Pippa Sweeney: 'Life has changed completely for our family this week'

Pippa Sweeney lives with her husband Joe and their three children Ciaran, 7, Chloe, 5, and Cael, 3, in Cambuslang.

MONDAY

IT'S 6:45am, I'm in the kitchen starting the day when I hear someone coming in the front door. It's my husband, who works in construction and left half an hour earlier. He didn't even make it on to the M8 and all the construction sites he works on are shut. He takes the kids to school and picks them up - the snow's not too bad there - and there's a real sense of novelty for them. Daddy's never usually around during the day and they love it. Once they're home from school hubby takes the kids outside and, using his construction skills, makes them a snow house.?.

TUESDAY

No notification from the school this morning about it being closed so we decide to go for it and take them in. Hubby can't even get out of the estate in the car because the road's shut and ends up walking them in, only to get a call saying the school was closing after all. It's after 10:30am by the time they get back, not least because every 100 yards he's stopping to help push yet another car that's got stuck somewhere. Meanwhile, I nip up to a local shop and buy some activity sets in a desperate attempt to keep the kids entertained while they're at home, but they seem intent on wrecking the place. It's still a novelty to them.

WEDNESDAY

By 8:30am not only have we been notified that the school is shut, but hubby is also notified that there will be no work until Monday and that everyone's being temporarily laid off because of the weather. It's a total blow. I work three nights a week in a nearby office, but really we're a one income family and this is going to have a real impact on us. Hubby's stressed out, prowling the house like a wolf, looking for something to do. The kids are getting hysterical. They're wired to the moon and getting under my feet. At 3pm I send the kids outside to play after I discover a collection of felt tips have been shoved down the side of the sofa for no reason. Within ten minutes they've demolished the snow house and decapitated the snowman. I can't wait to get to work tonight. It's the only peace and quiet I've had all day.

THURSDAY

Calm has once again been restored to my house. Hubby's been asked to start visiting the closed construction sites and making assessments. It's not work as such, but it's something. He leaves at 7:30am. The kids come up with the idea of making a puppet theatre that they can hold for Daddy and me that evening. It's fantastic because it keeps them busy. After Daddy's home we have the puppet show and they're so exhausted afterwards they go straight to bed, at which point mother dearest opens a bottle of vodka and sits down to wrap a few Christmas presents.

FRIDAY

I finally decide to brave the shops in the car and head up to M&S because I've heard they've got half price Christmas cards. As I pull up I see the Big Issue woman outside. I always walk past her but it's pouring with snow and her fingers are purple. I go in and buy her a coffee and a sandwich and take them out to her. It's about the same money I would have spent on the Christmas cards. Instead I come home, and, since they're still off school, the kids and I set to work making homemade Christmas cards. Life has changed completely for our family this week: we've lost money, everyone's got a bit over-excited, but conditions like this remind us that really, we're pretty lucky.