Day in the Life of Subzero Parenting

Early temps this morning were in the -30’s F.  We’re hardy people up north, but even our school district issued a 2 hour late start.  Since my day was a little different than normal with the weather, I decided to document my morning in pictures.

My first order of business was to feed the cat.  He lives outside, but before you call PETA on me, just know that he sleeps in the hay shed where he’s warm and snug in the straw.

And as a side note, this is our horrendously drafty front door that my husband doesn’t want to replace because he likes wooden doors.  It’s hollow.  And we have a brand new solid wood door just waiting to be installed (and this is a test to see if he actually reads my blog).

The next step is to try to get the van to start, which is proving to be a losing battle.  My animals can withstand subzero temperatures.  My van cannot.

After that ordeal of unsuccessfully jump starting the van, I needed a java break before feeding the animals.  Is there any other way to make coffee than rich brew?

This is my least favorite part of the day.  Tending to the animals takes some time so I either do it before the kids are up or during nap time.  The heated water bucket isn’t working, so that means regularly replacing frozen water for the ducks and goats.  I typically take a sledgehammer to the duck basin to break apart the ice, toss the ice chunks out, and refill it.  For the goats, I’ll bring their bucket in, dump the ice in the sink, and refill it with hot water.  They seem to enjoy sipping hot water on a cold day.

For those who don’t know cold, ice is sharp.  Today, like many days that I don’t bother with gloves, I wound up cutting myself on it.  In the summer my hands are beat up from straw cuts and in the winter it’s ice.

The upside is that it was fun to play with, watch melt, and try to break with Duplos.

An important part of subzero weather is checking the thermostat multiple times a day.  Because it’s a smart thermostat, it automatically turns down/off when it thinks we’re not home.  Can’t let that happen.

My preschooler was missing his friends today, and apparently I was a poor substitute because I didn’t understand the combat dynamic between dinosaurs and cars.

I’m sure other parents can relate to this struggle.  Whenever kids take out these kind of puzzles that don’t have a box, I ask that they finish them so I can put a completed puzzle away and it won’t lose pieces.  What ends up happening is they’ll finish it and destroy it immediately after adding the last piece.  Repeat 5 more times in succession, admit defeat, do the puzzle myself, turn around to check on the baby, and look down to find this:

Other boredom busters we tried were swimming in the bath with bubbles and bath paint.  That literally lasted 10 minutes.

A snow tray also lasted about 10 minutes.

The rest of the day was a series of “Mom, I’m bored.”  And that’s it.  That was my day.  For all you fellow cold weather moms, stay warm.  And to everyone else… I’m coming to visit!