Lucky for me, my kids are pretty content playing with some plastic toys in a Tupperware container filled with water. They could do this all morning...as long as I'm in sight. If I sneak off to make some beds or pay some bills or make some phone calls, their "Where's Mommy?" alarm goes off and they come find me. Which is fine...I stay home with my kids because I want to be with my kids. But some days, like some of the rainy days we've had rather frequently this spring, I daydream about what it would be like to get a job outside the home, coming home after a long day at work to running jumping hugs from two girls who missed me with every breath they took. Then I realize I'm still a stinky, sweaty hog from my morning workout, despite it being 11:30am. Can't do that at a "real" job, so forget that!
It's those rainy days that make me show my kids (and myself) what I'm really made of. How do I keep them busy allllllll day long, you ask?
Well, we make homemade ice cream. In the winter, we would bake cookies or muffins or banana bread, but those won't do anything for the bikini bod I've been working so hard to achieve! Instead, we turned to Pinterest for recipes for frozen Greek yogurt...chocolate, of course!
We take balloons we got at the grocery store earlier in the day and draw on them. One of Brynn's favorite things to draw is her family. It's maybe the cutest thing ever.
We pull up some chairs and watch a good thunderstorm come and go, counting the seconds between the flash of lightning and the clap of thunder. I loved doing this with my dad when I was a kid, and I'm thrilled my kids like to storm watch with me now.
We plan ahead. Sure, Father's Day isn't for weeks, but I saw this little questionnaire on Pinterest that a child fills out about his or her dad. This one pulled double duty as a reading and writing exercise...bonus! My favorite question was pretty basic - what color is Daddy's hair? Brynn's response: gray. Ouch!
I'm sure we'll have plenty of rainy afternoons this summer, or lots of days where it's just too hot to play outside. That's when I draw from the support of other moms, grandmothers, and Pinterest to keep these kids from driving me (and each other) bonkers!
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