Once you've lost your temper where do you find it again?

We have chosen to stay home to celebrate the holidays this year instead of heading South as we usually do. The weather is co-operating perfectly. It's cold and clear with lots and lots of snow. The children are old enough to look after themselves for much of the day. They drift from game to game, play on the wii for a while, listen to their iPods. They ask if they can play on the computer or watch t.v. or have some more wii time. The only thing that mars this happy portrait of domestic bliss is their mother's temper. "Eat more, eat at the table, eat something healthy, play something that doesn't require batteries or to be plugged in." All these requests seem perfectly reasonable to me and yet they often fall upon deaf ears.

The snow is starting again and tomorrow will be a ski day. I hope that by breaking the monotony of too many pajama days in a row we'll all start getting along better. Of course we'll just have different battles to fight once we're on the ski hill. There will be the complaints of I'm too cold, I'm too scared.

Why is there always so much resistance before the fun starts?

Oh ya, I remember, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. And a body with a nice warm house will resist being subjected to snow and cold and gravity. And worst of all, a body in possession of any type of computer game will long to play with it to the exclusion of all else. Just ask we about my addiction to Webkinz, Freecell and Bridge. But not while I'm playing because I won't hear you.