Do you know what day it is?

Wednesday February 19th

Today is National Chocolate Mint Day - treat yourself to a York peppermint patty.

Today is also the day Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood debuted in 1968. I was a babe of 2 months!

Today marks the birth of Cherry Coke. (1985)

Today is considered International Friendship day.

And today is " Linda and Peter's Family Day".  Eleven years ago today, Peter came to live with me.

Do you know what day it is?

Today, February 15th  is officially Single Awareness Day.

I have a couple of packs of cocktail napkins in my pantry if anyone wants to celebrate.

And if that holiday doesn't work for you, it is also National Gumdrop Day.

I went for a walk.

On day three of being snow bound,  I decided to go for a walk.

I head out through my neighborhood to the nearby post office.

 My Local Post Office

 What happened to

 "Neither Rain, Sleet, nor Snow"??

       

 I take the Long Way Home

Fountain at the Local College

As I am walking, I get a phone call.

 Larry took a fall at home and is at the Emergency Room just a few blocks from where I am.

3 hours and 10 stitches later and he is good to go.  

So I head out for home.  

I discover that while I was inside the hospital, the sun has come out.

Do you know what today is??

I have recently become amused with the lesser known "holidays" and national days as well as "this day in history." There are a couple of websites that help me stay alerted to these reasons to "celebrate!" I like to incorporate them in my school calendars, lesson plans and the chalkboard outside my house.  For example a couple of weeks ago I made chocolate cake for my kiddos in celebration of National Chocolate Cake Day. I have decided to continue sharing reasons to celebrate through my bog.  You will find them in the post titled "Do you know what today is??"

Today is Get A Different Name Day.   Today is the day to go by the name you always thought you should have been called or to give up the name that you thought too plain or to difficult to spell or pronounce.  Just for today, you can get a new name.  When Peter was 10 he was upset that his new friends had learned his last name.  Though it is a simple name it does lend itself to teasing.  I remember him telling me he wanted to change  his name to Peter Smith or Peter Jones.  Well today's the day Peter.  Because I am fascinated with names, I really like Get A New Name Day.  Oh don't get me wrong, I like my name.  But for one day I can pick a name that fits the mood of the day.  Considering the weather and how cold my fingers and toes are just call me Elsa! (Miss the reference? - Elsa is the snow queen in the new Disney movie Frozen. And we are still snow bound!) 

This is Not Siberia

Last week during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, there was a clip about Siberia Russia. The weather can get down to minus 50 degrees. The people who live there tend to be native of Siberia and acclimated to the extreme and continual cold.   Ice and snow is a way of life for the people. Well lets just make it clear that I am not writing you from Siberia.  Ice and snow is NOT a way of life for us Southerner's. Thus when snow and ice hits in my town, life as we know it pretty much stops.

This is our second "snow storm" of the season.  Just two weeks ago we were home bound because of ice and snow. Well here we are again. If you are from the northern part of the US, this is probably an unbelievable phenomenon to you. A town seemingly shutting down every time it gets frozen precipitation is likely laughable. The truth is, we just don't have what it takes to function in such weather so the safest place for folks on a day like today is home.

This is day two.  Yesterday's snow shut down schools as well as some other businesses although it was a moderate snow.  I understand it mainly was in preparation for what was to come today.  I woke up today to a beautiful white, quiet. There were no people out and no cars running.  The only movement was the fall of a snow/ice precipitation.  I heard and saw people out and about as the day progressed however I personally spent the day on my computer. You see the big talk of the weather people is that the frozen precipitation will continue throughout tonight and with it the increased chances of loosing electricity.  So yesterday evening I began my preparation for "the big Shut Down.".

Last night I made sure that I had food that I could eat (cookies in particular) without needing to cook. All my cooking devices are electric.  Then I made sure that all my clothes were clean. Granted I have enough clothes for 3 weeks without washing but I needed to make sure that all my favorites were clean.  Then I vacuumed because if the power goes out, I wont be able to. That makes sense, right,  I showered so that I would be clean and shaved my legs. Considering that I live alone, I am not sure why I felt shaving my legs was necessary, but I did. I gathered candles, filled up buckets with water, and made sure all electronics including my I-pod were charged.  Today I have sent e-mails, wrote a newsletter, downloaded pictures, and even surfed the net because "tomorrow I may not be able to!" And now I am writing a blog entry because when one is home bound for three or four days, there is no excuse for not writing a post. Considering that I still have electricity, I think I will throw my blanket in the dryer, fix a hot drink  and curl up on the couch with a movie.  Because like I said, this is not Siberia and cold and ice is not my way of life!

Time is not the Issue

During our recent local "Snow and Ice storm" I made a discovery.  First of all you have to remember that I live in the South therefore "Snow and Ice Storm" is a loose term.  However the weather and it's effects on our roads did close down schools in our area for three days. Having both of my jobs connected to the school systems, as a result I had three days off essentially to stay at home. Each night as I received word that I did not have school the next day, I would declare "great, tomorrow I am going to catch up on my school paper work!"  Yet it is Sunday night and that school paperwork has not been caught up on. Granted my nails have been filed, my eye brows plucked,  thank you notes written, and my laundry room cleaned out.  I baked cupcakes for a friend's birthday, baby sat, started dog sitting, painted on a rug for school, made a music CD for my after school program, took my brother to lunch and even read most of a book recommended by my counselor.  I kept up with my training runs, cooking, dishes, laundry, and communication via various technology.  I used my time productively but not on the "cloud over my head" project of school paper work. Therefore my discovery is that I have not done it because I don't have time but because I plain don't want to. I use "too busy" and "no time" as my excuse but the truth is I don't want to do and until I am pushed against the wall I probably won't. What I am to do with the discovery is not exactly clear but perhaps for starters I should stop claiming that it is not done because "I just don't have the time."  Because anyone that knows I was "snowed in" for three days knows that is just not true.

If You Take A Girl to a Thrift Store

I am a big fan of  a series of children's books by Laura Numeroff which include such titles as IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE, IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PANCAKE and IF YOU GIVE A MOOSE A MUFFIN. At Christmastime I read IF YOU TAKE A MOUSE TO THE MOVIES to my preschool class and spend the day engaged in activities based on the story. It is one of my favorite Christmas school days. These stories tell of the chain of events that are initiated by one simple act and how they usually come back around to where it began.  I believe the stories are fun for children because of the simple story and fun pictures. I suspect adults find them humorous because of how much truth they portray.  Recently I found myself creating my own version of Ms. Numeroff's stories.

IF YOU TAKE A GIRL TO A THRIFT STORE

If you take a girl to a Thrift store there might be a "Everything's a Dollar" Sale.

And if everything is a dollar, the girl will consider items she wouldn't normally buy.

She will buy a cream colored vintage looking dress because it fits, it's fun and it's a dollar.

When she buys the dress for a dollar she will have to take it to the dry cleaners to be cleaned.

While the dress is at the dry cleaners she will begin to think about what shoes she will wear with the dress.

The girl will decide she doesn't have the right shoes and that she needs a new pair of boots.

So then the girl will shop all the clearance sales for a pair of boots.

When she can't find a pair of boots in the store she will go home and get on the internet.

She will look at several shoe websites and determine that boots are too expensive.  

Then she will remember that she has a gift card for Target and look for boots there.

Target will have red dressy cowboy boots on sale and the same price as the gift card.

So the girl will order the red dressy cowboy boots from Target then wonder "what in the world she was thinking buying red dressy cowboy boots!"

While waiting for the boots she will decide she need to buy a red belt to match the boots.

She will buy a red belt, pick up the dress at the the dry cleaners and wait for the boots.

After the boots come she will get nervous about baring her legs in the cold and decide she needs tights.

She will go in search of cream colored tights but there wont be any so she will buy periwinkle blue tights.

At home, she will decide she is too shy to wear blue tights and red boots with a cream colored dress.

Then she will remember that she has brown shoes that will go nicely with the dress. 

She will trade the blue tights for taupe tights to wear with the cream colored dress and brown shoes.

That's when she will see the red boots and want something to wear with them.

And chances are, she will want to go to the Thrift store