It has officially been three days of captivity – and the news recently announced a fourth day of school closures. The pancake making and finger painting have begun to wear thin and longing gazes into the yard have begun to linger. My tiny charge has lost some of his glee and I admittedly have begun to resort to desperate measures to entertain him while also keeping up with my mounting inbox from my ‘day job’.

While trying to decifer post-industrial recycled content for steel products from a manufacturing facility in Mexico today I allowed Texas to empty out a kitchen cabinet and repeatedly pound on metal mixing bowls with a plastic spoon. A spoon I might add that he stole from the pantry and has been hiding in his downstairs toy box as contraband for several months it seems. These are not proud moments but the show must go on. Another shining parenthood moment was chasing him around the living room after he jerked the aircard from my laptop yelling ‘No, it is NOT yours mister…it is MINE!’ UGghHHhHhhHh…..the end is in sight – they say it is supposed to be 50 degrees on Saturday – the downside is that the hot water pipes in two bathrooms in the house seem to be frozen so I guess there is a slight chance that my weekend could be spent dealing with burst pipes.

In the end I cannot think of another place or anyone else in the world I would rather be trapped with. However, I am secretly saying little prayers every day that my Chicago trip next week is not cancelled….there is something very appealing right now about being at a conference with 100+ other adults in a hotel with a spa…does that make me a horrible parent – at the very least it makes me an honest one!