One of the perks of winter is the potential for a bonus day off — a snow day. For those of us who don't have to go to work or school, a snow day is an unexpected bloc of time that is completely open.

Now, I have to admit that, if snow is expected, I try to take home some work that I can do without leaving my house. (As a side benefit, if it's not a snow day but I would endanger myself trying to get to work, I can request permission to work from home.) But, most of the time, I try to treat a snow day as found time.

So, what should you keep in mind for snow days:

• Always keep basic essential foods in the house. I like to make sure that I always have the building blocks for homemade soup, milk and cereal, hot cocoa, popcorn, frozen bread dough, and the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. Your list may vary. Whenever I grocery shop in the winter, I make sure I have those.
• Don't let your stock of other essential items dwindle too far in the winter. Think toilet paper, batteries, prescription medications, salt for sidewalks, and the like. You do not want to be one of the people facing long lines in the store as snow begins to fall.
• Make sure that your home heating oil tank and your car gas tank are topped off regularly.
• I like to make sure that I have something to read, something to watch, and something to craft.

If I just have one snow day, I will typically use it to read and watch movies. If I'm feeling especially productive, I may cook some things that freeze well so they will be in the freezer when I'm too tired to cook.

If the snow emergency extends beyond a day, I'm more likely to use the added time to work on a bigger project. During Snowpocalypse, I pruned and reorganized my entire filing system. During the last blizzard, I made a huge dent in my magazine backlog. Other things you might want to consider: tackling that mending pile, finishing a craft project, cleaning a closet or some cabinets, organizing your jewelry, scanning and labelling the box of photos.

Hmm, now I'm kind of hoping for snow!