It's freezing in the house. The mittens I wrote humorously about a few days ago have become a necessity, even though Reid views the mitten application as a hilarious game to play while I'm trying to get us out the door.

It's freezing in the house because it's freezing outside. The past three days were very cold, leading to Reid and I having to come up with odd indoor amusement opportunities (dumpy half-dead malls, computer stores, Lowes). The three-day weekend tested all my parenting skills to the max. Now comes the final test, the eliminator. Inauguration day, a federal holiday that for some reason means the daycare is closed. The temperature isn't forecast to go a nick above 20, and if it does, snow is coiled like a puma waiting to strand us anywhere. As a result, we'll probably log fourteen straight hours inside these four walls. One of us will come out alive and the other one...will be very tired.

Speaking of tired. The failsafe nap-treatment has been a car-ride. This is my "serenity now" photograph.