I don’t know about you, but whenever it snows, I slip back into that school-kid mentality of a “snow day.” A day off. A day to relax and read and sleep late and do whatever I want. My distracted mind is not helped by the fact that I work from home. So I am home on a snow day, making it feel…like a snow day.
Except that doesn’t work so well now that I’m not a kid anymore.
I work from home. The key word is work. Meaning snow-covered or icy roads are no excuse for not getting to the office. I’m already there. The work is waiting on my laptop, or just an internet connection away. So I still need to hunker down and work, in spite of the holiday that’s happening in my head.
Add to that my preschooler. A snow day really is a snow day for her—no school. So I have an external distraction to trying to get work done. Not to mention she has this insane idea that going out to play in the snow is fun, and that we should do it. (I used to like it, too, as a kid. When did that change?)
Still, the work got done, so no harm done.
As distracting and unproductive as that “snow day” feeling is, I still relish it. There is something peaceful in watching the snow pile up while knowing you are safe and snug inside. There’s something about the white flakes drifting down and the cold wind howling around the house that makes me want to break out the board games. Family time.
So maybe that snow day feeling isn’t so bad. Maybe it’s Nature’s way of telling me to slow down. To take a break and enjoy life a little more. To pay more attention, as I have vowed to do more this year. To be that kid again.
And maybe it’s good I realized that now, because it’s only January. We have a lot of winter left to go, and it looks like it’s going to keep bringing us snow like we haven’t seen in years!
Does snow make you feel like you deserve the day off?