Snow Day...How to Weather the Storm as a Mom

Time 11:32a.m., snow depth 3.5 inches...still waiting for the other 8 inches...

How one mom weathered this faux snow day:

• Started the day with a soothing shower to get geared up for what lay ahead.  I suppose it would have been a bit more soothing without the 17 month old sharing the warm water with me, pushing the shower door open every 2 minutes.
• Spritzed on a bit on my favorite perfume.  I heard this tip once and it really does make a difference when you're at home all day with crumbs and kids.
• Took a deep breath, turned up "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell on the imac and started sweeping up a broken plate.  "It was an accident, mom."  "I know, sigh,"  says mom.
• Brought out some cool art stuff from my "fun stuff/gifts" closet.  Set the kids to work with Color Wonder markers and 15 minutes later diffused a "spat" (to put it nicely) between two of them that were drawing silly pictures about each other (you can play "guess the culprits" here (-:).
• Went back to imac to play "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.  I LOVE this interpretation of the classic song sung by Judy Garland.  Puts a smile on my face every time and lightens the mood instantly.  Played it about seven times in a row.
• The two that were banished to their bedrooms emerged, one with a clay creations set and the other wanting to do first child's clay creation set.  But now, we have calm mom settled by "The Rainbow" and ready to take on round two (10:30a.m. at this point).
• I broke out t-shirt paint for the non-clay makers.  Yes, you heard it right, PAINT.  and guess what...it worked!  No spats, no mess and 3 out of 4 happy kids.  Sorry, William, no paint or clay for you.
• So now it's noon...I've moved on to the jazz group, Hot Club of Detroit (great background music)...boys are on the computer, baby is napping and Lara's headed off to play at the cousin's.  So far, so good!