This past week, the kids and I were homebound for four days in a row because of the weather. Longest stretch in a while…and it made me realize how much I take it for granted that we can hop into our metal tank and hit the town. I think about, say, Laura Ingalls of Little House on the Prarie, where they were pretty much cut off from the rest of the world for the entire winter, and I marvel at their ability to stay sane.
Actually, the nice thing was that, with no “plans”, we were able to just take each day as it came, without worrying about cutting into Fiona’s naptime or when we needed to get dressed. I found myself not as worn out as when I spend the day hauling the kids in and out of carseats while lugging a 10 lb. diaper bag.
We also have been enjoying our advent calendar that my Mom made us. Every day they pull out a little tag that has a fun activity on it. Last year, my Mom wrapped a present for each day…this year, I have a list of ideas that I jot down on a sticky note and stick on the back of the tag while the kids are eating breakfast…not as prepared, but the kids still get a kick out of it.
So, this week, we made cookies…
…ate Christmas parfaits on the living room floor…
…made meltibead ornaments…
…cut out snowflakes…
Pretty fun times, especially if I forget the Oreo crumbles all over the floor from when they were crushing them up for the parfaits, the iron Parker knocked over when we were melting the meltibeads (thankfully not on his head), and the number of times Parker ended up running around the house with no clothes on (at least 5).
Nope. Scratch forgetting the frustrating parts. It wouldn’t be the memory without it. And I’m sure that at the end of a long winter cooped up in their sod house, the Ingalls family had just as much fun reminiscing about the times they burned the venison and the cabin stunk for a week as they did remembering cozy nights singing by the fire.
I wouldn’t want to hole up until spring, and I was ecstatic to leave the house (with just Ben) on Friday night, but it was a nice break. There’s far too much sloshing around finding “the perfect gift” around the holidays and not enough just hanging out eating pudding in your pajamas…that’s my opinion!
— Post From My iPhone
Cool new background!