Is this how your family looks by this stage of winter? Not mine. We passed through that gleeful stage back in November and moved on to snarling at each other.
This is unrelated to nursing, but I’m hiding in the kitchen writing this blog post because we’ve had yet another weather event here in Pittsburgh and my childcare is disrupted. Again. This time, it was a snow-plus-ice storm overnight.
Any Game of Thrones fans out there? I felt certain the swirling, icy fog last night would give way to reveal White Walkers trudging up my unplowed street.
Ordinarily, I don’t think such a storm would make too much of a difference in terms of travel the next morning, but this winter has been so bad that the entire Midwest and much of the East Coast is experiencing a road salt shortage!
My husband finds the whole thing fascinating. He’s been reading all about the lone salt mine in upstate New York that’s been mining around the clock, trying to churn out more salt for 12 states that have been relentlessly pummeled with the winter that just won’t quit. Meanwhile, our city only salts the hills, plows what they can, and leaves the rest of us…stuck watching news articles about salt mines.
Interesting as the salt shortage (and resulting price gauging, black market trades, etc.) may be, I’m still at home with kids who’ve had more than enough time spent stuck in our small house. This morning, my toddler was lapping water out of the dishwasher and I didn’t even stop him because he was entertained for a few minutes. It’s come to that.
I’ve decided to throw a “Get the heck out of here, winter” party on the day before the Spring Equinox. We’re going to run around the backyard kicking at any leftover snow heaps, take off our coats, open the windows no matter what, and make a bunch of tissue-paper suns to hang in our windows.
I’m going to make a giant paper snowflake and let the kids rip it to shreds. I might buy a bunch of dried sage to burn and wave around inside my house.
The hard part will be making it through these last few hard weeks of disrupted schedules and limited ability to travel.
Are you struggling along beside me this endless winter? Leave us a comment to share your stay-sane strategies.
