The polar vortex is upon us and its giving me terrible cabin fever. The roads are dangerous because we keep getting snow squalls and with the low temperatures you can’t keep it from freezing, so I have been sticking to home. I’ve got plenty of books that I could be reading but I feel like I need to be going somewhere. I hate feeling like I am trapped, and I begin trying to make any excuse to leave.

Wind chills are -30 so I refuse to take my kid out in this, but that means we’ve had to come up with creative ideas to stay active in a very small space. We have a very cold entry room that we will occasionally bring a tub of snow into and I’ll let my child play with that for a while. He is very much into reading so we will spend a good chunk of the afternoon reading, and I recently signed up for this kid streaming service that is supposed to be more “wholesome” content. We’ve also started designing tents using different furniture pieces, a favorite of X’s. Those solar lanterns have come in handy for when he wants to “sit in the dark tent.”