Homebound for 5 Days!

On Monday, the temperature was 75 degrees.....but overnight, things changed! I woke up at 3:30am Tuesday morning to the sound of ice pelting the windows. It was sleeting, it was cold and we were under a Winter Storm Warning. Those 3 words are music to my northerner ears!

I tried to go back to sleep, but woke again at 5:30am to learn schools were closing all over the DFW area. We weren't going anywhere. Streets were covered in ice and the temperature was below freezing....and it wasn't going to get warmer until Saturday.

Day 1 we stayed home. I cleaned house most of the day in anticipation of my MOPS group coming over the following day for a play date (which ended up getting cancelled!) I cleaned nearly every room in the house. Madden watched a lot of Dora, played with toys and went to Honey's house some. It's a challenge to be home all day....keeping Madden occupied and quiet, so Marc can work!


The roads weren't getting clearer and it was apparent we would be home for Day 2. I decided to call our neighbors to come over and decorate Valentine cookies. They could walk (or drive!) and get here fairly easy since they live right behind us! This was Madden's first time to decorate cookies.....and he decided fairly quickly that he really likes SPRINKLES! Oh my!

Sweet Presley decorated her cookies SO creatively! I loved what she came up with!

Hudson already chowing down!

The finished product! The kids were done after about 15 minutes, so Cori and I finished the rest!

The kids played. We love our neighbors and really enjoyed getting together with them during this week at home. The kids play so well together! They are such a blessing to us.....

We went on a few wagon rides just to get out of the house.

I love his new little hat. A friend of ours made it for Madden and I think it is SO cute!

Hudson has several musical instruments and Madden enjoyed playing the drum. I decided I am glad that the drum lives at Hudson's house and NOT ours! HA!

Please ignore the fact that is hair is so flat. We didn't cut his curls off, but I am not sure we combed it all week. We DID bathe, though....baths were a daily "activity" and allowed for a hour of fun!

We were surprised to learn we would also be home on Thursday, Day 3. Everyone was starting to get a little stir crazy! My neighbor called and asked if we wanted to go to Chick Fil A for lunch, so off we went! It was packed. Funny how so many moms could drive to Chick Fil A, but the roads are "too bad" to drive to school! The kids had fun playing on the indoor playground and burning off some energy. After lunch, we headed to Target. It sure was nice to get out of the house!

So....at this point we had been off school/work for 3 days! This has never happened and we were SURE we would be going back on Friday. But, NOPE! Cancelled again. I wasn't sure I could make it a 4th day being stuck inside......

......BUT, the good Lord blessed us with a BEAUTIFUL snow overnight and we awoke to about 5 inches! Woo Hoo!

I couldn't wait to get Madden out in the snow. We bundled up and headed out. Marc shoveled the driveway in an attempt to get the car out....and Madden insisted on having a shovel to "dig" too. He LOVED the snow this year!

After running through the snow, eating the snow and shoveling, we decided to get the sled out. Lainey brought back this sled from St. Louis last year after we got a big snow. Most people use cookie sheets, rubbermaid tubs, etc. down here in Texas......so we were lucky enough to have an actual SLED! :) And Madden LOVED it!

Things were going really well until Madden fell off the sled and went face first into the snow! It startled him and he was ready to go inside. We had some hot chocolate and he ate a HUGE lunch! Then, took a great nap! Yay for snow!!


We stayed in side for much of the day. "Slid" to Honeys for dinner.

On Saturday, the temperature was supposed to get above freezing and snow would be melting. I wanted to get out for one last time. This might be the last time we see snow until next year. I had to beg both my boys to go out, but they finally agreed! It was so nice because the temperature was warmer than the day before and the SUN was out!

On my "to buy" list are SNOW CLOTHES for my family. Seriously....Marc is wear his baseball cleats and a tee shirt under his unzipped ski jacket. Poor little Madden was so bundled up he could hardly walk! We both wore our rain boots....which were OK, but NOT warm enough!

Going for a ride in the street! The roads were SO bad everywhere. Lots of people got stuck....2 inches of ice with 5 inches of snow on top = bad news!

LOVE this one! He had just slipped...but thought it was so funny!

Here are a couple videos of Madden enjoying the snow! Not my greatest moments of being a loving mother, but funny memories nonetheless. Enjoy!

So, we made it. 5 days home together. It was a blessing....it really was. And I have to remind myself of that. At moments, it was hard. I am used to going to work each day and being out and about. But, it was nice to rest and live at a slower pace.

Saturday night, I might have had a little meltdown after realizing I hadn't been ALONE in 5 days....but I got over it.

There are many days that I wish I stayed home. This week I had a glimpse of that. Now, I realize if I did stay home, we would not be homebound and not able to ever leave.

But, Monday, I was thankful to go to work, Madden was happy to go back to school and I KNOW Marc was glad to have us out of the house so he could get some work done!

Schedules are good for us!