Curfew

We have been snow bound since Friday. The historic blizzard of 2010 started Friday afternoon, slowly and steadily first but then picked up pace and continued until Saturday evening.



We are covered now with huge mounds of snow all over us, thanks to the heavy shovelling. It's a beautiful day outside, with the sun shining in all its glory, the mounds glistening but venturing out is still not recommended.



The roads are slippery and treacherous. There have been many accidents and in short, its a mess out there.

We look at this curfew as a welcome break, spending time together as a family and its been fun and relaxing. This is the second blizzard for me since I moved to the US. The first one was in 2002 when we lived in Baltimore. Equally messy and treacherous. But it was just us (Hubby dear and I), no kids to worry about and keep occupied.

This time, however, things are different. With two kids, excited in the beginning but gradually becoming restless, its an entirely different story. They are pumped up more than ever and it is a challenge to channelize their boundless energies in a productive, useful way. We are trying and I think we have been successful to some extent.

So what are we doing to keep the kids happy and our sanity intact? We are-
- reading. Luckily I had borrowed a huge load of books from the library. So we are reading voraciously. This curfew is giving D ample opportunities to master his reading skills. He is doing a great job and I am so proud of him.
- watching movies. Thank God for Netflix and Red Box. Watching at least one movie everyday sometimes two. The kids too are enjoying a couple of their movies.
- cooking as a family and it is a riot. The kids helping out and now they have caught the 'cooking ' bug.
- Coloring. Not me, no. But the kids. They are making full use of their new marker set and activity books.
- snow activities-snow fights, sledding and a frail attempt at making a snow man. I say frail cuz the snow man looks puny and small. Nevertheless, we had fun making it.
- Story creation. Yep, the kids got involved in writing/ creating their own story books. They got excited, used their imaginations and the results were remarkable. D, especially got totally involved-he wanted to write a story for me, his Mama. His story was simple, straight forward just like him. It was earnestly written and with a lot of love. The final product was deliciously heartwarming! Leaving you with D's story and some pictures of his book.

The Storm
Once there was a mama
Then there was a storm
Then the storm stopped and then there was a rainbow
And then they lived happily ever after