A Stay-At-Home Mother's Guide to Beating Cabin Fever

This recent Mid-Western arctic blast has left us trapped in the house. The resulting cabin fever has definitely been a test of endurance for us so it only seemed prudent for me to share some of the tips we learned. Here they are, in no specific order:

- Indulge your child's inner-artist by providing lots of craft supplies.
- Feed your family lots of homecooked, hearty, comfort foods like mini-meatloaves and pot roast.

- Resist the urge to bake _______ (fill in the blank: a cake, brownies, cookies, a pie...) even before last night's ________ (fill in the blank: cake, brownies, cookies, pie...) is/are gone. Learn from my mistakes and take my word for it. Your waist will thank you for it later.

- Don't let the cabin fever convince you to do things yourself that you would otherwise hire a professional for. (i.e. Decide that you are perfectly capable of giving your daughter a haircut. I won't explain how I came to know this but if future pictures show up of Emmy with a mullet, you'll understand.)

- Bear in mind that your children may need some space too. Just like you've been stuck in the house with THEM; they've been stuck in the house with YOU. Which means that this...

...probably won't go over as well as you'd like. Take my word for it.

(And last but not least...)

- Get down on your hands and knees, every night, and pray that the weather tomorrow will, miraculously, be 75 degrees and mostly sunny.