Cabin Fever

Winter is an interesting season. I love the summers! I love being outside with the boys every single day, I love our walks, swimming at the pool, playing in the back yard, evening walks as a family, etc, etc. Winter, however is cold, snowy, and dark at 5. What's there to do? Hang out inside all day.

I'm thinking the variety and change is okay though. While cooped up in the house, here are things we've done:

--Unfinished Space. For my birthday, Mike was AMAZING and built these Wonderful shelves in the playroom. I am so excited to have a place to organize toys, etc in a place that I can keep the critters out of. We've also been organizing the unfinished basement so the boys and their little friends can play down there as well.

--The Holidays. Thanksgiving was so much fun and whoever decided to have Christmas in December was brilliant.What on earth would we look forward to otherwise? We have the decorations up, our shopping's pretty much done, and we are loving the magic of the season!

--Black Friday. Every year Mike and I go out shopping on this day and every year we come to the same conclusion: "It's not worth it. No matter how much money we might be saving, it is so not worth it!"I spent half of Thanksgiving day looking through the ads and mapping out my day. It was to start at Wal-mart at Midnight. We decided Mike should go with the list because he can handle less sleep than me. So, after watching "Baby Mama" (a very funny movie), he headed to nearest Wal-mart to grab the items and be home by 1. Funny. He approaches the store at 11:30 and there is no parking. Anywhere. So, he like others, parks in a made up spot. He proceeds to the store only to find that there is no cart for him or the 25 bins (for $2.80) that he is going to buy. He enters the store only to discover a mad house of people sitting on camp chairs, huddled around the bigger sale items, and already in a line that hasn't even begun moving. No problem, he then walks around the store trying to find things. The bins are no where to be seen, and he probably couldn't even get to the toy aisle... at this point in time he calls me, gives me a picture of the scene, turns around, and exits the store empty handed and smiling. In the end, we decide I probably don't need 25 bins and can live with 12 I payed 4.90 for last week. Ya, we actually saved money not going through with the sale.
James and I did go out later on Friday (10:30) and still got some great sales, enjoyed the festivities of the day, and had such a fun time just the two of us.

Things I've learned while being cooped up in the confines of our home:

--Mice. Um, anyone else having mice problems this year? I know there are because my neighbors are and the local Smith's was sold out of traps. GROSS!!! Gross, gross, gross. Mice are gross. The nasty vermin got had a hay day in our food storage. Funny thing is that they went for the chocolate, chips, croutons, and cookie mixes, leaving the oats and wheat untouched. Actually a relief. Anyway, Mike and I heard them crawling around in the walls and I discovered their damage during nap time. Ruined that nap time for me! SO, a box of gloves and Lysol wipes, a new mop, 8 mouse traps, peanut butter, and some sticky boards, I think we are rid of them. In the end we caught 3 in our basement and, brace yourself for this, the 4th got trapped inside the archway and stopped making noise about 3 days later. Gross! So, here I am typing and out of the corner of my eye I can see this dead mouse sitting behind the dry wall. Drywall and paint. That's all that separates me from the nasty thing rotting away and being eaten by who knows what. So, what have I learned? Prevention! We have traps all over the basement and garage just waiting and hoping for another mouse to even try to get in and away from the cold.

--Vinegar. We have some nasty hard water in Highland. Just a couple of weeks ago our dishes were coming out foggy and filmy. I tried different soaps and nothing worked. Not until vinegar. That stuff is like magic. I used to gross out cleaning with it because of the smell, but now that I've seen what it does with hard water stains I am now a believer.

--Exercise: P90X and the Rec center are not nearly as fun as our walks, but they are much better workouts. Still, I think the consistency of our walks is better than once, maybe twice a week sweat sessions.

So with all those ramblings on winter, I'm seeing that we are obviously not the only ones who are a little bit bored and sick with cabin fever. I found this note on our doorstep after one of the first snow storms along with little feet tracks on our porch:

... and if I don't call, they'll "Eat my Brains!"

Though the writing looks like it, the note is not from the Zombies but rather from two neighborhood girls who are in the FIRST grade! Plus, it's not the first time they've offered to babysit my babies. Last time they offered I said, "We're not looking for a babysitter right now, but they boys are in the back yard if you want to go play with them." Zombies would probably be a better choice.