Snow Days

We have had a week of snow days. I love snow days at 7:00 in the morning. They mean a few more minutes of sleep or quiet, a cup of coffee that can be savored instead of gulped before leaving for school,  and not having to argue with boys over what they can or must wear. But by 11:30, the pleasure of the snow day has melted into arguments and tears. Lunch gives me the recharge to fight for a quiet alone time, and we have hours more of play time, story time, et cetera until everything culminates in the usual yelling/injuring/fighting-about-every-little-thing time waiting for supper to finish cooking.

For most of the day, the boys play nicely. There are the fighting times, when they are hungry or tired of each other or both, but that is understandable. However, they have this delightfully frustrating habit of interrupting me every 5-15 minutes. That means anything that requires a more extended attention span or takes longer to do will get interrupted multiple times. And this is what I haven't quite figured out what to do with.

Their arms are resting on Isabelle's shoulders.

One day, I told them that I was having a quiet time. They were not allowed to come into the room I was until they heard my timer go off. I set it for 15 minutes, let them interrupt me, set it for another 15 minutes to finish the task at hand. It worked pretty well for getting the laundry folded and put away. But when I tried it while I wrote emails, I couldn't think straight because they were so loud. Even now, they are playing together, in another room, but they are talking so loudly, it is hard to concentrate.

Another day, an imaginary friend Isabelle came to play. She kept them occupied all day long. I was able to do all sorts of things, even emailing, because one of her favorite games was to hide quietly. They also enjoyed chasing her, and they said she kept hitting them (they would fall over suddenly), but they had so much fun that she stayed for supper, but she could eat imaginary food because she was an imaginary friend.




These days, the Lego table has also been a wonderful diversion. Sometimes it is something we do together - build and play and put away the scattered Legos. Sometimes it is something they do while I sew, and sometimes I send them up there so that I can wash the dishes in peace, only to be interrupted multiple times because they can't find the specific piece they are looking for.




I think the sun is trying to break through the clouds now. Soon the boys will want to go outside and play, while Thomas will probably go out to shovel the walks and make sure the cars have a way out for tomorrow. Maybe I will be able to finish moving and organizing my arts and crafts cupboard.

The snow holiday will soon be over. It looks like there will be school tomorrow.