It's upkeep I can't keep up, so I keep the faith and wear

So you know what, people?  This has been a long damn week.  I've been pretty much housebound with the kids since Tuesday evening.  This does not do anything for my mental clarity, just FYI.  It certainly has done nothing for theirs.  And P.S., if I hear Party Rock Anthem ONE MORE TIME, someone is gonna get hurt.

Things are sort of crazy at our house.  It's been an interesting 72+ hours of snow, hail, sleet, and freezing rain.  Eric stayed home from work Friday and was outside surveying the damage.  I had him take pictures because this is one for the books:

Artistic!

There should actually be a limb right there,
growing out of that tree.

Falling limbs sound like gunshots.  Not cool.

Anyone up for a game?

The ice?  Is thick.

It's even worse here this morning--limbs are everywhere.  Our beautiful oak trees by the playhouse are thrashed.  I'm actually surprised that the playhouse didn't get clobbered.  It looks like Paul Bunyan had a major lapse of judgement.

So anyway, the point I'm trying to make is this: It's been icy out.  Like, really icy.  And it's been really icy, and it will continue to be really icy, apparently, until this afternoon sometime, although I'm totally losing faith in the weathermen, if you want to know the truth, because this storm was supposed to be over Thursday, but clearly?  Not so much.

Which explains why we've been housebound.  Well, Eric has gotten out, and I did manage to make it in to work Thursday somehow (Friday they told me to just stay home).  No school for three days.  The humanity!  Being an introvert, all this togetherness is pushing me past my limits of endurance.  Last night when everyone went to bed, I stayed up and cleaned the kitchen--yes, CLEANED THE KITCHEN!--just because it was so peaceful and I wanted to prolong that feeling.

What's also been fun?  Lots of power outages.  My favorite part when the power goes off is knowing that the power is off, but still trying to turn lights on when you go into a room anyway.  That's just pure entertainment.  My least favorite part? When the power is off in the morning and coffee is pretty much impossible.  I was sort of wondering if I could maybe boil water on Eric's camp stove and seep some beans somehow and strain the whole ordeal, but then I wondered if maybe bad coffee would just make it more depressing than it already is.  Oh, and not having internet service really sucks, too.  Because when the power goes out I want to start checking the news, but d'oh!  That ain't happening.

The power has been off and on so much I've quit resetting clocks.  Seriously, what's the point when you lose power at least twice a day?

Abby invited her friend Lily over to stay last night, so that's been a good distraction.  Johanna can't stop herself from going into Abby's room to see what's up, but for the most part the boredom has been alleviated a little bit with someone new in the house.  Plus Abby and Lily always end up making peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, so that's just a win-win for everyone.

I'm not exactly sure how much more of this whole housebound business I can personally take, however. I spent the day yesterday reading and playing Sims and basically doing nothing.  Today I was all like, if I don't get to write, I am going postal!  But you can only work on something for so long before you must conclude it's as good as it's going to get, and then have to find something else to do.

And that's where I'm at now.

Miracle Legion, So Good.  Because I love Miracle Legion, that's why.  "Why don't you take a vacation from the land of make pretend?"  (Because that's my FAVORITE land, Miracle Legion!  How do you think I get through my day?)  "And I think you have gone nuts."  (Fair enough.)