First Snowfall, Tomato Watches, and Birthdays

We had our first real snowfall today, where the air was filled with big blowing flakes for a couple of hours. There wasn't enough to shovel or even to sweep, but the edges of the streets and sidewalks and the leaves that blew back into our yard after being raked to the curb last weekend all have a little white on them.

Just a few nights ago we had a "tomato watch" and a thunderstorm. That's what my daughter calls tornados - tomatoes - which makes it hard to stop laughing and collect flashlights and clear a safe space in the basement.

My kids will turn 9 and 4 in the next two week period on either side of Thanksgiving, so I'm going to be making many cupcakes for school treats (chocolate, with "lots of sprinkles - the long kind, not the little ball-like ones") and doing more traditional mom work and less reading and blogging than I'd like.

But I would like to highlight The Mom Salon, which bills itself as a place "where women find the smartest mom blogs". It is just getting started, and has a few rough edges, but it could be a great way find other mom bloggers both geographically and according to their interest in topics like academia, adoption, cooking, feminism, infertility, knitting, politics, and work.

And finally, the 3rd Carnival of Feminists is up, showcasing reasons to thank a feminist, giving many insights into women's lives in other cultures (including that of the US in the 1970's), looking at female computer geeks, "the fear, the guilt, the worries, the organization, and the sheer hard work that goes into child-rearing", and many other perceptive and surprising looks at how our gender affects our lives.