The internet is up and running again, and I am back to work online reading journal articles and ethics statements.

Yesterday we were stranded up here on the hill. The kids stood outside for 45-50 minutes waiting for the bus. Then they headed up the hill, cold, wet, and very upset thinking they had somehow missed the bus. As they rounded the top curve heading up the hill, the bus ploughed by without even slowing down. They came home and in the door at 5 to 9, five minutes before they were supposed to be in school.

We'd had ice and snow during the big "ice storm", but mostly snow, last Friday. Then is warmed up on Saturday, melting and creating ice where there had been none. Burt has been plowing, which is great, but we don't have any sand or salt, and as of Tuesday, we were looking at glare ice in large patches on the driveway.... with the worst part being that last curve and small hill leading to the joint entrance from Route 14. I had been playing the "go-down-in-first-gear, foot-off-brake, aim-for-snowbank-on-opposite-side-of-sawmill-parking-lot" game. But just after I got everyone re-dressed in warm, dry clothes, and clothed the baby, and had almost gotten myself ready to run the kids to school (dread of driveway building in my stomach), when the phone rang. Colin said, "DO NOT ATTEMPT THE DRIVEWAY." Very firmly. I had already called the school to say the kids were going to be late. What now?

I called the school again. The response? "Even if you got down your driveway, the roads are terrible." Um... so I guess I am keeping them home?? Yeup. That's what we did. An unofficial snow day. We danced and played piano and cleaned and picked out the kids' "little trees" (a tradition I began at Madison dorm at Sterling for Aidan). I shoveled the deck and the kids put the plastic deck chairs in the garage for the winter. And we did chores (BOY hard not to fall on your arse in this slippery snow on glare ice!!). We watched an episode and a half of Fame. Even Aidan... who has dropped his pretense of not liking it ("Ms. Sherwood is my favorite teacher because she is funny and sarcastic, and she is still tough. "). And Nadia came running as soon as she heard the opening music yelling "YEAY! FAME!" Then she started dancing and said "trying. dancing." I asked her if she liked dancing and she said, "yep. Dancing. Fame." So maybe she shouldn't be watching too much tv... but when we're all dancing, playing the piano, watching at the same time, does it count? As Nadia says, "Fun."

As for the piano, it is getting lots of attention, and it hasn't waned at all. We are all playing quite a bit. One morning, when Nadia and I had been up nursing at 5 am on the couch, I let her fall back asleep on the couch. When Colin went to work, she still didn't wake up, so I got to sleep in a bit. I was awoken by the sound of a very tiny finger very gingerly hitting a note in the middle of the piano. Awake and happy. Great! And Aidan has been asking lots of questions about how to read music. We wrote the notes on the staff for him, and on one octave on the piano. Now he is picking out melodies from the music books and showing Sage how. Sage is memorizing and practicing the same pieces over and over, then memorizing the next piece. Colin has been very patient with them, and has been very insistant on the "right" practice (fingering, which things to learn first, etc). And I get to play! And I play much better than I thought I did.

Well... off to tackle the next load of laundry, the readings (riiiiiight... like there will be time for all of that!), dinner, and the multiplying dust bunnies in the corner.

Love love!!