Currently… Taking Advantage of a 2-Hour Delay

Last week, I was crossing my fingers for a snow day. It was my tired mother’s plea for the closest I’m going to get to a vacation for a while.  On Tuesday, we got one.  Then a “no after school activities” day and – here’s a new one – a Saturday snow day where everything, most importantly, my son’s swimmeet, was cancelled.  Today, we have a 2-hour delay.  It’s easy to laze about for the extra time, but here’s how I’m making the two hours productive.

Sleep in just a little bit. The kids would love to sleep an extra two hours, but that really throws off their schedule. And then our whole scramble awake, sleepily get washed up and dressed, rush through breakfast, forget our lunchbox and run out the door routine gets pushed back two hours. So I let them sleep in a little, about an hour for the high schooler since she (we) get up so dang early on a regular day.

Get a few chores done. The extra time in the morning is great for getting in a load of laundry, cleaning rooms, taking out the trash.  And finding those papers that are due back to school today.

Rhyming. Dr. Seuss’s birthday is March 2 and his family is releasing a new book, What Pet Should I Get? in July.  Writing a Seuss-style rhyme is a fun way to fill the morning (and shhh…work on writing skills and creativity).  Inspired by The Guardian posted rhyming challenge.

Cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  With the extra time this morning, I cooked grits (yumm!) and bacon for breakfast, made spaghetti for lunch, and have already started dinner.  The collards are on the stove, the roast is in the oven.  These were going to go in the crockpot while I was out today, but I’m cooking them the old-fashioned way since I’m home a little longer.  Imagine – dinner might hit the table before 8 pm.

Writing. An all-day in-school event was cancelled due to the delay so that opens up my day until this afternoon. Here’s to making these found hours productive.

What do you do with your 1 or 2 hours school delays?

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Sudsy Tuesdays

On an almost weekly basis, I sort the laundry for my family of 6 into several laundry baskets and bags. Then I load them all into the trunk of my car and drive over to this establishment I've found that has rows and rows of washing machines and dryers. Eight double and triple load machines are usually enough for the loads of whites, darks, towels, brights, athletic wear, and jeans that we accumulates between trips. While the machines are spinning, sudsing and rinsing our wardrobe, and with Spanish soap operas and game shows playing on the flat screen TVs overhead, I read a book, crochet, make some phone calls, or catch up on all those school forms and letters. When the buzzer goes off, I move all the wet clothes into the industrial sized dryers and return to my to-do list. Today I realized the holy grail of modern life - the laundromat now has WiFi. With Dunkin Donuts across the street and a papusa and taco truck outside, I could be here all day. I don't know why I didn't think of this years ago, it's quite an efficient and productive two hours for a busy mom.