Whoever said April was the cruelest month (T. S. Eliot? E. E. Cummings? My literary knowledge seeped out of my brain during pregnancy number two) obviously hadn't spent a February in the Midwest . . . with two kids under the age of 4. Subfreezing temperatures, endlessly dreary days, and two kids who hate wearing hats, coats, and shoes of any kind make living a stress-free life during the Winter seem like an impossible task, especially if you, like me, use your Pinterest boards to catalog future bathroom-renovation ideas, not to find kid-friendly indoor activities.
While I like to think of myself as a creative person, crafty, I am not. Just the idea of stocking my house with beads, glue sticks, glitter, and pipe cleaners gives me clutter anxiety, bringing visions of infinite messes instead of cute crafts, hundreds of which my daughter already seems to complete weekly at preschool and our gym's childcare program.
My anti-Martha Stewart ways don't end there. I also say "no, thank you" to science experiments and cooking/baking with my kids. I'm wholly of the mindset that any project that entertains them for less than half the time it takes for me to set up and clean up is just not worth the effort, and frankly, I'm still picking up tiny beads from a months-old and totally misguided Shrinky Dinks Charms adventure. So what's left to entertain two little ones indoors for this long month? Here are my lazy, noncrafty go-tos.