Iced In

We got a huge ice storm today. Schools were closed, Lil' Miss' violin lesson was cancelled and according to the news, the roads were dangerous to travel on. Soooo...we stayed in. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I get stir crazy when I have to stay in the house all day. Our schedule is set up so that we get out at least once a day. However, I had a feeling we might be stuck in today, so I already had a plan as to how we were going to fill the day so that I wouldn't go too nuts!

I found a great activity on a fantastic blog I follow, Permission to Unwind. We used empty cardboard boxes to make thank you cards for the Christmas gifts the kids received. I cut the cardboard down to small note sizes (smaller than the instructions suggested) and let the kids cut pictures out of magazines to cover one side. The cardboard side is left blank for them to write their thank you notes. I wasn't sure how well this would go over with them, but they sat for over an hour working on the project! The hardest part for me was not "micro-managing" their work. They kept cutting out pictures that were too small to cover the entire box front and wanting to make a more collage type cover. That's okay, except that Lil' Miss' pictures were mostly ads - for cameras, sanitary napkins, detergent - you name it. I couldn't get her to cut out other things. When she would finally find something cute to cover the entire card, she'd decide that she only wanted ONE part of it - like a beautiful image of a group of penguins, and she only wanted the "daddy" penguin. Don't ask how she knew which one was the daddy, but one penguin did NOT cover her card. I finally had to just let it go and let her do her thing.

The Little Guy, on the other hand, was happy to just glue and cut. So he'd cut out a big image, and I'd cut it down to the size of his cards and then let him glue them on. The activity as a whole was great though because it reinforced the idea of recycling (which we discuss a lot in our schooling) and the Little Guy got a chance to practice his cutting and gluing skills.

After that, we made chocolate chip cookies and had lunch with cookies for dessert. Then while the Little Guy took his nap, Lil' Miss and I practiced violin and then got on the computer. Lil' Miss loves Starfall and will practice her letters and beginning reading for as long as I let her, which allows me to catch up on work for my part time job.

Okay, these obviously aren't chocolate chip cookies! The kids made these gingerbread folks a few weeks ago. There was NO WAY I was going to let them eat them with all that candy on them, so they've been sitting around individually wrapped. I finally explained to them that the candy would make holes in their teeth, unwrapped them and arranged them on the counter to take a nice little picture and then threw them all out!

Toward the end of the day though, I began to get anxious about Hubby coming home. I thought maybe I should go out and put some salt down because our driveway was a sheet of ice, but I was worried 1) about falling on the ice, especially with my balance being off with this big belly and 2) having the kids out there falling on the ice since I certainly couldn't leave them inside alone. So poor Hubby had to shovel all of this when he got home, after working all day.

Now, normally after being in the house all day, I would have been cranky by the time Hubby arrived, but I was pleasant and had dinner ready - baked ziti with ground turkey, veggies and extra, extra cheese, and hard dough bread with butter. He went out to finish shoveling (ice is pretty heavy so it took a while) after dinner, so I had the kids clean up the playroom and got them bathed. By the time he came back in they were ready to read bedtime books while I sorted out baby clothes, then we had Bible time and prayer!

All in all, I feel very proud about how I handled the day being trapped in the house! Praise God for giving me patience today! Maybe I can learn to stay in more often - it would certainly save on gas money!