Cabin Fever

We're still stuck at home due to the weather. I know plenty of friends have ventured out, but the side roads are still questionable (though looking better today now that the sun has appeared), and if I went anywhere, I'd be on side roads ... not the well-plowed highways and main roads. My opinion is I'll suffer a little cabin fever to keep everyone safe and at home. My car doesn't handle snow well, but more importantly, I don't trust the other drivers on the road. Why would I knowingly put my kids at risk just to reduce my personal boredom levels? Priorities, priorities.

But I. am. bored. Because of the continued snow plowing, Kyle hasn't been home much of the past three days (I can count on less than two hands how many waking hours he's been home, and he will be gone this third day also for its entirety). When he is home, he's too tired to help out much. So I've had no break, no relief ... nothing. The house has been blissfully peaceful though. The kids are still excited about the new toys, though I sense they're starting to get itchy for a change of pace too.

My biggest issue is the mealtimes. I've been on meal cooking and clean up duty for far too many days in a row, starting at least on Christmas Eve ... so we're talking four days and counting. Under normal conditions, I would have thrown in a lunch out with the kids by now just so I could avoid cooking and cleaning for at least one meal. Kyle hasn't been doing the kids' breakfast like normal (he hasn't been home during that time), so I've made, served, and cleaned four meals a day for basically the last four days straight. It's wearing on me badly at this point.

I remember a story I once heard on my paternal grandmother, who had three (hungry) sons, including my father. She told my mom "I have never enjoyed the regularity with which the meals keep coming". This, of course, was from the days when people didn't regularly do restaurant meals, so I can only imagine how numbed she must have been by all her cooking requirements for 20+ years. Too bad she didn't throw in a lunch at Waffle House once a week and a night of Thai or pizza take-out - it takes the edge off a bit.

And I need to take the edge off all my current kitchen time. Soon.

Here's a photo of Claire, who couldn't be stopped from enjoying one of her favorite things in the world yesterday, even with a foot of snow and more falling in the back yard (brrrrrrrr) ...

... and here's a photo of Claire prepping her new Bingo game, so I could play six rounds of Bingo with her while the twins napped yesterday (*yawn*) ... I'm sorry if I sound mean spirited, but board games are not much my thing ...

... and now, I guess I better go play another one of those bored, oops, I mean board games.