Cabin Fever

One of the only drawbacks to being a housewife is that, most of the time, you are expected to be in your house.

People who are creative might like this. They'd probably spend their days baking or painting. People who love cleaning might also like this - they'd have lots and lots of time to deep clean and organize closets and drawers.

But I don't really like cleaning and baking is fun unless you've got a toddler as your assistant.

Actually, from time to time, I give baking a good shot. I'm not sure if I'm optimistic (maybe this time will be different) or forgetful (oh, it wasn't that bad). In any case, I plunge head-first into a flour-covered disaster.

Today, we tried to make banana bread. Although we did wash our hands before starting, I still wouldn't suggest eating this bread for three reasons:

1. I gave Ben a bread pan to grease and halfway through the greasing, I saw him licking his pat of butter. But he did finish greasing his pan so good for him.
2. When I added salt to the dry ingredients, he added freshly cracked pepper batter. Inventive. 
3. The eggs were simply too mysteriously tempting. I wouldn't let him even touch one, so when I cracked the first egg and put the shell in the trash, I turned around to find Ben wrist-deep in yolk.

The bread itself turned out pretty good... so we gave it to Daddy.  Thankfully Chuck doesn't read this blog.

Covered in flour and proud of his loaf. The day we
actually get dressed, the pants only last an hour.

But one bad batch of banana bread is not going to cure our cabin fever. And over the last four weeks we've been home a lot so the fever is dangerously high. Ben had two different strains of the flu and this week all our play groups were canceled because of a measly negative wind chill.

However, Ben seems to be well-suited to being a shut-in. He doesn't seem to mind wearing the same pajamas for 48 hours straight. He also makes up lots of fun games like "Chase Gary with a Balloon" or "Run in a Circle Screaming". Here he is looking cleaner and less orphan-y than usual, but still wearing PJs.



Our house is cold so we stay bundled up -
kind of like we're camping but with TV.


Despite Ben's brave face, I can't take any more of this so I've created a Winter Survival Guide. This guide includes fun things to do over the next three months until we can safely go outside and play again. Playing outside is really the key to raising children and protecting your house.
Winter Survival Guide:

1. Music with Mar: A fun toddler play group where kids sing, dance and learn. Every Monday or Tuesday morning and a meer $6.00 per class.

2. Take Ben to his first movie: I think we'll see a matinee showing of Tangled, sneak in some allergy-friendly snacks and not worry if we have to leave early.

3. Fun Town Factory: This is actually a great little treasure right up the street. It's an arcade, with inflatables (bouncy houses), with a dance floor, with a pizza shop, with ice cream. Ben is drawn like a moth to a flame when they play Macarena, and the pizza is pretty good.

4. Toddler Time at the Library: The Mid Continent North Independence branch is newly remodeled and super fancy. They have a fun toddler class at 10:00 on Thursdays.

5. Tricycle races in Tiff's Basement: One friend has a large, unfinished basement. I'm trying to convince her we need to host trike races. She says it's currently too cold.

6. Play in the Snow? I have a lot of rules about weather. For example, I won't swim unless it's 90 degrees and I won't swim in a lake until July. Snow is no different, but there is a very slim margin of acceptable conditions. First, it must be above 20 degrees. Second, it must be sunny and third, there can be absolutely no wind. We have not yet met those conditions.

7. CoCo Key: An indoor water resort across from Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums. We went last year and had a great time.

8. Fun Run / Tunnel Voyage: Two fun toddler options, but $7.00 - $9.00 per trip. We'll probably coordinate with a friend and only go once to each.

9: Kaleidoscope / Crafts: I think we're going to have to start doing stinkin' crafts. Although, I'm pretty sure Ben hates crafts almost as much as I do. He always says, "No Mama!" when I try to get him to color. If we make a special trip to Kaleidoscope, he may see other kids being crafty and be more likely to join in at home. We'll see how this goes.

10. Mavericks Hockey: We're going to take Ben to his first hockey game tomorrow. I hope he likes it.

11. Bowling: I might take Ben bowling. He liked it last summer and Summit Lanes has a Mom and Me class for $3.00/person.

12. Basketball / Aim Fire / General Horseplay: These are all games we play at home that involve throwing in the house. Again, the hardest part of being a housewife is actually being in the house.