The Shining....or something like it.

Yeah, so you know that part in Stephen King's *The Shining*, when Jack Nicholson finally loses his marbles??...I'm almost there!! Seriously, the oldest is out of school due to the ice, the youngest is out of daycare because schools are closed, and wouldn't ya know it, my husband has some awful stomach bug that kept him in the bathroom ALL day yesterday! I won't let him near the children. I've quarantined him to the bedroom or 1 couch in the living room, and I'm washing my hands more often than Monk. Trying to care for the infant while keeping the 7 yr old entertained is near impossible, so now we're all on the verge of cabin fever, and I'm exhausted. Since my hubby has our bed covered with his pukey-poopy sickness germs, I hopped into bed with my oldest daughter. And, since hubby is without child care privileges, I did the middle of the night feeding for the baby, and the latter-morning pacifier retrievals, etc. The baby was good, though; I was at least able to get about 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep before it got patchy.

But, I really, really need things to warm up enough for everything to be back open tomorrow. My mom called day before yesterday to let me know that she'll be coming down on Thursday and staying through Monday. This is great, as she hasn't seen baby since Thanksgiving, but there's no way house cleaning is doing any good at this point, food shopping isn't getting done, and God knows I'm not getting any dissertation work done.

Enough whining now... I'm debating a shower or a quick nap while the baby is taking her morning snooze, and the 7 yr. old is commandeering the computer to play games (I hope it entertains her for longer than 10 minutes).