Sydney comes home tonight so that our whole family can be reunited for the first time in a month. Both he and I had conferences (Berlin for him, Pittsburgh for me), and we’re looking forward to some quiet time as a family this weekend. I don’t think we’ve even talked about what we’ll be doing, probably since we know that it’s all too easy to heap too much into what is best thought of as a few days in which to share a house and time and childcare and, if we’re ambitious, fill the fridge with food.
Thanks to my mom’s efforts on her recent visit, the kids are properly outfitted for the cold spell that the country is experiencing. My students are shivering as they come into class in the mornings (and then nodding off under their sweaters and the building’s new heating system), but thanks to Nathaniel, I’m both awake and all warmed up for the day. He’s been scootering to school with me in his mittens, hat, and coat, and pedestrians we pass seem tickled to see a striped, plaid, and grinning little man go whizzing by them.
We don’t have any large trees in our yard, but our neighbors do, so we’ll be doing some raking in the weeks to come. Katherine really enjoyed the leaf piles recently: 
Oh, and our cats are clearly enjoying each other’s company:
We’re really enjoying them.
Erin
Alan Schmierer