It’s 10 p.m. Friday, and I have only left my house once since Sunday. It’s not uncommon for me to make two or more trips to town in one day, so this staying home thing is quite unusual for me.

I stayed home voluntarily on Monday to get some housework done, and I did go into town Tuesday to vote in the nation’s presidential election. But then Wednesday I was home with a vomiting and feverish Busy Toddler, and Wednesday night the blizzard hit.

The blizzard dropped about 6 to 10 inches of snow at our place. It’s difficult to determine exactly how much snow we received, because the ferocious wind blew it all around leaving tremendous drifts along with a few bare spots. But somehow most of the drifts ended up across our roads, which meant no school for our two older daughters on Thursday or Friday and no way for my husband to get to work, either.

Perhaps it’s due to the extra company I had Thursday and Friday, but I am handling my home-bound situation very well. I’m not going near as stir-crazy as I thought I might. In many ways, it’s been a treat not having to run kids back and forth to extra curricular activities around town. Sports Girl did have basketball practice Monday through Wednesday, but she had it early in the morning before school, and at those hours, Handsome Hubby handles the transportation duties.

Even though gas has come down to the low $2 per gallon range in my area, I know my staying home has saved us some money. I told my husband about my single trip to town this week. “That explains why we actually still have money in our checking account,” he said. But, I reminded him, it also explains our empty refrigerator and empty cupboards. Everything’s a trade off.

Staying home has also saved me time as a single trip to town and back takes me about 45 minutes with only one quick stop while I’m there. Usually I end up staying in town for at least an hour or two after I drop off the girls so that I can pick them in the same trip.

I might not even have left the house Tuesday to vote if my two older girls hadn’t insisted that they accompany me to the polls. I couldn’t deny them such a noble request, so I made a special trip into town to pick them up from school and go vote. It actually meant I had to wake Busy Toddler early from her nap, so it was a bit more of sacrifice than at first it might sound. But now I’m especially glad that I did, because otherwise I wouldn’t have left my house at all this week!

Someday I’m sure I’ll be writing about the three or four trips I made to town in a single day, but right now I’m happy to write about the oddity of staying home for most of a week. I wonder how many city folks have had that experience?