Opening Pandora's Box

Lately I’ve contemplated bargaining with the devil: trading my soul for sunshine. Does anyone else feel this way?

The last few days have just been teases. A little sunshine here or there is better than none at all, but I’d go so far as to say I’m desperate for the sun. Not only for the warmth it brings, but also the sanity that is wrapped up in each of those bright little rays.

It has been a long winter, and an even longer April I feel like. Now that the snow is melted, I’m anxious to get out there and start my summer.

I’m ready for the park, the pool, the barbecues, the fresh air and the flowers. My son and I have been held hostage in our house for months. I need to break free! We both have cabin fever, which I’m convinced is a legitimate medical condition. I walked into a wall yesterday; I’m classifying it as a symptom of cabin fever. 

So what can be done when you need to stay sane when the weather is driving you nuts? 

Believe it or not, there’s plenty to do, even when you feel like you’ve done it all. Something I just did recently, and I will be doing again today, as soon as I’m done typing, is I made a Pandora station for my son. Pandora is an online music station.

If you go to Pandora.com and sign up, you can create “stations” of different music to listen to. The best part is Pandora suggests other music that is similar to the music you select.

What I’ve done is made a station called “Walt,” after Walt Disney of course. I typed in Disney songs and a huge variety came up. The first song the station played was “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from Lion King. Absolutely perfect!  I also plugged in Hakuna Matata, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Cinderella, and of course “You Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story. The station just took off on its own.  

I can skip songs, I can say I don’t like a song, or that I’m sick of a song, and the station won’t play it for 30 days. Some of the classic Walt Disney movies I don’t let my son watch yet because they tend to get intense, but the music is phenomenal in all of them. So while the music is playing we can do anything else. Sometimes we just dance and sing. Sometimes we eat lunch while listening to it, and of course, we can always “play cars” or “color,” too.

Listening to Disney music without buying every single soundtrack is a great way to change the pace of the day and ensure we have a good time. It’s not repetitive, because there are so many options available.

I like being in control of what my son listens to, without having to actually control it. I’m a mom, I have other things to do, but I think I’ll leave the cleaning for another day, unless of course I get inspired by a Disney song. Maybe some Cinderella tunes?

• Just a note, I know it is sunny today, however, I wrote this yesterday and had a problem getting it uploaded.  I still wanted to share my idea with all of you.