The Wind is Howling

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Last night, I found out that we were going to have an extreme snowstorm, potentially more dangerous than any in my life time. The last storm like this was back in 1973. It was hard to believe that such a storm was on the way even though the sky was overcast because it was in the 60s.

In the evening and through this morning, up until 8 AM or so, it was raining.

Bomb Cyclone

They call this rare Colorado weather a bomb cyclone or bombogenesis. All this means is that the barometric pressure drops by 24 or more millibars. Apparently, this is more a more common occurrence on the East Coast of the United States.

The winds were predicted to be up to 80 mph, equivalent to a category 2 hurricane. So far as I have read, it’s 60 mph wind with 80 mph gusts, similar to a category 1 hurricane.

Just about everything is closed. So there are no car tracks in the snow.

How to Homeschool in Extreme Weather

So what is a homeschool family to do on a day like this? Well, we slept in. Jared didn’t have early morning seminary at 6 AM this morning, meaning he didn’t get picked up at 5:30ish.

The night before, Brent, my husband, made a few preparations including buying some take-n-bake pizza. Also the night before, I had the boys flip the trampoline upside down to ensure that it didn’t fly away and cause damage to our neighbors’ property.

I started the day off by cooking muffins and dumping ingredients for beef stew into the crockpot. I was grateful that plenty of food would be readily available in the event of a power outage- especially after I heard that 100K+ people living within the storm’s reach lost power.

A view of our backyard. Not tons of snow, but drifts are growing near the shed.

I also filled up a few pitchers of water ? just in case it would be helpful. Laundry was started right away.

My favorite part was that my husband and son installed our new dishwasher (it arrived yesterday). Ours died about a month ago and we’ve been washing dishes by hand. We were sick for half that time and pulled out the paper plates and bowls, but they lasted around 2 days. Note to self: stock up on disposable dishes for emergencies!

Another favorite part was that we were gather together for family reading time. My husband was included for part of it since he didn’t dare venture out to work. We read nearly 70 pages of Louis L’Amour’s The Lonesome Gods. This seems to be a hit at our house- the kids didn’t want me to stop reading.

The rest of the day was filled with a few more lessons before we had a movie night. Brent found a movie a new version of Beauty and the Beast that is not by Disney that he thought the kids would like. It starred Vincent Cassel and Lea Seydoux. So we watched that. It was a hit.

There were no complaints about working on any of or lessons. They actually wanted them to continue. My kids know they aren’t being deprived of a snow day because they know that when the weather is better, and their peers are in school, they’ll be building things in the snow and/or sledding.

Even though I’ve been at home for the better part of 2 weeks due to illness, I am grateful for a laid back school day at home on this snowy and blustery day! It’s a heavenly day for us.

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