How to manage an unexpected snow day

What it looks like to make snap decisions that align with your values

I woke up slowly at 5:48am, two minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I’ve been doing this lately, waking up just before my alarm, and it feels like some sort of small-but-mighty adulthood victory. More on that another time.

For now, it’s a cold, dark pre-6am morning and I’m awake on purpose.

I pull the blind aside to peek outside so I can guage the weather – will I need to make any final adjustments to my clothes? David stirs as I do this and mumbles blearily, What are you doing? Is [the baby] still sleeping?

Yes, she is. I’m going for my run and it’s snowy out.

Urghh, is school closed?

No email yet. I’ll report back.

Outside in the glistening darkness, I’m floating on air as I run gradually downhill. A few other people are out – mostly with dogs – but I could hear my breath in the silent, still morning. It’s so empty, I’m running in the street and pleased with how clear they are, even our small neighborhood roads. As I float, I confidently think, The roads are fine! School will be open today, for sure.

We know where this is going.

Minutes later, I arrive at my friend’s to scoop her up for our tandem jaunt to the marina. She’s a few minutes late coming out the door – which almost never happens – because the school closure notifications have started cascading throughout the city, alerting thousands of parents to a change in their plans for the day.

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Murphy’s Law

My work is typically pretty flexible but on this day, I was scheduled to facilitate an all-day, long-ago scheduled training for leaders within my organization – kind of important. And at the same time, my husband had a long-ago scheduled appointment that was *not the kind of thing you can move.*

Any parent of small children knows exactly this feeling. But Murphy’s Law does not spare the childless!

Maybe your alarm doesn’t go off on the day you’re taking an early flight or you get stuck behind the garbage truck on the one day you have an onsite meeting with your boss. Or perhaps you use cumin instead of cinnamon when you’re baking holiday dessert for your brand new in-laws (and you don’t notice until your MIL takes a big bite), or your car dies while you’re already in the middle of a house renovation project.

Unexpected things happen far more often than I think any of us would like them to and we are forced to make decisions and pivot.

How do you manage the unexpected logistics of a snow day?

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Knowing your values

I’ve been pushing the limits of my promise to write for you “weekly-ish” because of, well, *gesticulates wildly*. Everything that’s been going on in my little family and in our big, wide world has been… just…kind of a lot?

I’m tired, you’re tired, we’re all tired. And it doesn’t feel like there’s space to be tired because there’s so much to do. So much to do in the immediate sense of I need to shower and eat and work but also in the grander sense of we have some major work to do!