When life makes you slow down

The last 72 hours or so have been quite interesting, to say the least. Last weekend we enjoyed temperatures in the upper 60's, and I even contemplated wearing shorts. As I was leaving class on Monday at UNT, I could sense a real change in the temps. It wasn't exactly warm that morning, but I was definitely cold as I made the very long walk back to my car. By the time I got home and saw the news, I knew DFW was in for a real arctic treat. And I am not talking about Baked Alaska. The ticker on the news showed that several ISD's and private schools were already closing up shop on Monday night, so I knew there was a pretty good chance that TCU and Good Shepherd would follow suit. I did what any person would do who thought he was not going to have to go to work the next day: I stayed up late, watched a lot of TV, made no preparations for the next day and didn't bother responding to a few e-mails that would normally be considered urgent. My wild gamble paid off when I woke up early the next morning only to see messages from TCU, Good Shepherd, Keller ISD and UNT, all of which were closed for the day.

And they are still closed. We got the message late this afternoon that each respective institution will be closed again tomorrow, Feb. 3. This is great news for us, since tomorrow happens to be the boys' birthday. We are guaranteed some more family time, which has been great the past two days. We have watched movies, made indoor tents, played chase in our long hallway, baked cookies, played games and read a lot of books. What we haven't done is go outside, even at the pleading of this mountain man daddy. I did convince Nate to go with me to the mail box, but I ended up carrying him the whole way.

So, here at the beginning of a very busy semester with a mountain of things I need to get done, life has given us the gift of slowing down for a few days and being together as a family. These days, it's hard to justify just taking it easy for a few days, but we really haven't had any other choice. I am not thrilled with the weather outside, but I don't think I would change a thing.