Winter decided to catch up all in one day and gave us around 25 cm of snow. We now have piles of snow at the end of the driveway higher than my head. The cold finally caught up to us as well, and this morning’s temperature was a nippy -23 C, or -32 C with windchill. Shovelling the snow on Monday, as tiring as it was, felt right. Psychologically, everything was back in the correct place. The light is so much brighter outside too, what with the sun reflecting off the snow. And despite everyone getting up earlier on purpose, it’s taking longer to get Liam out the door on his daycare days now that the cold and snow are here. Hello, winter; I can honestly say that yes, I have missed you, but don’t overdo it.

Mailbox joy: I received my delivery cheque for the book-that-will-likely-not-be-known-as-ESTC. Of course, the majority of it goes to pay taxes. But still, it’s nice to have received it.

I reread Jane Austen’s Persuasion the other day, because I’d (finally) hit my saturation point in Philippa Gregory’s Tudor-era novels, and wanted something very particular. Persuasion was one of my least favourite Austen novels until this reread. Now I think it’s leapfrogged into first place. It’s interesting to see how my tastes change as I grow older, and different things in the story affect me.

I’ve been feeling flopsy and unfocused over the past couple of days. Liam threw his schedule to the winds yesterday and refused to take a nap when he usually does, pushing it back by an hour (which is utterly unlike him). This was moderately stressful for us both since we had a date to spend the afternoon with his godmother, but it all turned out in the end. Good thing, too, because I really needed to be able to sit in a big comfy chair with a mug of good tea and let someone else be the primary eyes on the toddler for a couple of hours. Halfway there I realised that parking would very likely be a nightmare what with the snow everywhere and removal proceeding at the usual sloth-like pace, but after a soul-felt prayer I was relieved to find one side of the street completely snow-free and only one other car parked on it. Very unusual, but very very welcome. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise; probably turned around and gone home feeling even more miserable and stressed.

I bought HRH his early birthday present this weekend, and he picked it up yesterday. Before the server crashed he’d hit tenth level on a new character and had done a bunch of exploring.

Right. I must find something to eat, despite my lack of enthusiasm for the project, and then I should work.