The March Blizzard of 2017 - a.k.a. Why I Don't Like Snow Days

Just when I thought the word "snow" had left our vocabulary for a while, Mother Nature surprised us with 16 - 20 more inches of the stuff.  This meant not one but TWO days off from school and work. Snow days, of course, sound exciting, romantic even, but in keeping it "real," I'm not a fan of them in our house.

Here are my top reasons why I don't like snow days...

1)  We feel claustrophobic. During yesterday's blizzard, our governor mandated a travel ban for all people other than emergency personnel.  So, not only did this mean that we were "stuck" inside our house, but it also meant I would spend the next twelve hours bickering with my husband who insisted he still needed to go the grocery store to pick up chips and ice cream.

2.  We get irritated by our 800 square foot home.  Our "tiny house" has one TV, period.  I strategically planned it this way, so that we're not accustomed to sleeping with TVs in our bedrooms or isolating ourselves into different rooms throughout the day.  Still, when the three of us are home at once for a twelve hour period (or longer), there's bound to be some arguments.  I want to do my meditation video, Lewie wants to play his Xbox, and Big Lew wants to watch his family-friendly selection of TV shows--The Last 48, The Walking Dead, and Intervention.  Needless to say, our happy living room becomes a battleground of the wills...

3.  Being inside the house makes me lethargic.  I don't mean slightly tired.  I mean downright lazy.  Everything from climbing the stairs to my bedroom to pealing my butt off the couch takes an extravagant amount of effort.  Thus, nothing ever gets done on a snow day.  Not ever.

4.  Being inside makes me hungry.  Heck, yesterday the three of us ate an entire week''s worth of groceries.  We feasted on everything, especially unhealthy food like fried chicken, ice cream, early chocolate Easter candy and potato chips (just to name a few).

5.  The house needs to be deodorized.  After two days of lazily sitting around, good hygiene goes out the window.  Showers and brushing teeth become optional, dirty clothes are piled up, and the sink is filled with used, crusty, germ-infested dishes.  Again, because my energy is at an all-time low, there's no motivation to do anything except to sleep and pretend I'm living somewhere else; a bungalow in Hawaii sounds perfect right about now.

6.  I feel like a bad parent.  Snow days, for me, usually equates to days off from work and "free time" with my son.  In an ideal world, I should be serving chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, followed by reading,snow activities, hot chocolate, and board games.  Instead, my laziness manifests and I find myself serving cereal and feeling lucky if I accomplish one of the said activities.  Since we had a "blizzard" this time, there was no going out to enjoy the snow.  Having our face getting pelted by hard ice pellets is where I draw the line.

7.  I need a chiropractic adjustment.  With 20" of snow in the forecast, we knew waiting out the storm would be bad.  On four separate occasions, we went out to clear the sidewalks.  In classic blizzard fashion, there were snow drifts--some areas with 1 to 2 inches with other areas collecting up to 8 inches.  The snow was hard and HEAVY.  After the second round, my arms and back felt bruised and battered.  Our living quarters turned into an emergency relief station equipped with ibuprofen, Arniflora (arnica) gel, heating pads, and blankets.  Our kitchen chairs became drying racks for soaked coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and socks,

This gel is a savior in our house.  We rub it onto all of our sore muscles.

8.  Good help these days is hard to find.  We had to hire a new "plow guy" this year.  After some calling around, we settled on a gentleman that lives up the street from us.  Since we knew the storm would be bad, we told him to feel free to come out to plow our driveway twice.  That didn't happen... On day one, he was nowhere to be found.  On day two, he came roaring in, trying to push all 16 inches of snow at once.  It didn't work.  Heavy snowbanks were piled everywhere, and there was still a mess to clean up. The only answer was to dig ourselves out; my back enjoyed that!

This is our driveway after shoveling for about an hour...

Yes, snow days are not glamorous in our house.  We don't spend the day baking cookies and sitting in front of a warm toasty fire.  (We don't have a fireplace.)  We spend the day relaxing our sore, tired muscles on the couch while watching Lewie play Minecraft on the Xbox.  We spend the day binge eating, leaving a trail of wrappers, empty cartons, and dirty dishes around the house.  We sleep, we bicker, we complain.  I almost didn't write this post; I didn't want to sound too negative.  Still, there is a silver lining at the end of this post.  Despite my aversion to snow days, Little Lewie still LOVES them.

What do you do on a snow day in your house?