Overcoming Cabin Fever
"Ah, I might as well jump. Jump! Might as well jump. Go ahead, jump. Jump!" Van Halen
I've been trading emails and pictures this weekend with housebound friends who are doing their best to enjoy the snow. The pictures are beautiful, the sledding is great, but the shoveling is...well, shoveling. After getting chilled to the bone by 10 a.m., the challenge is what to do with the rest of the day!
Although I don't have to deal with snow issues, the winter still leaves me feeling more than a little cooped up. There's a reason millions of people are plagued by Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD); the time between Christmas and Spring Break drags by if you spend too much time inside away from the sunlight.
That's part of the reason we invent ways to be goof balls. (Granted, goofing off isn't much of a stretch for us!) These days our favorite way to beat cabin fever is to take jumping pictures. My daughter's technique is to jump off low walls and make her legs and arms as crazy as possible. My son just goes up.
On a family trip this summer, we varied our techniques a little and made tourist traps MUCH more interesting.
When you leave the kids in charge of getting the pictures, you end up with great before and after shots.
The "best" shot isn't exactly perfect, but it still makes us laugh.
There is no age limit on playing this game as my in-laws so aptly demonstrate.
Perhaps my favorite shot of the year was snapping a friend we enlisted to join us in the nonsense. In this shot, Suzanne outshines us all! (And no, she wasn't pushed!)
The trick is to get the whole family in the shot. Next time, I won't wear a scarf!
So if you're going bonkers inside, use your camera and jump! You might as well jump!