Brr.

Well, winter caught up with us and for the last two days, the older boys have been home from school. In some ways, it's been pretty nice. I can homeschool Elf and Emperor and get a little help with littles downstairs. In the afternoons, I can snuzzle on the couch with tiny people and listen to children read or we can watch tv.

It's also that time of year where I have to hear the "Can I go play outside in the snow?" question from little boys who have awful barking coughs and/or "forget" to come inside when their extremities turn bright red or blotchy white and go numb. You know... those little boys who track mucky snow through the whole house and then need a bath/shower and I get to do five more loads of washing. D tells me I was a kid, too, and I need to lay off 'em. He's probably right, but I didn't sweep up my snow trompings when I was a kid, either. The cleaning fairy I had took care of all those things. I wonder whatever happened to her, because she didn't seem to follow me to college. I could REALLY use a cleaning fairy now.

D has been home from work as well; it was that icy outside. He is able to do at least some of his work from home when the situation warrants. From what I have seen, his work entails lining up gibberish into columns, sending instant messages with cartoon characters poking each other in the eye, chatting with people on the phone, and making general announcements to the family when he is about to go to the restroom. I tried to chat with him a few times about needing bread from the store, but he was "at work" then. I wasn't supposed to bug him. Busy.

G insisted on cleaning the cars with the broom and shovelling the driveway. It was way too cold for him to be outside for long. He had to come in several times when he started to get too frozen. It took well over an hour, but he got it done. I kept telling him he really shouldn't. That Dad already said I wasn't going to be allowed to pay him. No, he insisted. But I did buy him a bag of chips at the Stuff Mart (tm) after I was able to get out of the drive. And some shampoo. He was pretty happy.

But I think everyone is starting to drive one another nuts. I know that other homeschooling families live with one another just fine, but everyone else's schedule is just off and it has a big effect on every member of the family. We've packed the lunches for tomorrow because I can't imagine a third snow day in a row. :)