Snow job?

One of the things I miss most about being a work-from-home mom is being snowed in for days on end. Back in my freelancing days, if we got a good snow, I could stay in the house for 3 to 5 days with no problem. I loved it -- the coziness of being warm inside, looking at the frosty scene on the other side of the window.

Now that I'm a working mama, however, that's not really a possibility. Sure, if school is closed, I'll stay home. But if school's not closed, then I still have to make the drive into work. (Well, I can work from home for a day, but not for days at a time.) These are the days that I'm jealous of my friends who are SAHMs, enjoying snowy days in their jammies.

So last night when the weather dude declared a "Winter Storm Warning" with 4-7 inches of snow predicted starting about midnight tonight, I tried really hard not to get my hopes up. It seems that where we live, the wind often sweeps storms just north of us and delivers the snow to our east and west, but not much here. Still, the prospect of 4-7 inches had me cautiously optimistic.

When I woke up this morning, the weather guy wasn't quite as animated about the storm, calling it a "Winter Storm Watch" instead of a warning, suggesting we might see 3-6 inches of snow on Thursday. Ugh! I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up. By the time tomorrow actually comes, we'll probably get 2 inches -- not even enough for a two hour delay.

My friend Lidia, who is a meteorologist by training and who used to work for the National Weather Service, assures me that a good amount of the fluffy white stuff will fall here. She says not to listen to the weather clowns on TV, but to stick with the reports direct from the National Weather Service, which Lidia swears under-reports snowfall estimates so they don't scare people.

And the NWS is predicting sub-zero temps and 4-6 inches of snow. So I brought my work laptop home, stopped at the grocery for milk and a few other provisions, just in case. But I am biting my tongue with the kids -- I'd hate to get their hopes -- and mine -- up.

But maybe if I'm lucky, we'll get snowed in tomorrow...and Friday...and the weekend too.