They Are Eating The Playdoh: 5 Signs It's Another Snow Day

 One day of watching the snowfall safe and snug in your home is usually fun and we are all creative enough to keep kids busy and happy.  By day two, however, things are starting to get a bit dicey.  My kids are all grown now, but some of my most vivid memories of parental breakdowns are from those multiple snow days when we were trapped together; frozen, bored and testy. Here are 5 signs it's another snow day:1.  The same Playdoh that provided such joy yesterday has lost its creative uses and become food.  Once kids are tired of molding it, smushing it through your garlic press and wedging it into places you couldn't imagine, they begin to eat it.  Hey, don't knock it til you've tried it.  Picking it out of their teeth is now your job for the day.  No more Playdoh...2.  The magical sheet and blanket fort you built yesterday is now a deathtrap obstructing all access to your family room.  You've already stepped on it setting off a chain reaction that brought a stack of books down onto your foot. In a frenzy, you start tearing it down, balling the sheets against your heaving chest.  Little Johnny stares at you in abject terror.  "Is that my mommy?"  He wonders...No more magical sheet fort.3.  All kitchen gadgets have been put away and the microwave is the sole method of food preparation.  Gone is the waffle iron from yesterday's snowman -shaped breakfast, the blender from post -lunch milkshake making and the double boiler used to make the real homemade hot cocoa served for "tea time."  Can anyone say, "There's Swiss Miss and a microwave?  Have at it." No more food with love...4. All snow gear is back in the box. Joyfully tying up little boots, searching for matching mittens with a smile and efficiently tossing everything wet into the dryer for yours and the neighborhood kids is yesterday's news. Today, "they are old enough to dress themselves, play somewhere else and wear it wet."  No more snowmen making...5.  Nap time is for you and not for them.  Today whether they need it or not, you will be taking a glass of wine and a good book to your bedroom around 4:00 pm. They are warned to enter at their own risk.  No more carefree, nostalgic mommy.Snow days are a nice change from the daily grind and they remind us that even in this modern, fast moving world, we can be brought to a standstill by mother nature.  More than one, though, and things start to spiral out of control pretty quickly.  So raise your glass, here's to school tomorrow...How do you survive your snow days?