplyDeleteI could use a little desert weather! Although, seriously, one of the coldest days of my life was spent trying to look at poppies on the high desert. Bitter winds. Not dressed for it. Pregnant. Poppies cold, too, and hiding themselves.
DeleteBe careful, I may show up on your doorstep!
What a welcome surprise that would be! (Thanks for verifying that California can be cold, by the way. The winds are nothing to sneeze at--figuratively or literally!)
DeleteA witch's tit. I refrained from putting that in my post this week. Pure misery. I hate this weather. BUt I so, so wish I could see you in that coat. Pimp Dyanne!
ReplyDeleteWould you like a little fun fact about reconstructed boobies (I can only speak for my own and don't know if this is universal)? They really ARE cold as a witch's tit! The circulation isn't the same in the reconstructed boobs, and they are always cold. Frighteningly so. Like when I'm nekkid and I brush my arm against them, they are so cold they make me jump.
DeleteWe are clearly long lost relatives. Witch's tit was the one that I filled in, too!
DeleteAnd why, exactly, are witches' tits cold, anyway?
DeleteOhhh, no pouty-face, Miss Dyanne!! At least, it kills the bugs. If this is going to be the second winter in a row without proper freezing for a couple of weeks straight, I don't even want to imagine this summer. The past year was bad enough bug-wise!
ReplyDeleteHearing about these poor kids without proper clothes (not even socks and gloves) make my heart break. Let me know if I can send some stuff the girls have outgrown to help out!
Even though you may not agree, we had a winter in KS with an ice storm that brought down power lines. We lived in a new development that had power during all that time, so after 2 days, we moved a family of 5 in with us who had been without power. Even a few hours later, their hands and feet were still red and blue from the cold. So I think being in the heated school house with warm meals is certainly preferrable to being in a potentially unheated home!
I hope you have a great week of cuddles with the kitties.
I don't know if I believe that bug thing. Every year, it was either too cold to kill the bugs or too warm to kill the bugs or too dry to kill the bugs or too wet to kill the bugs. I think there's just gonna be bugs!
DeleteYou are so sweet to want to send the girls' stuff! The teachers at our schools are pretty good about getting help for their students. We have a program in our district called Bright Futures that helps out with that. But just because you provide the warm clothes doesn't mean the parents are going to see that the children wear them. Poverty is so sad!
Oh, you're right that sometimes it is better for the kids to be in school than in a cold home! It's a tough call, when the only way for so many of them to get to school is to walk. At least this time there wasn't ice or snow on the ground. If there had been, they definitely would have canceled school, as the walk would have been dangerously cold AND slippery. And midwest ice storms are the worst! I think it's funny that you lived in Manhattan, not really terribly far from me!
Cuddle my Calvin for me!
I've worked in a Middle School in Manhattan for a while, and we had poor kids there. One of them didn't even have a pencil case. And when the Special Ed teacher told her that she needed a pencil case, she came to school with her pencils in a Crown Royal velvet satchel. The staff collected money to buy her a pencil case and some clothes for that poor girl. Beign a teacher definitely can be heartbreaking sometimes.
DeleteCalvin will definitely get some extra cuddles tonight! Let me know if you need some stuff after all!
oh it is so cold and I too hate the cold too - today after religion class I had to drop off the car at the mechanics and the kids and and I made the trek back home first we stopped at dunkin,we had to get a latte (something to keep us warm for the 6 blocks walk ) when we arrived home me & Amelia cuddled under a blanket. BRRRR hats are awesome! :)
ReplyDeleteYOU WALKED SIX BLOCKS IN THIS COLD?! I think I'm going to die walking 6 yards from the house to the car in the driveway! Hope the car is fixed and you warmed up!
DeleteHATS ARE DA BOMB!
cold is our friend! ALthough I have to say I do not look nearly as cute as you in it! And the pimp coat! The glasses are perfect but shouldnt you be in platforms and a fur wide brimmed hat?
ReplyDeleteCold is certainly NOT our friend.
DeleteHats and big glasses hide the lines around the eyes and the wild hair.
I need a grill....
It hurts my heart to think of kids who don't have enough food, warm clothes, heat...hurts a lot. I do really hate the cold. It makes my RA hurt. When it's so cold like that, I just ache. Bad ache. That's when cats who are willing to cuddle are so great and the fact that my Hub gives off heat (for real...like a space heater) is a very good thing.
ReplyDeleteI am always happier to stay inside when it's that cold. I hate just going from house to car, never mind standing shivering at a bus stop. I say cancel school - from the side of the parent, the teacher, and the whiner!
As for hair...no humidity means total frizz and static for me. I live with a dryer sheet in my pocket until the spring.
It needs to be spring.
It's very sad to see kids who don't have enough.
DeleteSince my surgery, when I get shivery cold, it hurts my stomach muscles, where the tummy tuck was for the reconstruction. Weird.
The good news is that with no humidity, I can get straight hair. The bad new is that it is also flat hair. Oh, well. I keep a spray can of Static Guard at preschool for little girls who come in with wild, static-y hair.
It definitely needs to be spring.
My hair has been strangely straight for about two weeks. (Ok. RELATIVELY straight or in most people's experience only large hot curler curly.) Anyhoo.... I had not connected that to the super dry air. Naturally, I was attributing it to menopause- my go-to diagnosis which I have blamed for all manner of maladies! ~May@Achieving Clarity
ReplyDeleteMine is only straight in this weather because I spray it with a straightening solution, straighten it as I blow it dry, and use the straightening iron, but it takes half the time as usual and tends to stay that way (until I have a hot flash in the night, then I wake up with it curly again, like Cinderella and the pumpkin shizz).
DeleteThe only real changes I have noticed with my forced menopause is that my skin is dry, my goat hairs more abundant, and my fingernails brittle.
I don't get nasty looks when I wear the minkrat - more like envious. Because they don't have all their own teeth and think it's real.
ReplyDeleteI felt VERY pouty, but I'm glad it cheered you!
Warm up on the way by next weekend!
hate the cold, of course… but extreme cold? at least thats kinda interesting… (hint: I grew up in the 60s)… like when it gets so cold that your nose hairs freeze up? ja, ja ja!!
ReplyDeleteI don't like "extreme" anything. And that horrible moment when you first go outside and breathe through your nose and the hairs freeze and you think you're going to suffocate? Yeah, hate that, too.
DeleteOMG... :D well hop on a plane and come here...it is very hot! as in very!
ReplyDeleteOur kitties have been especially cuddly since the temps dropped. I like the lower temps as I love being burried under as many blankets as hubby will let me put on the bed. In florida we don't get to do that very often.
ReplyDeleteI Think the low humidity is the part I like the best about this time of year!
lol love the look on our face! I hate cold weather and am so glad that we do not get much of it! It's been cold here the last couple of days and I am already over it!
ReplyDeleteBeing thankful does help me survive the cold season.
ReplyDeleteI especially like #2. :-)
The other day - mind you, I am a teacher - it was so cold here in North Carolina that I decided to wear long underwear, my army wool pants, and my extra puffy extra ugly down jacket. Maybe it wasn't the quintessential teacher outfit, but at zero degrees with -15 windchills, I didn't care. I'm with you: the cold traumatizes me. Haha. Here's to warmer weeks ahead. That groundhog better not see his shadow on Feb. 2. ;)
ReplyDeleteBRRRRRR! I hate the cold weather too. I feel like everything between Christmas and March is a grey,cold wasteland. So, I love #10 and feel the same way. You totally rock that hat and sunglasses. I just wish you had included a picture of yourself walking through Walmart in your minkrat pimp coat. I can just imagine it. Stay warm and have a wonderful week!
ReplyDelete