Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
Our weather forecast was threatening for days. Every channel was a warning about how intense hurricane “Irma” was projected to be. Obviously, Floridians had to bear the brunt of the storm, but the strong winds, rain and tornadoes would threaten a large portion of the southeast. Here in our neck of the woods, south of Atlanta, we knew we would face Irma in some form. Late Sunday, area schools announced they would be closed Monday and Tuesday.

Monday, Mother Nature followed through on her threats. We live in a neighborhood in the woods, full of large pine and oak. I was worried all week that one of these beautiful trees would fall on our house. The winds of tropical storm Irma bent our trees in our back yard and drove the rain sideways. It was an impressive sight to see. Obviously, it was nowhere near damaging conditions experienced in the Caribbean, Florida or Texas. My heart aches for those who are rebuilding their lives due to the recent storms.

Our neighborhood was littered with tree limbs and downed trees, but we were lucky and had no structural damage or loss of power. Thankfully, the tree that fell on our property fell away from our house and into the street. Our neighbor had a large tree hit their deck/steps, but barely missed their house. I’m happy it wasn’t anything worse. Today we’re all helping to cleanup the debris and put this hurricane behind us.

Jack and Tate handled the storm well. They didn’t know what to expect, since this was their first hurricane. They witnessed the hysteria of all the stores running out of water, bread and milk, and gas stations low on fuel. I assured them all is well and that we had plenty of supplies. We kept our eye on the radar and hung out most of the day. We eventually meandered over to our neighbor’s house to wait out the storm together. There were moments of concern, but overall we were extremely fortunate.

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
Haley woke up yesterday so excited that it was the first day of spring. To her, the calendar indicating spring means it’s automatically warm enough for her to wear a light floral dress. I had to gently break the news to her that in reality, snow was in the forecast.

I can empathize with her. I hate the long, dreary days of winter, and I know I’m not alone. I was chatting with a neighbor about the weather the other day and he said, “I’m fine with it staying cool. Just please, please let it be sunny!” Most people I know are deeply affected by continuous gray skies. It affects our moods, our ability to be productive and think clearly, as well as our energy levels.

Interestingly, children don’t seem to be as affected. As far as I can tell, Haley’s main priority is that it’s not raining so that she can have some playtime outside. Then again if it is raining, she is thrilled to don her big rain boots and coat and splash around in puddles. She could not care less if the temperatures are freezing—that’s what hats and gloves are for! I think kids prefer the sunny days of summer, but for the most part, they appreciate each day for what it is in a way that I envy.

I always feel anxious at the start of fall, knowing that we’ll often feel cooped up in the coming months. That means more bickering between children and less steam blown off before bedtime. Luckily, this time of year means many sunny days ahead. We’re more than ready to get back out there.

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
We have had bad weather on Tuesdays for over a month. The rest of the week is fine but “tornado Tuesdays” are forecasted with hail, damaging winds and tornadoes, and it’s getting really old. Monday we’re enjoying beautiful, sunny, warm temperatures, and then on Tuesdays we hear tornado sirens and are hiding out in our safe spot.

The boys aren’t happy about the weird weather patterns either. They have been sent home from school early; soccer practice is cancelled; and Tate’s tennis lessons have been cancelled. Sometimes I don’t miss driving all over the place to practices, but I hate the dangers of extreme weather.

We are extremely lucky tornadoes haven’t hit us directly. Our friends, only 10 miles away, were hit hard by a tornado only a few weeks ago. Some only have to replace minor damage, but several friends are searching for a new home.

We cannot control the weather, a lesson I’m trying to teach my kids. We keep our kids informed about the dangers of tornadoes without scaring them. Jack likes to use the weather radar on his iPad to track the storms like his dad. Let’s hope next Tuesday is full of sunshine, and March goes out like a lamb.

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
For the last several days, local meteorologists have been predicting a “dusting” of snow in our area.  This is a big deal in the South.  Everyone’s eyes – including my own – were peeled to the forecasts trying to get accurate information.  Schools sent home letters yesterday notifying parents to keep a close watch on the weather in case of school closings.

We woke up to very little precipitation, but horrendously cold temperatures. Within minutes, the snow started to fall and road conditions rapidly got worse.  Sure enough, I received a phone call from Jack’s school announcing it was closed.  The sheer excitement on my children’s faces was priceless.  They quickly scrambled to find their warmest clothes, jackets, snow boots, hats and gloves.  They saw pictures of snow at their grandparents’ houses earlier this winter and were so upset they couldn’t have snow of their own.  Well, their wish came true and today we took advantage of this rare snow day.  Even though only two inches of snow accumulated, this was a blizzard in the boys’ minds.

Jack and Tate were outside most of the day.  They caught snowflakes on their tongues, packed a few tiny snowballs, made snow ninjas (instead of angels), and attempted to make a snowman.  The temperatures were absolutely freezing.  With the wind chill, the highs were close to 14 degrees.  Did that stop them from playing?  No!  I couldn’t handle being outside quite as long.  Instead, I watched them play through the window.  I sipped some hot cocoa and couldn’t help but remember my childhood snow days and all the fun memories I made.

Coming up this weekend, the temperatures are to be near 70 degrees.  Only in the South do these wild weather patterns seem to occur in January.  One day you may get frostbite and the next day sunburn.  Whatever Mother Nature has up her sleeve, I’m happy my children were able to make their own memories of playing in the snow today.

This past weekend was quite a show.  The weekend forecast was for very bad storms through our area.  Each day the weather reports seemed to get worse and worse.  With tornadoes expected, we informed Jack of just how serious and dangerous they can be.  He loves to talk about the weather, so he had some interest in what was discussed.  Although I’m not really sure how much he really understood.

I can remember as child we would do drills in school for a tornado, but I could never really imagine one.  As an adult, I’ve been through some pretty epic storms (including hurricane Katrina), but never a tornado.

Saturday morning the radar showed a big purple blob right over our area.  The weather reporters were pretty much screaming at the camera telling everyone to take cover and get in a safe spot, that we were going to be hit.  Outside, the tornado sirens were blasting extremely loud to warn all the residents.  I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening.  I grabbed a few important items and Jack, of course, and we hid in the safest spot in our house.  With technology these days, the laptop was in the room with us and we were able to watch the storm move past us.  As I sat in this tiny spot with Jack on my lap, and in between us my “baby bump,” many terrible thoughts ran through my mind.  This can’t be happening!

After about 15 minutes passed, the storm was over and we were all safe.  Luckily, the tornado missed our house.  There was one that touched down about 10 miles away which caused some serious damage.

My heart goes out to those who weren’t as lucky and lost everything. It was very scary for us and I can’t imagine the fear they must have felt.  Mother Nature is sometimes a beast, but thank goodness I remembered the tornado drills in elementary school and knew what do.  Jack now understands just how serious some storms can be and their outcome.  He will probably now be officially petrified of thunderstorms.