dress (old) – similar styles here and here | coat (old) – similar style here | boots | hat (old) – similar style here and here

We have some seriously cold weather ahead of us, and I thought I would round up some of my favorite ways to pass the time on the weekends when we are all trying to stay entertained and warm.

Back when this pandemic first started, I put together this post of 10 At-Home Activities to keep us entertained… when I thought it would be a few weeks/months of time at home.  Granted, this post is more of a cold-weather theme (or maybe a brief quarantine theme), and some of these may sound repetitive.  BUT I’m going to try to get a little more specific here with this shorter list!

Dominoes, Scrabble, Card Games

My new favorite game is Mexican Train Dominoes.  It is so fun and easy, and you can also watch a show or movie while playing.  I love games like that that don’t require 100% of your attention so it can be more lighthearted and social.

Tea Party with Hudson

Hudson just turned 2 in November, and it’s been so fun watching his imagination develop.  Over Thanksgiving, my mom had a little tea party for him and his 3-year-old girl cousin.  He loved it.  So now I will often turn afternoon snack time into mini “tea parties.”  We will lay out the different snacks (crackers, gummies, fruit), and I will serve him “tea” in an espresso cup and saucer (which is actually water or lemonade) at his mini table and chairs.  Sometimes stuffed animals make their way to our tea parties.

He asks for tea parties all the time now, and though I tried to rebrand the experience to “tea time” in an effort to make it a little bit more masculine… Hudson very much still prefers tea parties.  So tea parties it is!

“Mama, I want tea paaarr-ty.”

At Home Pilates

We are at the place where being on the treadmill or bike is too risky with Hudson around because he will get too close to the machine or put something on it… I digress.  It doesn’t work for us at this current time.

BUT I can do mat workouts with him nearby without a problem.  I will pull up YouTube for a class or use the OpenFit classes available on my MYX bike (blog post about bike here).  Andrea teaches some killer pilates classes on there!

Read a book… and set the scene.

When I say read a book, I don’t just mean read a book.  Set the scene.  Turn on the fireplace video on YouTube, grab a blanket, elevate your feet, brew a cup of tea.  Really make it an enjoyable, relaxing, indulgent experience.  Even just doing this for 20-30 minutes can make a big difference in my attitude and tension level.

I’m currently reading this book.

Organize a closet or cabinet.

We tend to overestimate how long it will take to tidy up a hall closet, drawer, or cabinet.  A lot of times it just takes an hour… maybe even less.  And that feeling of productivity and pat on the back is tough to beat.  I recently did this with our hallway closet, ordering a few sets of these baskets and acrylic risers (for toddler shoes).  The start-to-finish took me less than 30 minutes and the impact it has on my happiness is much more than that.

For more small happy hacks, I have two other posts worth checking out.  These are some of my own happy hacks, and these are some reader-submitted happy hacks.  I LOVE small changes like this to bring a little moment of joy into your day.  It all adds up!

If you have some favorite cold-weather activities, I’d love to hear.  Thanks so much for reading and sharing – XO –