Winter is by far my favorite time of year. Growing up only a stone’s throw from the border of Chicago, and then settling in the city proper to raise my own family, I have never known anything but Chicago winters. Living in the Chicago area, we are promised at least one good snow day every winter. While not everyone loves this, personally I am a big fan of the snow. Weather like this always leaves me feeling very nostalgic; there are so many memories of running around with the neighborhood kids, snow forts, and snowball fights that it tends to leave me in better spirits. So the news of the big snowfall on Friday made my day, not to mention my children’s, who were even more excited than I was to have to have their first snow day off of school!

After a week of exams and illness, it was exactly what we needed to get back on our feet again. Our one snow day turned weekend full of movie watching and reading cuddled up together in a pile of blankets on the couch. The nice thing about the children is that snow shoveling is still a novelty to them, so when it came time to dig us out of our hibernation I had two very willing helpers. We didn’t get to make the snowman that I had promised — the snow was just not the right consistency, but there was more than enough of the stuff available to dig tunnels and slide down the piles left behind by the plows.

It felt good to leave all of my responsibilities behind for a little bit, but the timing of this little holiday came on the last day of early assessments, so we’ll will have some tests to make up this week. This is a “hardship” I am more than willing to face; now I just need to ramp everything back up again to finish out strong in this first round of midterms. This upcoming week is also Diversity Week, an event that we on student council began putting together last trimester in order create opportunities for discussion. I am looking forward to seeing it all come together, and to hearing all of the speakers that we have lined up.