Snow Day

Well, as if the household flu coupled with the Blizzard of 2015 wasn't quite enough misery for us to endure, today we discovered that all of our showers, sinks, and toilets were backing up, resulting in a crew of workers digging a 3-foot deep hole in our yard to access our septic system.  I mean, after nights of interrupted sleep due to sickness, and after a day of shovelling out in the frigid air with our spasmodic coughs, who in their right mind would just want an easy, restful day off from all the madness?  Not us!  Here we are entertaining plumbers, septic companies, and other workers in and out all day, as we face the issue of not using any of our water-bearing devices. 

Julia had a very practical issue on her mind after Ethan gave the family order not to use the showers or sinks, and not to flush the toilets.

JULIA: But MOMMY?  What are we EVER going to do about POOPING??

Julia still won't poop anywhere but at home, with the exception of at restaurants, but ONLY if I stand in the stall with her the whole time.  So this is a valid concern for her.  Madeleine, on the other hand, has had plenty of practice pooping in her pants lately, so she's not nearly as anxious about where to put her poop if not in our own toilets.

Since we have yet ANOTHER day off from school, and since we can't use our water, I decided to take the kids out for the afternoon to go sledding.  We went to our old stomping ground, the field at the town high school.

MADELEINE: Mama.  I can't BELIEVE we're going to the SAME SLEDDING PLACE that we used to go to at our OLD house.

Yes, seeing as we moved about a half mile away from our own house, within the same town, it is absolutely flabbergasting that I would choose to go to the very same, central sledding location.  Unthinkable!

Julia was a happy little sledder on her new Snow Tube:

Madeleine was a different story.  After taking one ride down on her Snow Tube and face-planting at the bottom of the hill, she was too afraid to take any further turns.  At one point, she requested that I take her to a less steep part of the hill, so we made our slow bumbling way across the sloping top of the field, occasionally colliding with other sledders on their way downhill, with Madeleine completely wiping out at least eight times as we walked together.  When we finally got to a milder part of the hill, and I tried to put Madeleine into her snow tube, she flat out refused to sled. 

ME: Honey, this is only partway down the hill.  It won't be steep.  Let me push you down.
MADELEINE: (freaking out) No!  No!  I'm NEVER EVER going down AGAIN!
ME: So what do you want to do?
MADELEINE: (silence)
ME: So you just want to forget about sledding and go walk back up the hill to Julia?
MADELEINE: Yeah.

So then we had the fun of scaling the hill and walking across the same sloped top of the field, once again wiping out repeatedly and colliding with oncoming sledders, until we were back to our original spot.  Julia had patiently waited for us all that time, only to have it be a completely fruitless waste of time.

Julia, at least, had a fun time at the sledding hill.  And when I asked Madeleine how her time had been, she gave me a thumbs-sideways, which is WAY better than the thumbs-down she has been giving while sick over the past few days.  So maybe, just maybe, her spirits and health are on the mend!