The Importance of Being: Housebound

Right, let's be honest, we were bound to have heard at least one of these remarks in the past week:

By Jesus it is cold alright

It would cut yee in two

It gave it on the news to be cold

It would skin yee

That's a day for the pub

God of almighty it is a holy tarra

You'd be glad of the coat that day

It is friggin' baltic!

You would think it snowed last week....

Well, the beast from the east reared it's ugly head and caused just a wee bit of havoc on this emerald isle. Supermarkets were littered with people fighting over bread, the battle of the snowmen commenced and an 86 year old lady was having the time of her life sledging down a hill with her grandson. Definitely my highlight of the week! Last week's events could have easily been taken from an episode of Father Ted. Some of us (including myself) were lucky enough to have got a few days off work or school as well! Ah the joys of the snow. 

So, on Thursday and Friday of last week I was housebound. With all this time on my hands and being confined to my house my days usually went like this:

Should I build a snowman?

Am I too old to build a snowman? 

I wish I was building a snowman with those kids outside. 

Eugh! Those kids are stealing the snow off our garden for their snowman.

Am I too old to make snow angels?

Should I go outside and measure how many inches of snow we have?

Meh, only four inches..

Do we have enough food in the house?

I'm down to my last creme egg, can I make it stretch? 

Oh, so-and-so across the road is braving the roads, good luck to him.

And when I got a wee bit bored of the snow...

What would it be like to win the lotto?

I'd definitely book a holiday.

When is my next day off?

I need to light more candles.

Do I need to buy more candles?

Can I watch the whole of Netflix? 

My skin is going to look great after two days of wearing no make-up!

Should I hoover?

Nah.

Should I clean the bathroom?

Nah.

Is it finally time to tackle the messy spare room?

Nah.

I need a cleaner.

I need more storage in this house.

Should I go and build a snowman?

I did eventually decide that I did want to build a snowman and no, I wasn't too old to do so. But as I excitedly ran out into our hallway I slid and fell like a sack of potatoes and consequently have a very large bruise on my hip. So, yep, you guessed it, no snowman was built. 

The treacherous weather was the perfect opportunity to stay indoors and practice some mindfulness and self care. These days we rarely have the time to just sit and read, listen to music or chat to someone with no phone in our hands, distracting ourselves. Our phones are practically glued to our hands. And although our hand-held devices are wonderful for many things, we just need to take a break and breathe from time to time! I'll admit I'm no saint and of course I still had a scroll through Instagram and the odd flick through Twitter. And I may have succumb to some online shopping. I got sucked into the marketing ploy that was the 'snow deals'. Did any of you fall into the trap? Yes, I hang my head in shame. But I am now the owner of a very nice pair of snazzy dungarees.

The great snow of 2018 provided me with the opportunity to re-charge. Who knew the advantages of being housebound for a few days could be so beneficial? Apart from all those thoughts and musings I had that wasted a small amount of my time, the rest was filled with a lot of reading, listening to podcasts, drinking many cups of tea, going for snowy walks, napping and most importantly talking to close family and friends. It's amazing how a bit of snow can bring communities together!