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I think you have to be the one to take the lead in these things. Your kids don't know how to pick activities, and make plans with friends. Sign them up for things and give it a chance. They won't know if they like something until they try it. Get to know the moms at preschool or join a local moms group and schedule play dates. If you want more exciting things to do, you need to make the effort to make them happen.

@Bao: Play dates at home are free and flexible on timing. It may not be "exciting" but it would add some variety to the schedule for all of you.

How old are your kids? It might be fun to sign them up for something you think they might enjoy, especially in the winter months. Swimming, tumbling, etc. Plus that will help burn off excess energy!

DD is at daycare during the school year and gets out a lot during the day, so that takes some pressure off us. She is in swimming lessons 1 day per week, but no other activities.

During the summer when I'm home I take her to storytime at the library most weeks and try to plan a weekly play date with a friend as well to get out.

Do you have a local FB moms group? Someone started a play date group in our town and I've met so many moms from it. We do lots of stuff with and without the kids!

@Bao: feel your pain, girl.

I stay home as well with an almost 3 year old (fellow march 2014 mom!) and a 7 month old.

We also live in a small town. We go for walks (in the cold! Canada!), go to the library (not at story time... just for a change of scenery), drop in at gymnastics and drop in at the pool.

I also try to have a play date every week... even if just texting people one morning when we have no plans and seeing if anyone wants to come over. Nothing formal. Just coffee and chatting.

My husband works shift so on the days he works he leaves at 530am and gets home at 8pm. Longgggg winter days.

I think it's awesome you are coming up with the initiative to start fun activities for your kids when your community doesn't have the resources or weather to provide it to the public. That said, I think you are being so hard on yourself! Having a lot of unstructured activity time is great for creativity and imaginative play. That said, maybe having some kind of structure and plan would help YOU feel more organized. Perhaps you can look into some themed activities you can do a week at a time and use your library to fill in the gaps.

For instance, let's say this week the topic is France. Monday you go check out a bunch of books about France or set in France. Then you can read Madeleine and have a French themed breakfast (baguette with Nutella and hot cocoa, par example). Tuesday you can learn about the Eiffel Tower and make Eiffel Towers out of construction paper or pipe cleaners and make ham and cheese crepes for lunch. Wednesday you can watch Ratatouille and ask the kids to help you chop vegetables for dinner (make a ratatouille-like pasta sauce and serve with pasta for dinner) and serve them some chocolate pudding mixed with some Cool Whip as "mousse." Learn about Monet and do some watercolors. Etc.

I think a lot of homeschool learning is set up that way so you can probably find resources like that. I think if you did one planned activity a day it would make you feel good about enrichment and it wouldn't deviate too much in your kids days.

I would check meetup.com or Facebook for mom groups. If there isn't one I would start one. I'm sure there are other SAHMs in your area that feel the same way.

Even if you can't go to story time I would go to the library weekly. Trips to the grocery store and Target can be fun too.

@Bao: I joined one recently and it's been great. With my work and DD's school schedule along with story time, nap schedules, etc. we can usually make an event once a week or once every two weeks. Oh, I wonder if there is a MOPs group in your area?

@Bao: If your kids are content I wouldn't worry. I purposely only have DD in one activity because I don't want to overschedule her. Kids just want to play!

It makes it hard that you live in such a small town, but hopefully you will get some interest from others regarding play dates.

We don't have a lot of extra money for classes, etc so I have to be creative! DD1 is only in daycare 3 half days a week... She is only 2 so she's also fairly content to play at home. Even a quick trip to a supermarket/Target is still a trip for her. Our library has museum passes you can loan for free, so DH and I both take turns taking our museum passes to take her maybe once or twice a month. I stalked Groupon and got a Gymboree open gym pass, and a toddler time pass for a bounce place for cheap to get her out of the house. We also have church on Sundays, people come over every Friday and it's saving grace that she has cousins her age so we get together sometimes to play. It may not be SUPER fun but we make it work!

Also, with DD we have tried quite a few lessons, etc., but nothing really stuck.

This time of year is hard for me for activities, too. Especially since I deal with seasonal depression which makes it hard for me to get motivated. This year the kids started preschool which is a lot of action, but in the past when we get stuck in a rut, I try to plan special activities for us to just do at home. Most of our days are just free play all day long, so it's easy to spice it up by just coming up with a few things to do. Maybe we will read Valentine's books all day, make pancakes colored pink, and then make cards with heart stickers and pink markers. We're not actually doing anything different (and not anything that costs much money or makes us go out driving in snowy weather or anything), but it has the feel of something "special." Having a couple days that are more structured with these special activities helps us get through the other boring days.

@Bao: Kids' lives aren't meant to be exciting! They've got a playmate in each other and loads of unstructured play time - that's awesome! Soon they will be at school and knee deep in homework.... It sounds like they are happy so let them enjoy hanging out at home while they still can.

@gingerbebe: wow, can I hang out at your house for a week? It sounds like so much fun! A French themed week!! That's the half term school holiday sorted for us!

@Bao: We live in a major metro area with access to a ton of free museums, play spaces, you name it, and most of the time if you ask what we did on the weekends, I'll tell you we did errands, played at home and maybe went to Target or Barnes and Noble so that LO can run around the toy aisles. Even with a ton of resources around it can be hard to get out of the daily grind, so don't worry too much about it. Definitely explore what's possible if you're feeling stagnated, but definitely don't worry about keeping up with "everyone else." Remember that most of us don't put Target runs on Facebook/Instagram

@Bao: i havent read this whole thread, but do you have a local ymca? that was my lifeline when i was home. we got to use up to 2 hours of nursery every day. i would drop the kids off and then go to a class or workout on my own or just sit in a chair and play on my phone. there was a cost for the mwmbership but it was cheaper than a lot of activities for what you get in return. for a while i even worked 1-2 shifts a week in the nursery and got a tiny paycheck and a free membership, so that was nice too.

I know what you mean! With 3 kids, its hard to commit to activities and lessons (and plus it costs $$). I feel like everyone else has family commitments (we dont often have family around) or playdates!

Our big weekend outing is usually Costco! Kinda lame but the kids do enjoy it.

I love the suggestions here of doing some themes. My kids love even just nature scavenger hunts in the yard. Or an outdoor craft.

Do you have a Chick-Fil-A or some place like the mall with an indoor play area? I would post on FB the night before something like "Hey we are planning to go to XYZ location at 10am tomorrow, let us know if anyone wants to meet up!"