Our Unconventional Snow Weekend

It is no secret that I'm a bit of a weather nerd.  I have several weather apps on my phone and I tend to enjoy conversations about weather patterns and trends.  Once, I made my husband order cable so I  could get The Weather Channel!

But weather nerds were not the only ones on weather watch.  I was at the grocery story with my entire town on Saturday morning.  After returning home from the busiest shopping trip in history, a thought occurred to me.  We are at the end of Christmas break.  My kids are bored out of their gourds.  How will I keep them from fighting?  How will I keep them off of their devices?  How will I endure one more episode of "Good Luck, Charlie"?  The answer came while I was at the library returning books.  I walked past a table stocked with snow themed books.  Those librarians are so clever!  As I perused the selection, my eyes landed on an oldie but goodie.  I knew this would be the answer to our snow weekend boredom.  I returned home with a plan formulating and a vaguely familiar feeling in my mind…could it be…excitement?

On Sunday afternoon, I gathered my bickering troops.

"I HAVE A SURPRISE!"  I announced.

"Go grab your pillows and blankets.  Put on your most comfortable pajamas and meet me back in the family room in five minutes", I said.

I could hear them chatting with each other.  The mood had changed.  Now they were working as a team to figure out what I had planned.  Did mom rent a movie?  Are we watching Netflix?  What else could there be?

I assembled my crew and asked hubby to build a fire.  The kids looked a bit perplexed because we do not actually have a fireplace.  Hubby, using the gift of modern technology, pulled a crackling fireplace up on the TV.

And I pulled out THIS:

And the most amazing snow weekend EVER…began!

I have kids that love to read and kids that do NOT love to read.  But we have bonded over this book.  We have bonded over the characters and the struggle.  It has been refreshing to hear questions about a time period that seems so foreign to us.  We've researched 1800's prairie style houses.  We've talked about one room school houses.  At breakfast on Monday, the kids begged me to start reading again. One of the boys commented that he couldn't wait to find out what happened when the Ingalls family moved into town for the Winter.  One of the boys asked if we could make food like they did in the story.  So, we pulled out this:

And we worked together:

To make this:

Which turned into this:

And something fantastic happened.  We decided that if we could make our own bread…(never mind the fourteen loaves we bought in anticipation of snowpocolypse)  we could do ANYTHING!  Even make our own fresh blackberry jam!

The kids were more proud of this snack than anything they've ever eaten before.

The kids even started calling us "Ma" and "Pa".
*Note that 24 hours later, Pa still has an amazing fire going!!!
And Monday night, we settled in to hear more of the Ingalls adventures.

We are incredibly stoked about having yet another day off of school Tuesday.  We still have much to learn about our Pioneer family.  And we have decided to bake Apple Pie from scratch.  If my kids don't show up to school on Wednesday…you'll know we didn't quite have time to finish our book.  :)

Here's the thing.  I could have moaned about being snowbound with five kids.  I could have begrudgingly forged ahead through three days of fighting and chaos. (Don't be deceived…we've had plenty of fighting and chaos as well here).  But, with a little creativity…we've turned our little suburban house into a shanty on the plains in the middle of Winter.  In an age where iPhones, iPods, and iPads rule, we have to fight for these moments.  In twenty years, my children will never remember what Netflix show they watched while they waited for the bread to rise, and rise, and rise, and…
But they will remember that we sat together and read a book.  They will remember building their own frontier home out of blankets and chairs.  They will remember the soft bread and sweet blackberry jam. And they will remember that we WANTED to spend time with them.  I know that I will put these memories in my heart for safe-keeping.  I will hold onto them and pull them out when my children are grown and out of my home.  And I will probably cry when I think about the small arms of my seven year old wrapping around my waist while I buttered bread to say, "Thanks for reading this book to us, mom! I'm really enjoying it!"

Be intentional with your children, friends!  It really does matter!!!