There was a big snowstorm in the Midwest and East the other day.  In case you hadn’t heard.

In addition to dumping damn near two feet of snow in my yard (seriously, we almost lost Ewing in it while he was out playing), it closed school.  FOR THREE DAYS.  And this following what was already a two week winter break, the day before which we also had a snow day.  That’s a total of 19 days my family and I have been trapped together with nothing to do except eat, drink, and be merry.

I’m going out of my mind, people, and so are my kids. 

Yesterday Alister revolted.  He said he’s not sitting in this house one more day.  He demanded if latchkey were open today, we take him.  Ewing soon followed suit.

Having so much time off is nice.  It really is.  But being trapped in the house for four days without the ability to go outside because of subzero temperatures or leave the subdivision because it hasn’t been plowed is not nice.  Not nice at all.

In full disclosure, we did have a whirlwind of holiday parties that first week off and even took a family vacation out West the second.  But since coming home just before the storm hit, we’ve been confined to the same house with the same chores looming over us.  Did we do those chores?  Hell no.  We just sat around, doing at first what we thought was enjoying the extra days to ourselves.

But then we realized we didn’t have any food save for a bag of pasta and some rancid tomato sauce.  And Mr. Sammich got stuck at the end of the driveway only to barely make it out and back alive with something not rotten for us to eat.  And then we had pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days.  And we forgot to bathe our children until yesterday, at which time, unbeknownst to us, we let them play with razorblades in the bathtub.  RAZORBLADES.  Ewing successfully shaved Alister’s ears without incident, but they weren’t so lucky when it came to Alister’s back.  Nobody even knew he’d sliced himself a bit until I walked back in to wash everybody’s hair and saw Alister, razorblade proudly raised in the air, blood dripping down his posterior. Not until I pointed it out to him did he cry (hysterically, by the way), at which point I reminded him it was just a teeny cut and he didn’t even known he’d done it until I said something.  And to top it all off, I’m pretty sure nobody’s worn anything but pajamas since Saturday.

Today I resolved to clean the house and get some grading done.  The Christmas tree’s still up and there’s laundry spread about the living room, and I haven’t even opened my grade book yet, if that tells you anything.

I need to go back to work.  Immediately.

Were you affected by the winter storm?  How did you pass the time?