Polar Vortex

It's been roughly two weeks since Christmas Vacation was coming to a close for for school children, and parents were laying out school clothes and prepping back packs for the spring semester of classes. The weekend that winter break was drawing close, a "Polar Vortex"  swept in and wreaked havoc on communities nationwide.

Here in my window of the world, temperatures dropped over 50 degrees in a span of roughly 10 hours. We played outside in T-shirts on Sunday afternoon and by Monday morning my van was iced over and much to my delight (as well as my son's) school was canceled. I shared my joy over another day at home with all three kids on social media and found my elation met with mixed reviews. Some parents shared they were also happy that school was out while others

shared their irritation and dismay.

The roads were clear and disappointingly classes resumed here Tuesday morning. Friends to the North and East of us had different luck. While I was looking out the window on our -8 windchill day missing my oldest, many friends were on social media sharing their woes over the number of days school was out. It appeared that the combination of Christmas Vacation paired with snow days was too much! Here are some snippits of the posts I read:

"School is canceled again tomorrow. I think I'm going to lose my mind."

"I think ___ schools are trying to see how long it will take me to jump off of a bridge."

"No school tomorrow. Again. These kids are making me crazy."

"The kids have pushed me over the edge. How many more days before school is back in session? I need a break."

I've been that mom. I've had moments during summer vacation or even long weekends where I've been counting the milliseconds until school was back in session. I've had the thoughts during a lengthy car trip that it was possible that I wouldn't survive the rest of the trip with all of us making it to our destination alive. I have counted the minutes and seconds until school will start back up, but in the past year I've had a voice whispering to me, making me think:

In no time a similar vortex of polar winds will shift through our household. The warmth, comfort and joy we share in now will be replaced with a chill of frigid adolescent indifference. The newsfeed will read something like this:

"School is canceled again tomorrow. I think I'm going to lose my mind being stuck here with mom."

"I think ____ schools are trying to see how long it will take me to jump off of a bridge. Homebound with mom AGAIN."

"No school tomorrow. Again. My parents are making me crazy."

"My parents have pushed me over the edge. How many more days before school is back in session? I need a break."

While we are busy wishing our children's fighting, tantrums & tattling away our kids are growing up, gaining independence and beginning to want freedom.The cooler they get, the more lame we get. The endless barrage of questions we get from them will fade in to an endless barrage of questions from us. Today they are begging us for answers. Tomorrow we will be begging them for answers. While we bark out one word answers to the questions now, we need to start preparing ourselves to hear a lot of "Fines". We will go from wishing that winter break would end and school would start back, to counting the days until they come home for break from college.

Somedays I barely hear the voice whisper this reminder to me over the sound of my two sons fighting in the playroom and my daughter emerging with blue marker all over her hands and mouth. While writing this my thoughts have been interrupted three different times for one to tattle on the other. Then the whisper booms louder just as quickly as my sanity dwindles away... One day they won't fight over who had which action figure first. They won't care which hero has the best attributes. They will draw silent. They will pull away. They will wish their mom was much less involved in their lives.

As it stands now, school is back in session and my time with them is limited. Next year my middle little will be heading off to Kindergarten. He'll be gone along with his brother from 7:30-3:15 more than half of the year. It will be me and littles left, that's it.

The winds of change will blow their frigid air through this house soon enough. If there's a snow day, I'm going to embrace it. I'm going to soak up the extra time at home. I'm going to make room for a scared kid whose had a nightmare and wants to sleep with me. I'm going to read the same story for the umpteenth time using the silly voices to make them smile. I'll rewatch Star Wars for time 987,631 with my oldest and race to google to find the answers to the questions posed by my oldest Jedi. I'm going to enjoy the warmth and comfort of my family before the Winds of Change carry a polar vortex through our walls.