These are strange times. Everything is off-kilter.

I’m around, but at a loss for words. Friends ask, “why on earth are you still here? We’re stuck, but you could leave this country anytime.”

I search for jobs in British Columbia. Then I research naturalization requirements to find out how long before I can make my dalliance here permanent. Then I wonder whether Uncle Sam will even be taking applications at that point. Or will I even recognize this country of which I have become so awfully fond.

Then I text The Husband “so is Montreal completely off the table?”

Blargh.

Here, have a cute father/daughter pic.

Have mercy…

Good thing we bought the BIG bag of hay….

(Such poop. So lack of education. Very cabin fever. Wow.)

Still a foot of snow. Still freezing. Still (mostly) housebound. Still cleaning up rabbit pellets. Still getting the nightly call that “school is cancelled tomorrow.”

Starting to feel a bit like this guy:

For those of you keeping score at home, we’ve now had EIGHT snow days. Monday is a holiday, so by the time the kids go back to school on Tuesday (ohpleasejesus), they will have had a total of four days in the classroom in an entire month.

The city has declared a state of emergency. Temporary shelters are opening up. Several people have died of exposure (oh, that horrific combo of mental illness/homelessness). Streets are mostly deserted except for abandoned cars. There’s warming and rain in the forecast (huzzah!) but the transition will include a few hours of freezing rain (boo) and we’re already getting warnings of flooding and landslides from the anticipated saturation (double boo).

There are pluses. The children are ecstatic about days and days of screentime (because I’m THAT mom) and are overjoyed that Mrs. Peabody’s “weekend visit” has turned into a 10+ day extravaganza of snuggling and pooping (the latter only sometimes not in the cage).

Even though there’s no novelty to the snow for me, I can still see the beauty in it. I went for a super long walk in my beloved forest while thinking (since this is apparently a once-in-10-years event) that this may be the only time I ever see it under a blanket of snow.

The Husband was also very excited to finally get to use our tire chains.

And he definitely needed them! Even though the main roads are mostly plowed (thanks in part to Seattle, who loaned us 10 snowplows), our neighborhood is very hilly and the only “snow removal” we’ve got is hoping someone else kinda packed it down before you got there. Our garage is at the bottom of one of those hills, so it was touch-and-go getting the car up to the street:

(Plus helpful peanut gallery comments/cheering from some passersby.)

It’s actually a girls’ weekend around here since the reason the car had to get to the top of that hill is that The Boy has a hockey tournament in Seattle this weekend. I sent the menfolk with the car that has the good winter tires + chains for safety’s sake, but that means The Girl and I are dependent on alternative modes of transportation.

Last night I walked over to the Mexican place and picked up takeout and we finally watched the Doctor Who Christmas special (with bonus Justin Chatwin Can-Con-For-the-Win!). Today was blacksmithing and I had big plans to get us there by bus.

(Do you like her toolbox? She’s the only one with a fully decorated one, because she’s just that kind of girl.)

Unfortunately, our bus was over 30 minutes late and I had no idea about the state of the bus on the route we were transferring to and my baby’s toes were getting cold, so thank goodness for Uber! And thank goodness for Mohamed who not only waited for me while I went to sign her in, but also drove me back home INCLUDING right to my door (pretty sure he just wanted to show off his studded tires and winter driving skillz – no complaints!).

It was a sobering drive. We passed several tents (that looked unoccupied, fortunately – hopefully their usual inhabitants have found a warm shelter somewhere). I thought of the folks who aren’t expat Canadians who have standard-issue North Face parkas and Sorels. I thought of the folks who weren’t able to stock up at the grocery store. I thought of the folks with mobility issues who can’t just tromp through 8 inches of snow. I thought of the folks on never-enough incomes who can’t just say “eh, this bus is taking too long” and call for an Uber, and who are panicking about being late for a desperately needed job instead of just maybe being late to a fun day at the forge.

It’s a tough time to be a Portlander right now, that’s for sure. Even for those of us for whom snow is old news. We’re all just watching the weather forecast and agreeing with this guy:

 

So this is happening:

They’re estimating 10 inches has already fallen with five more in the way. The city is pretty much shut down. The Husband’s work is closed. The children are having their SIXTH snow day this year.

(Remember – we don’t build snow days into our schedule. At this rate, we’ll have to have school on Saturdays to be able to start summer vacation by July.)

Also snowed in with us is a little friend:

Meet Mrs. Peabody. She is one half of The Girl’s Biology class unit on genetics/reproduction. (Mr.Peabody is living separately until the right time to get romantical.)

She came over for the weekend but with a snow day on Monday and a The Girl sick day yesterday and now Snowpocalypse Round Eleventeen, looks like an extended stay.

We like her for the most part, although she is not completely litter trained so her non-cage time is limited. She and The Girl are completely besotted, though:

So if you need us, we’re holed up in our rabbit den, waiting for spring.

Everybody getting ready to get back into it? I know some of you have already gone back to work, but a lot of the kiddos still haven’t gone back to school, so this is your last weekend of no complaining about the alarm clock.

Here in Portlandia we all went back this past Tuesday, so we’re a few days ahead of you when it comes to regularly scheduled programming. But honestly, it’s welcome. I love me some holidays and I also love returning to routine. Each offsets the other. And with a relatively jam-packed New Year’s weekend (for this girl, anyway), I appreciate the quiet normal all the more.

Usually I try to be in bed by 10 on NYE. Occasionally I’ll attend/host a “party” (aka maximum of eight people playing games and eating snacks and trying valiantly to stay awake until midnight and then putting on coats promptly at 12:02). This year, though, there was a convergence of activity and it ended up being quite a day.

First, we joined our church’s monthly service group at Oregon Food Bank.

We’ve been looking for something to do as a family (well, I have, anyway) and this seems like it could be a really good fit. Monthly, builds community (both church and local), plus the distributed food is bought/donated locally AND stays local. Love!

(Plus hairnets. There’s something so leveling about hairnets, yes? Everybody’s on the same team.)

Then in the afternoon I agreed to attend my annual movie in the theatre  and we went to see Rogue One. Ordinarily I HATE going to see mainstream movies in theatres (ooo, that sounds like a spoiled hipster, yes?) but only because I have the WORST luck when it comes to seating arrangements and I ALWAYS find myself sitting in front of the kickers/talkers, behind the texters/talkers, and beside the person with the medical device that hissed the entire movie (true story). But this one wasn’t terrible! And it was actually a good movie, too.

Then in the evening (YES! THREE public outings in one day!) we went to a concert!

There are very few artists for whom I would venture out on NYE, but oh my, Brandi Carlile is totes one of them. Love, love, love her. Although I was kind of hoping she would end early so that I could get home at a decent hour, to which The Husband snorted, “PM! It’s New Year’s Eve! Everyone is here to do the countdown and party. The entire point of this is to stay here past midnight.”

So we did.

And put on our coats at 12:02 and headed home.

Confession: we skipped church on January 1. After all that activity, I was totally overstimulated. But we started our year off right with a long (and steamy [glasses, that is]) hike in the state park aka my favourite place in the whole world.

Monday was a bonus day for 3/4 of us. For some reason, The Husband’s work decided that January 2 was a work day (something something the whole company gets it off later in the year so don’t worry), but he countered with planning a “teambuilding” event with his coworkers plus spouses. And it was Canadian style!

Oh so hilarious! I haven’t curled since junior high (the ‘Muricans looked at us in disbelief when we told them it was a gym unit back in the day). They do things differently now – full-foot sliders and real stabilizers instead of just the broom. Oh and see how we made it inter-generational? Someone bailed at the last minute, so we brought The Girl. And it’s in her genes! She rocked it!

(Lol – see what I did there?)

And now we’ve got a week of school/work in the books and apparently we’re back into that OTHER Portland routine, aka Icepocalypse. It’s our third winter storm of the year and the entire weekend got cancelled again and we’re housebound watching the freezing rain come down. No complaints from this girl! I got enough excitement this past weekend to last me at LEAST until February.