The Universe has a great sense of humor.  You may remember I’d just about given up on winter, right?  Still holding out for one big snowstorm but knowing deep down (based on several year’s experience, too) that we weren’t going to get one?  And remember how I was starting to come around to the idea of it being very early spring since the little crocus and daffodil greens were coming up and that maybe I should begin thinking about a spring cleaning?

Well.

Two things happened at once.  We all came down with a nasty case of norovirus (you know, that gut wrenching, puking, diarrhea, body aches so bad you’d gladly die RIGHT NOW illness that seems to be everywhere lately) and it snowed.  Major snow.  The kind that I should have been out playing and taking pictures in and making snowmen with the kids in.  Except for the aforementioned norovirus.  Ah, universe, touche.    So now that we are on the mend we need to do a VERY major spring cleaning (3 days of 4 sick and vomiting people makes for a nasty messy house), and I’ve been trying to enjoy the snow from inside as much as humanly possible.

But let’s back up a moment here, if we may, to set the stage for just one of the many reasons that a major cleaning is now in order, despite the fact that old man winter is not quite thorugh with us after all.

The Laguna del Laundry-o

This is immediately before I fell victim to the virus.  Neve had come home sick from school and I guessed it was a matter of time before I became incapable of any real housework so I put myself into overtime getting everything in order to avoid being sick and having no clean towels or dishes and dirty bathrooms.  My lovely washer and dryer were put on full time duty and doing a bang – up job.  Too bang – up.  My washer became somewhat unbalanced and the full 1.5 gallons of Tide HE that was sitting on top of it fell over and became wedged upside down between the dryer and the laundry room door.  Where it then popped off its cap and poured out all over the floor under the machines and onto the white hallway carpet, which is now a lovely laguna blue and must be ripped out and replaced.    And you know what?  I gave up on it.  I let it go.  Because really there’s no coming back from that.  You can’t clean that out.  The sudsing power (kudos to the laundry detergent companies for this, btw) is too much for any carpet cleaning device to handle.   I soaked up what I could with towels and threw those towels in the washer along with the bathroom rugs and they washed up rather nicely (no need to add soap!).  And since then we have been pretending like there is no huge unsightly squishy blue pool in the hall.

And shortly after that, Oona got hit with the vomiting.  All over Paul at Sam’s Club (buying more laundry detergent!) no less.  Twice while in line.  A few times more in the car on the way home.  All over the dining room chairs and the floors downstairs.  The problem was that in between throwing up you’d never know she was sick.  She could not be made to sit still, she wanted to play!  And since we didn’t want her to end up dehydrated we kept filling her with juice and pedialyte whenever she would take it.  And she’d be on the run and need to vomit, but keep running.  We’d try to grab her and she’d try to get away, spreading it everywhere.   Then, I got it.  No, I didn’t spread it all over the house.  But I did feel a lot worse than Oona.  I couldn’t get out of bed all day Sunday and could only stare woefully out the window as the snow started falling late in the day.  I didn’t expect much to come of it, but I was in a total fog anyway.  So imagine my surprise Monday morning when this is the scene from the back door:

I was blown away.  I was elated.  I was MAD!  I was still barely able to stand up and here was all this perfect snow (and I do mean perfect – this stuff was just right for making snow balls).

What a glorious sight.  And now Paul was sick.  Emily and Neve at least got to enjoy playing out in it.  Oh, and Emily, by the way, has impetigo.  You now that lovely bacterial infection that looks like itchy red pimples on your face?  Yup.  Sigh.  At least she wasn’t too sick to make snow angels and chase the dog around.  Pippa LOVES playing in the snow.  It really does make me wish we had this kind of snow more often like we did back up north when we were kids.

I am still amazed at how much we got, and that here it is Tuesday and it has barely showed any signs of melting.  Watching Paul clear off the van really made it kind of weird for both of us – flashback city!  He never thought he’d been doing this again!

I haven’t been able to get Oona out to play in it yet, but as of this morning it still looked like this out back:

It’s really beautiful with the sun shining (though a bit bright!!!) through the trees.  The birds are visiting the feeders in scores and the dog is eating her weight in snow.  I’m really sad to still be feeling so crummy, but with any luck it’ll pass soon and there will be enough snow left for my littlest one to get a taste of it (not literally!).  For now she is content to eat everything in sight (she’s weaned now, which apparently means HUNGRY ALL THE TIME!) and tormenting her big sisters.   As long as I don’t have to do any of that major cleaning in the next couple of days, I think I’ll be ok.  I’ll hang out on the couch and enjoy the view of the snow covered trees from my windows, and laugh as Oona makes everyone crazy.