Body rhythm and snowstorms

Have you ever noticed how your body rhythm gets out of whack after a long weekend? We tend to sleep in on that day when we don’t have to go to school or work. And I guess that sends confusing messages to our body. So when we have to get up on our usual time on the next business day, we don’t hear the alarm clock when it goes off. Or we just keep hitting the snooze button until it stops and we fall asleep again.

That’s what happened to me this morning. Well, actually, I forgot what time I was supposed to get up, lingered in bed and fell back to sleep. And did you know that that alarm will go off for about half an hour as long as you keep hitting that button?

For some reason, my kids got a four-day vacation this Remembrance Day weekend. And they didn’t have them on the same days. The two younger ones went back to school yesterday, while my 11th grader, Reggie, didn’t have to go back until today. And I made him miss his first class because my body rhythm was out of whack.

Well, at least he wasn't the only one late for school today. We had the first snowstorm of the season. Poor Reggie had to go out there before we had the chance to shovel the snow. I watched his legs sink deep in two feet of snow in our front yard. Mine did too when I tried to shovel a pathway for my courier guy and cleared our front steps. That snow was quite heavy and sticky.

I learned that buses were stuck and delayed for up to 60 minutes. There are people who weren’t able to go to work or school because they couldn’t get their cars out of their driveways. Garbage pick-ups were cancelled. Even snowplows were stuck in the highways. And if I heard it right, millions of dollars were spent just for today’s clean-up of the snow.(?) What a hassle!

But there’s something about the sight of snow that makes us all excited. I know my two young ones were eager to wear their new boots this morning. Ryland got to play in the snow at recess and Ryan helped make a quinzee* in the school grounds. It also reminds us that Christmas is just around the corner. Soon, I’ll be busy with the Christmas shopping. But for the meantime, I’ll busy myself in putting in more hours of work to get that extra money.

All I can say about all these is that I really feel blessed that I was given the chance to work at home. I didn’t have to go out there in the cold waiting for a bus that had been delayed. I didn’t have to be late for work, or miss a day of work. I can even work long hours in the comforts of my own home. And I am right here when my children comes home from school ready to make them hot chocolate and soup on a cold winter day like today.

* A quinzee is a combination of an igloo and snow cave.