Winter is here

I know, it's March, so it's spring, right? No. It's March in Colorado. March is traditionally our snowiest month. Helloooo winter.

After that big dumping of snow last weekend we had another dump on Wednesday -- 14 more inches or so. Our grand total for the month ended up being something like 54 inches. The most we'd ever gotten in February before was 32 inches. Helloooo climate change.

More snow is due on Tuesday.

The boys have been pretty good about it, tramping off to school in their warm coats, boots, gloves, etc., and tramping home again at the end of the day.

But man there's a lot of snow out there.

Most people are very responsible about doing their sidewalks (we're not the best, but we try), but there was an article in the paper about how the city isn't enforcing snow removal rules right now. They maybe figured out that people are a bit overwhelmed.

We've had a few great icicles growing on our house, such as this beauty.

But Kid A couldn't resist -- he knocked it down late last week. Kid B was annoyed. I told him not to worry, we'd have a new giant icicle soon.

My book group is coming here tomorrow night, so I'll be spending part of the afternoon working on our walkways (i.e., the part that I'm not spending frantically cleaning the house, fixing food, etc.). Since there's a slight incline from our house to the sidewalk, we like to leave just enough snow that people don't slip on ice, but it's tricky to get it right. Both Rocket Boy and I slipped and fell last Thursday -- he hurt his shoulder quite badly -- so I'm paranoid about slipping now.

Once the book group leaves, it'll be time to get busy on plans for the boys' birthday. We've decided to do a party at home this year -- actually, it's going to be at Clifford's house next door, but that's practically home. I have a lot to do to get ready. I sent out nine email invites today and we already have one acceptance, so that means I have to actually have this party. It is going to have a train theme, since Rocket Boy's old electric trains are set up over at Clifford's, just waiting to be the theme for a birthday party. Kid A is good with that. However, Kid B doesn't want a train theme, so the party might have some other, additional theme too. I floated the idea of separate parties, on different days, but they recoiled in horror. Maybe when they're older.

Meanwhile there's my teaching. The 8th week of the term begins tomorrow. When I turned over the calendars this morning, I almost cried to see SPRING BREAK staring back at me. The fourth week of the month. That means that if I can live through the first three weeks of March, I'll have a whole wonderful week off. Maybe by then it'll even be starting to feel like spring.