Very Strange Spring

Sitting here watching it snow outside.   Right now it is fairly heavy snow - coming down fast and hard.  However so far it's not accumulating on the ground.  It has been an odd month - we go from heavy extended rain to snow back to 50's and above back to rain and snow.  Last week (Thursday) we got several inches of rain in a fairly short time.   I was home alone that day - it was kind of nerve wracking to watch the rain just come across the field in sheets knowing we were under several different tornado and thunderstorm watches.

Sheets of rain coming across the field

Dipstick and I went to Grief Group that night as planned - driving both directions in continued rain.  Friday morning school was delayed to give people a chance to see where they were going and be able to avoid flooded areas.  I had to back out of one road on my bus route - not too bad considering.  It did put me running about 10 minutes behind but that wasn't too bad.  Several other buses had to reroute completely.  After morning route I went grocery shopping.

Migrating field

On the way home I was able to take pictures just on our road - one place where a field had migrated onto the road and another where there was a landslide.  It was crazy.  Most of the water went down fairly quickly and roads were opened again by Monday mostly. However Saturday morning we had snow on the ground again.  It was gone by that evening.

Landslide located a mile down the road from us

Last night we got another inch or so of rain - there was another smaller landslide on our road and water is at least lapping at the edges of roads in areas.  In the time it's taken me to write this the snow has stopped - at least temporarily.

Overflowing drainage ditch just down from the house

 

We had no water at our house.  However at the kids' high school water was lapping at the edge of the building.  The school is located in a town south of us right on a river, as is our bus garage. 

Fuel tanks at bus garage

Question for Discussion (I hope)

Question: How old were you as a child when your parent(s) stopped waking you up in the morning? As a parent - how old do you think your child should be when they are expected to get up on their own? What reasons do you have for those expectations? Really hoping for some chat here.

I realize some of this is obvious to some readers as we were in boarding school at least some of our school years - and had to get ourselves up. But when we boarded in elementary school how did we get up on time?  I don't remember having an alarm clock until I was 7th or 8th grade. 

This is a question I really struggle with.  Stretch and Squirrel were both expected to get themselves up by 2nd grade.  I remember Squirrel asking for an alarm clock - he would fight me when I woke him up but once he had his own alarm and knew how to set it he typically got up on his own.  It was and still is rare for him to oversleep.  Stretch was not one to oversleep either when he was still at home - he tended to sleep a little later than Squirrel but that worked out well for morning showers and shared bathrooms. 

On the other hand, Dipstick has 3 alarm clocks and still struggles with getting up on time, letting alone getting up at all.  Often his dad will holler up the stairs at him to get him up.  This morning I asked him how long he expected to have a parent waking him.  His answer (and it may have been intended to be a smart-aleck response) was "until I move out".  Being as he is 16 1/2 almost I feel strongly that he should be the one to get himself up - without regularly being hollered at.  He daily leaves for school without breakfast and sometimes not completely dressed - carrying shoes and socks into the car to put on on the way to the bus. 

Really hoping for some discussion here - not as a bashing situation but for insight. 

Can hardly believe it's been a month since I've written.  Over actually.  But it has been a busy month.  We had more than one snow day in March.  My hubby surprised me with a dinner with friends and family for my birthday.  There was school, bus discipline issues, state bus inspection...

Our last day of school before spring break was March 29.  We were off the first week of April.  It was a short break but much needed.  Stretch had his spring break a couple weeks before - his seemed to fly by.  Squirrel and Dipstick both went on the Campus Life trip to Florida this year.  Think they both enjoyed themselves.  They left on Saturday night (before Easter) and arrived back the following Friday morning.  They did have a really sad occurrence during that time - not sure how else to put it.  A student who had pre-existing heart trouble, from one of the other schools, died.  He had been on the same charter bus as the boys but they had not really gotten to know him.  I feel for those kids who were right there when it happened and for his family. 

Today has been a very long day.  The father of one of my closest friends had recently (like within the last month) had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  He had told her that if it was confirmed as cancer he would not do treatments - he would instead have his pacemaker shut off.  Long story short she called me about 4:15 this morning to let me know he was gone.  I didn't sleep much from that point.  After bus route I was able to go to her house and spend the time between routes sitting and just being with her and her girls.  We laughed, we cried, we talked...the time together was good.  Other friends came and sat as well. Very different from when Mom went.  But I have to admit tonight I'm tired.  And she still has the weekend to get through.