Going a little stir crazy

We have had the craziest weather this week. I live in the Pacific Northwest and in a nutshell that means our weather consists of:

What my kids see on the windows most of the time - but hey, it makes everything really green

October - June: Rain.

July-September: Mostly beautiful sun, mixed with some more rain

Sprinkled with the occassional snowfall about once every other year, usually in January.

Rain and gray - I am used to. Snow is fun for a few days, then I want it to go away so I can drive without worrying about all the freaky people who panic and might hit me.

This week has been something else though. We had a few days of snow - enough that the kids were having fun with it. Then the ice storm hit last night. Cold, icky, stingy ice coating everything in a big heavy mess of white - emphasis on heavy. The ice has been knocking down trees all over the place and we've lost power twice. We're among the lucky ones, with lights ablaze tonight and my prayers are with people who have had their homes hit by trees and who are going on day two of no power in freezing cold weather.

Have I mentioned we're all used to rain out here? I don't know how all those midwest and east coast folks handle it!

As long as we keep our power (especially heat!), the weather isn't really all that bad. Except nothing this week has gone as normal and I'm enough of a routine-oriented person that it is starting to get to me. This morning I felt like I didn't even know what day it was. Between my continuing adjustment to my husband's new job schedule (commuting really far a few days a week and working from home the others), and this week of wild weather, school closures (my poor homeschool kids, LOL - although they did get plenty of time playing in the snow with friends), and basically stuck-at-home-ness, I am starting to feel a little stir-crazy.

While my husband was outside whacking our birch tree with a sword to get the ice off, since it was doubled over under the weight of the ice as if it were bent at the waist... oh wait, did I just gloss over the fact that he was out there whacking tree branches with a sword? Yes, a real one. Yeah, we're that weird. Anyway.... I went outside to take a picture (because who doesn't want a picture of their cutie husband all bundled up, sword in hand, battling that nasty ice),

and although I was dressed in nothing but yoga pants, a t-shirt and boots, I stayed outside for a good 10 minutes because it felt so good to be out. of. the. house. Fresh air! Freedom! As my fingers burned with the cold and my lips started to turn blue, I realized I should probably go back inside. But I so didn't want to.

The roads are too icy for it to make sense for me to leave. And I'm sure there are times and places where people are stuck inside far longer than this. But good grief, I am feeling the beginnings of cabin fever coming on. And it isn't just cabin fever - I'm off schedule, off kilter and just plain off.

I can't even get to the store to buy some chocolate. Now that's a tragedy.