A lot of my friends and family back in the Northeast are struggling through another snow day right now. My own little monsters sweet angels just went back to school yesterday, so even though I’m happily enjoying the sweet sounds of silence right now, I can vividly recall Jen of Two Days Ago wondering if she’d ever be able to watch grown up television again (you know, like, The Mindy Project or reruns of Australia’s Next Top Model – important stuff) because her kids were monopolizing the television and just generally being there and stuff.

If you need a distraction but don’t want your brain to slide out of your ears by the end of the night, here are 4 apps currently keeping me sane but also a little smart:

Ultimate Cribbage – Keep your Cribbage skills fresh between game nights with the hubby. I went on a weird downloading tangent to find the best cribbage app for Androids and this is it. Good graphics, fun variations and just enough control over game play.

Daily POP Crosswords – I just downloaded this one but already I like the graphics and found the first puzzle just the right level of challenging. Good for people who like Crosswords but can’t handle the Sunday puzzle in the newspaper.

Duolingo – Feel  a sense of accomplishment that you are bettering yourself and not just playing Knittens! for twelve hours straight (you can do that next). My husband and I both use this app to learn new languages or brush up on ones we learned in school. It’s free and confidence boosting and you can set it up to remind you to use it every day.

Backpacker – I’ve mentioned this one before but I’m still playing it literally every day so maybe it bears repeating. This is a fun blend of geography and general trivia with enough goals to accomplish to keep you playing into the wee hours of the night. So approach with caution?

What apps are you loving on your phone right now?