EZPZ: Working from Home with Kids (cue threatening music)

Have you ever had to work from home with children who are not a) asleep or b) old enough to occupy themselves, use scissors and cook their own meals? I don’t recommend it. If you DO have to, though, I recommend planning ahead. (insert hysterical laughter here)

When you can’t plan ahead, sedate your instantly grow and mature your children by buying them a birthday cake and having them blow out the candles (The Sims, anyone?), you have to turn to Plan B. Plan B involves lots of snacks, too much TV and when the guilt gets to you, activities, coloring and (SIMPLE!) crafts. I had snacks, so that wasn’t a problem. I even had a portable DVD player so that I could take a break and watch Perfect Couples on the big TV (and the kid could watch Megamind on the DVD player). I had no crafts. No coloring books.

Awesome.

Luckily I had an HP printer that has fancy apps. So, it was no problem.  After putting a bra on (under my pajamas, because I’m working from home – who are we kidding here?), I approached the printer.

The front panel is open. Clearly my husband has been playing with this.

I tapped the power button to take the printer out of sleep mode (power saving!) and started poking around the apps area.  Or, I tried, but I recently changed my wireless router and forgot to tell the printer. So, I quickly configured a new wireless connection. CAKE.

Configured in less than two minutes. WOOT.

Finally! THE APPS! It’s pretty intuitive, but there are even video demos if you aren’t sure how to get around.  There are a ton of family-focused apps, too.

Disney. Megamind. I've found everything I need for these kids.

I tapped on Disney first and found some sweet coloring pages for both girls.

Princesses!

Once I printed those off, I may or may not have explored a whole bunch of other stuff, saw that Pioneer Woman has an app (!!) and possibly printed off a Cootie Catcher for myself.

Brings me back to grammar school

The kids were suitably impressed with the whole process, which I captured on film for your entertainment. I’m sweet like that. Aren’t my kids cute? I mean if you ignore the fact that I didn’t get her dressed or brush her hair. Did I mention WORKING from HOME?!

Ultimately, a hit. And the markers are washable, too, so I can totally deal with any associated mess. Ahem.

That's right. The kid in the picture isn't wearing pants. And is drawing on my couch.

The bottom line here is that they got something fun to do, it didn’t cost me anything, and it kept her from doing weird things with the available snacks.

Surprisingly delicious.

Well, it kept her from doing more weird things.