So, now that I hope I've cleared up what my frustrations are about, here's what we've been doing! Monday, we baked, again. We did chocolate peppermint cookies. Sunshine does not like these, so I fully intended on doing plain old chocolate chip that day, too. Then we got the call that school was cancelled Tuesday, too, so I held off on those. Monday, like pretty much every other parent in states where it dropped below -10, I did the experiment where you throw boiling water into the air and it becomes snow. Why does this happen you ask? It is because in boiling water the molecules are already being broken down to causes the steam/vapor. When you throw them into the air, it breaks them down even more. When it is so cold outside, you end up with the molecules freezing almost upon contact with the air. See you learn something new every day. If you didn't get to do this or see it, here it is...all 7 seconds that it took.
Tuesday, was laundry day. I had warned the kids this was going to happen. Lots and lots of laundry. OK, so really not so much, but washing sheets always feels like a lot of laundry. We started the day with a super fun task...checking all the pens to see if they were dried out! Believe it or not, the kids really did love doing this. After that, they found all the pencils that needed sharpened and we sharpened them. From there, they drew for about an hour. I love that my kids love to draw. From there, we baked 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies, took colorful baths, built tall buildings and played some vintage Strawberry Shortcake. After that, they watched Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch. Um, as a parent, that was an extremely sad movie. Tuesday was actually a record breaking day in more than just the weather. Monster didn't read for more than 30 minutes all day. Since even before he learned to read, that has never happened. He and Sunshine spent the majority of the day using their imaginations and playing, like kids should do!
Wednesday was a surprise day off. We got a 5am phone call that there was no school again. It was also a good thing I spent Tuesday doing laundry since Wednesday is when we found out that Lake Erie water intakes for our city were frozen over and there was a water shortage. Though the morning was in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives, the afternoon wasn't too horrible. We actually made it out of the house! We headed to the library with friends, then hit the grocery store, post office and Starbucks! It was nice to just leave the house, even though all we did was "normal" stuff. Sunshine also started swim lessons back up Wednesday evening. After sitting in the pool area for 45 minutes, 18 degrees actually felt refreshing when we came out!
Last night, after the kids were in bed, we got the call that the city forced the schools to close due to the water shortage and new citywide boil order. This morning I decided to embrace the fact that my kids can sleep in one more day. Thus far, today has been awesome! After breakfast, Sunshine wanted to do "homework", so Monster helped her with some workbook work.
After 20 days of vacation, I once again realize how extremely fortunate I am that my children are best friends. They get sick of each other and argue and need breaks from each other, but more than anything, they want to play together. They want to make each other happy. I adore my kids and I love that I can be with them. This many snow days in a row freaks me out, but that's my issue, not theirs. I'm going to try to let my insecurities go so they they can just play and be kids. And if that doesn't work, I'll drive into a town with water to get Starbucks :)