SNOW!

Mother Nature provides many new lessons in weather as more snow than we ever seen in this area is covering the ground.  Watching weather forecast, storing food and water (in event of power outage), finding camping lanterns, collecting batteries and tanks of propane became goals for the family.  Daily work of shoveling snow to areas that allow us to get to the road and the mailman to deliver mail, clearing ice from the street gutters that let the melting snow to travel down to the grates instead of pooling in the street, and pulling snow down from the roof as we check for ice damn in the house gutters.  

For this mom, who not only evacuated several hurricanes and stayed through a few, this natural disaster was a completely new endeavor.  This reminds me that each area of our country endures different weather related issues.  It is key to learn about your environment and what better way than living in it.  I connect this to the fact that children in our country live in different areas and benefit from learning differently.  I am completely against Common Core and standards pushed by the central government.  States and local government should have the input on what is required in education.  (This is of course, if any, as I would love to see every family homeschooling.) 

In case you were worried, we were not having enough fun in the snow.  There has been plenty of snowball fights, forts built, snowmen made, and sledding experienced.  It hasn't been all work and not play.