I guess it could be colder...

Living in Minnesota, I am used to January being frigid. This winter hasn't been too bad, though. Sure, we've had some days that are mainly in the single digits, but that's not horrible. I probably don't have to put my hat on when I race from school to my car.

Today, however, is cold.

Our front door is our outdoor thermometer. A small corner, lower right, builds up some front when it gets down to the single digits. It gets bigger as it gets colder. Here's what I see now:


The whole bottom of the door is iced up. So no surprise that the temp when I checked the morning said over 20 below. (Be aware that I took this photo at noon--it was much colder when I woke up!)

Truthfully, though, I have yet to be outside. The stomach bug that felled my younger boy last week took out my older boy and me last night. We are sitting inside, desperately hungry and nauseous. So I leave you with some things that always keep me going when I'm cold and ill: humor.

Here's some papers my sons have brought home from school (click on the pictures to see them bigger):


Rowan is studying time--check out the bottom for how long he says it takes him to brush his teeth. We're going to have a talk.


Another lesson about time. Look at the top middle for what he says takes him an hour to do. This explains why we leave the house late most mornings.


Dominic apparently went on a nature walk last fall to test using the five senses. Well, four, as he emphatically indicated with his row of x's.


I think of this as the confession essay. Rowan has been writing paragraphs lately of what he did over the weekend. The first lines says he stayed up all night to play computer games. This explains a lot about his short temper on Sunday.