I Am Committing Myself!

It has snowed again in our little part of Germany!  Hooray! 

It's funny - since Hubby has been using my car, (his little Nissan Micra refuses to start), I have felt uber trapped in the house.  Frankly, this has made me a bit of a crabby mommy...and no one likes a crabby mommy.  It snowed, the road conditions were dangerous, so the meeting that I was scheduled to deliver a craft tutorial on HERBAL EYE PILLOWS was cancelled.  Normally, this would really bum me out.  However, today was the perfect day to be snowed in, because I am truly exhausted.  Bundling the kids up in their snowsuits is such a task.  First, I suit up my almost 3 year old.  Then, on to the the 15 month old...only he is making it extremely difficult for mommy by writhing his miniature body, thrashing this way and that way in an attempt to make it all go away!  He is screaming bloody murder (he hates feeling like the powder puff blue version of the Sta-Puff Marshmallow man)...and hats - forget it, he simply won't wear 'em.  I turn around and the older toddler is already out of his coat...sigh.

My friend Teresa and I recently discussed how wonderful it can be, "committing", to the idea of staying at home .  The best example of this is snow days.  On an average day, at home with the kids, with nothing special planned, you can easily become bored or irratable.  If it is a snow day, on the other hand, suddenly it is a reason to celebrate.  We believe that it is because you are COMMITTED to staying home and determined to make it a fun day.  It is all about your outlook. 

This leads me to MY new and improved outlook on stay-at-home-motherhood.  I am committing myself to the idea of being at home, changing my frame of mind  to a more positive one - despite Germany's dreary, gray weather, and planning on having more fun everyday.  In order to accomplish this feat, I am trying to tackle new projects, crafts, and activities that will really engage my little boys.

Today, for our exciting project, we made red, heart ice-cubes and set them in the brilliant, white, snow.

This project was adapted from an idea that a friend, who was a school teacher before becoming a Mom, passed on to me. She used cookie cutters, rather than ice cube trays. This method will create a bigger frozen shape. She used an old aluminum pie tin, molded to snugly fit the cookie cutter, to hold the water in. I think aluminum foil would probably work just as well. Before freezing - she would place dental floss in the water at the top. When frozen, the hearts could be hung from trees, railings, etc. outside! What fun!

 We did not go through the hassle of putting our coats on.  We ran outside, and plopped our craft in the snow, and ran back in the house. I can't wait until my husband comes home, to see these sweet, little, decorations sprinkled on our snow-covered lawn.  They are sure to make him smile.  My older toddler LOVES eating ice - so I gave him half of the cubes that we froze to eat.  He munched away, happy as a clam, telling me they were delicious!  Heeeheeee...a little food coloring and some dollar store , novelty, ice cube trays can score you some major points with the toddler set!

Now I need to start thinking about what fun is in store for us tomorrow!