Last Mom Standing

So, a plague and pestilence has descended upon my house. Scott, Milo, and Violet all have ear infections. I'm completely healthy (unless you count being fat). But Scott is home for the short-term and I am so glad that we're all together for the next couple of weeks, yay!

I'm not intimidated by taking care of my children alone -- they are always the top of the list. I am, however, completely overwhelmed when it comes to taking care of my home when all alone. As in the laundry and dishes get done and I'll vacuum when I can, but the rest of it? Nope... and I hate feeling like I'm living in a pit. And that's exactly how I feel right now. Like my house is a frat house or something. I swear I take out the recycling daily, but it multiplies when I'm not looking. Glasses and sippy cups wander all over the house, rolling into buckets and behind furniture, gathering like sentinels on Scott's nightstand. I am failing miserably at housekeeping.

Winter has officially arrived on campus. My office has a window under a set of stairs and the draft that sneaks in around the window air conditioner unit quickly defeats the wisps of heated air that creep from the radiator. There's a six inch band of warm air right next to the heating pipes, but the windows are directly above the radiator, so I'm assuming that the cool breeze (yes, breeze) that I feel on my neck has simply overpowered the old, old steam pipes.

I came up from my basement office to find that almost an inch of snow had fallen since I'd arrived at work. I actually love listening to the snow fall. Yeah, it doesn't really have a sound, but I love how muffled everything is when the snow is falling deep and fast. It feels so insulated and calm. It reminds me of the blizzards Laura Ingalls Wilder (my childhood hero) describes -- how the winds whipped the snow through the air, indiscriminately burying everything and everyone. Last year was our Long Winter and I'm not really looking forward to another one this year, but I do love a good occasional snowstorm.

Mount Vernon is sleepy enough that a storm like this really takes me back 100 years to when the town was young. I can just imagine it before paved roads neatly divided the blocks into floating parcels of neighborhoods. There is a sledding hill on a street -- the street closes as long as there is enough snow upon which to sled. Milo has been to young to try sledding on this hill as older, bigger, and heavier kids use it, too. But maybe this year he and Scott will give it a try.

In cute kid world: Violet calls, "Buh-duh" after Milo -- as in "Where are you, brother?" Probably because I always scoop her up and say, "Let's go find your brother!" or tell her, "You have the coolest big brother in the world!"

And Milo can write his name. He doesn't always get the letters in order, but he does write them all. Milo, oliM, oMil are the most frequent versions that he writes.

And my baby sister has had her baby boy! He's a tiny little peanut -- 6lbs, 12oz -- and early photos show that he had quite the conehead after birth. Not surprising as he'd been really low for a lot of the last part of her pregnancy. Both are doing well and I am very excited to meet my new baby nephew! Yay for babies! He's a cutie with loooooong feet that crack me up.

So think a good thought for me as I prepare to had out into the blizzard to pick up the babes. I think we might make and frost some sugar cookies for fun tonight. And for me -- I love icing! Hopefully I'll get to the car and home upright...