Half a dozen of one, six of the other

The kids had Monday off of school for Presidents' Day. They got yesterday and today off as snow days. This means a three day weekend followed by a four day weekend. For a stay-at-home mom, the kids having all that time off means I've gotta work overtime! This is hardly fair, really.

Sure, sure, I don't really think of summer break as being overtime. I mean, we get to go to the pool! I can send the monsters, er, uh, children outside to play with the neighborhood kids while I lounge around on the porch and blog on the laptop. But now? Now it's cold out. It's cold and wet. It's cold and snowy and icy. I'm allergic to the cold. It makes me bitchy. Thus, we stay inside. Mostly, anyway. I did hang out outside long enough to shovel the sidewalk yesterday, just to give the kids a chance to run and play. And this morning, the kids went into the backyard (surrounded by a 5 foot fence)to play for a bit while I stayed inside and kept warm. But the yard is small, and they got bored quickly.

The poor kitten seems to be taking the brunt of the kids boredom. The two smaller ones have realized they're capable of picking the cat up. The cat? He doesn't like that too much. Sure, it was ok the first five or six thousand times. But after that, it got kind of old. Especially since the kids didn't pet him while they were holding him. They didn't play with him either. They just sort of walked around with him and then wondered why he was getting upset. Poor kitty! But he was a good sport for a long while.

I put the kids to work yesterday. I had them clean their rooms and change their sheets. (Dear Internet, I have to make a confession. The kids rooms? They rarely get vacuumed. They just don't. I mean, who wants to haul the vacuum cleaner all the way upstairs, right? And it's not like they're allowed to take food upstairs or anything. But yesterday, I did it. They cleaned their rooms and I vacuumed them!) Today, I'm sure I can come up with some other cleaning project for them. Cuz I'm a mean Mommy like that.