Cabin Fever

I feel a little like the guy in the movie Groundhog Day. It seems like every day we wake up to another snow day and more snow. Our first snow day was last week, and I was excited to have a day off. We spent the day shoveling, playing in the snow, watching movies and just hanging out together. It was pretty fun. Then the next day was also a snow day. More playing in the snow, some schoolwork, cleaning up... getting a little tired of all being in the house together.
Then we had a fun weekend with the Lotts, which was great. I need to get better at taking pictures of the kids together! I have no photographic evidence of the weekend (I especially wish I had a picture of Thomas and Owen making their potions). It was pretty low-key. Besides church, we didn't take the kids anywhere, but Jill and I had a couple of lunches downtown Nashua and did a little shopping (thanks Matthew!). The boys just played, and played, and played. With hardly any tiffs. It was great. So fast forward to today... another snow day! That means the kids have been housebound for a week now, except school on Friday and church on Sunday. Needless to say we were all a little cranky today. Ok, mostly I was cranky today. I am ready for the kids to be out of the house tomorrow, but the forecast is calling for ice tonight. Which means the buses might not be running tomorrow. If that's the case, we'll have to go somewhere because I'm going to lose my mind - think "The Shining" - if we are all in the house another day!
I was proud of Joey and Isaac who shoveled the whole driveway by themselves this morning. I got out there and helped them shovel the second time around. Good aerobic activity.
Pictures of Snow Day 1:

Pictures of Snow Day 2: 

And, cute pictures of Anna (and Brinley): 

There are no pictures of snow day 3 because I was too grumpy to take pictures today. 

Update on my dad. We went and saw him at Christmas. It was a really spiritual time for me as I sat at his bedside in the ICU and held his hand. He still had a breathing tube in so he couldn't talk, but he could gesture and raise his eyebrows. We got pretty good at communicating. He slept a lot, and while he slept I prayed and watched him. He has lost so much weight, especially muscle. Today they were putting in a tracheotomy and a feeding tube directly into his stomach. We are all hoping these measures will help him gain strength. The hospital is most concerned with his breathing, because his lungs still aren't clear, and he struggles for breath when they take the breathing tube out, but in the meantime he is hardly getting any food and we are all worried about him wasting away and not having the strength to heal. I know he and my mom have both received a lot of strength from the prayers and fasting of others.