Clown-bus day

Every day on a dairy farm is pretty much the same. Get up, work, eat lunch, work, get kids off bus, work, you get the picture.
So, holidays are different here than in a "normal" house. I usually have no idea what day it is except for Sundays because my pastor's wife takes my kids to church because i can't make it because i have to "milk the cows". We milk twice a day every day weather Santa Claus is on his way or not.

Being the world's worst mom i make it a point to never read those letters that teachers send home in backpacks and certainly never write things down on the huge calendar i bought last year at Walmart to keep my self informed of goings on in the outside world.
I have been known to make my kids get up on holidays like Columbus day, Martin Luther King day, the first day we really have off Christmas vacation , stuff like that. Of course i dress them up and send them outside to wait for the bus. Ususally after about an hour of waiting for the bus they come back in the house. "Mom, I don't think there is school today".

"What in the heck is wrong with you, get back out there of course there is school, i didnt get a note about it or anything, it's not Christmas yet, just get back out there".

After about another half an hour i start thinking "Hmmm maybe there really is no school?
ok call a friend, thats easy enough, if only i would have written down their phone numbers on real paper instead of paper napkins and then throwing the napkin in the garbage after cleaning up puke or dog pee.

Usually one of the neighbors will be driving by and either stop or call.
"Anne i don't mean to be nosey, but why are your kids standing out at the end of the road, don't you know its Columbus Day?"
"What day"?
"COLUMBUS" Day you know the boat , Columbus, Anne.
Oh crap the kids were right. This happens every time we have a snow day. I have no radio, tv connection, or any communication with the outside world except for the computer and telephone. I guess the boat at the top of the AOL screen should have given me a clue.

It snows here every day and it snows alot here every day so how in the hell would I gauge a real snow day?
This morning i called the kids back into the house, took off their coats and went to the barn.
The last thing i heard my 4 year old whispering to the 8 year old "I told mom it was Clown-bus day she never listens to me".