The snow flurries are pillowy, sort of drifting instead of falling. The morning is cold, but it is a bit warmer than last night. Right now it is 19˚ but it feels like 7˚according to my Google. The sky is lighter than it was earlier this morning, but the flurries are still here. They are blowing north to south. I’m glad I have no need to leave the house. I’ll just experience today vicariously by looking out the den window.

Every time I walk around the house I either straighten something, sweatshirt dust a table or move stuff. I’m beginning to think I need to close my eyes and feel my way to the kitchen.

I think I’m content. My fridge is full. Books are piled on the table. The trash is gone. I don’t have enough laundry yet to pile. The house is cozy and warm. Henry and Jack are upstairs sleeping. Gwen always stays upstairs, but I think she might be sleeping too. I’m watching reruns of Grimm. The sun poked out for maybe a minute, maybe two. That’s hopeful.

When I was a kid, the floor of my closet was a jumbled pile. On the top were the shoes I last wore. I have no idea what was on the bottom. I never needed to go that far down. The pile always grew from the top.

I have bowls exactly like the ones my mother always used when I was a kid, four nested Fire King bowls with tulips on them. My mother and I were at an antique market together when we saw a lady put the familiar tulip bowls on her shop shelf. I picked them up right away, and I bought them. I have a round wooden nut bowl which has a nutcracker, an old silver metal cracker, in a hole in the top of the bowl. My mother used to fill one like it with nuts for us at Thanksgiving as a snack while we watched the parade. I use my bowl on the table at Thanksgiving as a decoration, as a memory.

I really liked finding those bowls, those pieces of my childhood, even if it was in an antique store.

The morning is freezing cold. It is 14˚ and with the wind feels like -3˚. The snow showers started around nine and will continue all day. Outside looks so very ugly and uninviting. Today is a cocoa day.

Skip, my factotum, is coming for the trash. A couple of the litter bags are so heavy I was dreading lifting them and carrying them to the car. Empty boxes have taken over my dining room. Two more boxes, with on-sale wrapping paper inside, just arrived from FedEx. I emptied them and added them to the pile, to Skip’s pile. (Skip has come and is now gone. He made so many trips to the car I stopped counting. I have no trash bags, no newspapers and magazines and no boxes. Halleluia!)

When I was a kid, snow days were the best because they came unexpectedly. I can remember waking up and seeing the world had disappeared under the thick snow. I can also remember listening for the fire horn. It was blown to announce no school days. We’d cheer then we’d hurry to get dressed to go outside to play in the snow. That was an all day affair.

When I go out to eat, I often order cheeseburgers with Swiss or Monterey Jack cheese. I like thin onion rings. I put mustard and piccalilli on my hot dogs and onions if they’re available. I like apples cold but I’m okay with room temperature oranges. Bananas never go into the fridge. I don’t like spaghetti but I love pasta. My favorite ice cream varies. It was mint chocolate chip for a while. Right now I have coffee chip in the freezer. Only the chips are the constant. Raisin Bran Crisp is my favorite cereal of late though I would never turn down plain old Corn Flakes with sliced bananas. I like all kinds of potatoes, but mashed potatoes are my favorites with gravy or butter or both. I don’t quibble.

As for desserts, I am so not picky except I don’t do cake and ice cream together. I like chocolate pudding, but I seldom have it. I like cookies, but I don’t think of them as desserts. Cookies are a snack. My favorite dessert is usually whatever I have on hand. Today that would be the ice cream or the package of chocolate chip cookies which came with my groceries yesterday. I swear it’s calling my name.