Back To The Sh*t List For Me

The time has finally come to rejoice... Winter break is over! Technically speaking, it was supposed to be over last Sunday. Thanks to our lovely blizzard however, Lena got a 3 day extension on her's. Little does she know, they're just going to tack those days on in the end. But what she doesn't know won't hurt her and I'm certainly not going to tell her either.

While I am busy doing the happy dance, she's busy giving me nasty looks. Nevermind the fact that she's been bored for about a week now. The news that there were no more snow days seriously deflated all her hopes and dreams.

School means those dirty words again... Reading Time. I mentioned back in October that she was struggling with reading and I have been a bit of a Nazi about making sure she gets in her reading time ever since. Break however, is just that, a break. I loosened the reigns and let her simply enjoy her time off. She was allowed to stay up late (well, at least until I was ready for bed which isn't really all that late) and I didn't mandate her 30 minutes of nightly book time.

With school literally on the horizon tomorrow, I let her know that she would need to do her reading again starting tonight. She really thought I was kidding about that. When her customary time rolled around the amount of shock and disgust she felt was evident in her voice when she asked if I was truly serious.

Yes ma'am I am... So it's back to the shit list for me. Oh well!

We're Still Here!

Oh boy what a week it's been. I haven't been on even though I've been home for the past four days because we've been down for the count with a wicked cold. I slept through New Year's day, I think I was only awake about an hour total. Thursday I drug myself into work only to be sent home and went promptly back to bed. Friday I stayed home because I just couldn't function. Saturday was the same. All I could manage to do was sleep. Finally on Sunday I managed to get out of bed and started cleaning the house. I knew we were not going to get better if I didn't sanitize everything. I stripped all the bedding, Cloroxed every surface, sprayed enough Lysol to put a mushroom cloud to shame, and despite the cold I opened up a couple of windows for a little while just get some fresh air in the house. I'm fairly certain at this point that Nipsco is going to love me for that one.

As if that wasn't enough, the Midwest had a blizzard Sunday evening and the state of Indiana declared a state of emergency. Starting at 6pm Sunday night they had pulled all the plows off the roads and decided it was illegal to be out. So many people were getting stuck that they threatened to issue a $500 fine to anyone caught driving. The risk was just too great and every extra driver on the road was a potential hazard that rescue crews might have to retrieve. They even shut down the two major highways near us. From what I understand, all of Porter County is still under lock down due to the high wind gusts creating insane snow drifts.

Due to the extremely dangerous driving conditions, my manager made the decision to shut down all 7 of our locations today. I'm certain it wasn't a decision he made lightly, but I was certainly glad that he did. We live in unincorporated area, which means that we have to take what you'd consider "back roads" to get to any main street. These of course are the last on any list to get attention from the plows. It wasn't until around 3pm today that I finally started seeing trucks coming through our subdivision.

School is still cancelled for tomorrow for Lena thanks to the negative temperatures, but sadly I will have to return to reality tomorrow. Even though I was sick, I was really enjoying being home. And the kitties certainly have enjoyed having us home too...