A Mom's Guide to Surviving Snow Days

1. Sleep in. Oh, right. You’re a mom. Never mind.

2. Make breakfast. Maybe something fancy like waffles, because you’ve got time. And because, waffles.

3. Throw some Bailey’s in your coffee. You aren’t going anywhere.

4. I know your kids are annoying you already, but don’t turn on the TV yet. You’ll need that later, and it’s going to be a long day.

5. Ask your kids if they want to go outside and play in the snow. Convince the 50% of your children who would rather stay in to come out for a little bit. Lie and tell them it will be fun.

6. Take 573 minutes finding matching gloves and wrangling children into snow gear.

7. Go outside for 573 seconds.

8. Don’t forget to bring the dog out with you. He loves the snow, and you’ll love the way your house will smell like wet dog for the rest of the day.

9. Come back inside to help one child wiggle out of their gear to go potty. Pray they don’t pee on their only pair of snow pants.

10. Since you’re inside, refill your coffee and Bailey’s. It will help keep you warm.

11. Go back outside.

12. Come back in with another child who has forgotten, despite many reminders, to ensure the elastic ankle part of the snow pant is secured outside the boot, and who now has a boot full of snow.

13. Watch that child walk past the towel spread out in the doorway, and dump the boot snow onto the living room floor.

14. Watch out the window as the remaining outside child eats some off-colored snow, and yell at them to come in, because that’s enough fun thankyouverymuch. Besides, the snow on the carpet has dissolved, and the living room is ready for another dose.

15. Give your dog extra love for being the only family member to actually stand on the towel to be dried off. He’s always been your favorite.

16. Make the hot chocolate you bribed your kids with to go outside in the first place.

17. Clean up the spilled hot chocolate with the barely used snow towel.

18. Toss something in the Crock Pot. Dinner? Done.

19. Good news! You have time to fold those three baskets of laundry you’ve been avoiding!

20. LOL, just kidding. Hand the kids the iPad, grab your Snuggie and that book you’ve been trying to finish for two months. It’s a snow day.

Amy and her husband made two kids, a four-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. Amy is a Huffington Post and Families In the Loop blogger, has been featured on BlogHer, Aiming Low, Mamapedia, Scary Mommy, and Bonbon Break, and is a contributor to the books, You Have Lipstick on Your Teeth, and I Just Want to Pee Alone. You can find Amy laughing at the absurdity of parenting on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, and pinning things she’ll never do on Pinterest. She writes embarrassing stories about her family and herself at FunnyIsFamily.com.