After Liam, my 9-year-old’s productive cough: “Mom, I have mucus on my shirt!” After 10 days of Will coughing, the doctor’s diagnosis: “I really think it’s a virus; give it another 10 days.”

Liam, while digitally measuring his fever under his arm for the fourth consecutive day: “Yup, the numbers are still increasing!”

After Will, my 11-year-old, goes night skiing with his school’s ski club for the first time: “I even went down a slope that wasn't lit!”  Me: “Perhaps the slope was closed?”  Will: “No there were lots of tracks.”   And I couldn't bring myself to say, “From skiers earlier in the day?  As in… the past??  The daylight??”

Me to Bill, in preparation for the Blizzard of 2015: “You might want to pick up fire starters for the fireplace on the way home.”  Bill: “Do we need anything else?”  Me: “Yes, marshmallows and Hershey’s bars.”

For you see, we know that we don’t need to strip bottled water off the grocery store shelves during a blizzard.  All the things I need to know for a blizzard I learned by reading Little House on the Prairie -- and living on the prairie for a good number of years:  Snow is frozen water, folks!  But big-ass Hershey’s bars don’t spring from snow banks.  I sent the right man for the job; I never buy this size Hershey’s for S’mores...

Gotta love that man.