It's that time of year again. The rush of the holidays (even though they were scaled back due to the C-bomb) is gone and we're mainly trudging through each day and looking forward to warmer weather and longer days happening soon. We do our best to make the best of these short, mundane days. One bright spot during this time I've realized is that I stare at our kids quite a bit. A disturbing amount, if I'm honest. I try to soak up every little bit of their hilarious antics, innocence and oddball questions. For example, Kathryn felt a bit 'off' yesterday. "Momma, my head feels a bit busy (dizzy). Do you think I maybe have a gear out of whack or something?"
Our baby is no longer a baby. For real. She decided to start potty training before two years of age and we're slowly but surely making progress. And she's incredibly conversational. Though her sentences are short with just two or three words, she can convey exactly how she feels, what she needs, what she wants and most importantly, what you are doing wrong in her eyes.
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| This one has personality for DAYS. |
Wesley and I made a flying trip to western Kansas just a few days ago. We drove 3.5 hours EACH WAY to look at bulls, leaving at noon and getting home by 9pm while my sweet mother-in-law watched the kids. It was wonderful to act like a real human again, although I felt like a total fish out of water. I was able to get out of the pickup and SIMPLY WALK AWAY. No car seats to unbuckle, no line of little people patiently waiting to have their jackets zipped up. No one asked for snacks, a sippy cup, or how much longer we would be driving. My husband laughed often at my bewildered nature. I should not be taken into public much anymore at this point.
We soak up the outdoors as much as possible on these nice days. As I write this I can look out the kitchen window and I swear it looks like the Meridian Shriners live here. The kids drive four wheelers up and down our road, back and forth, over and over.
We had a few snow days this past week and school was not in session. I made a very deliberate effort to not let the kids simply watch television and it actually felt amazing at the end of each day. They played board games (however they wanted, rules be damned), colored pictures, played with a wood burner, read books and ate huge meals I cooked. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled when they were able to go back to school, but I thoroughly enjoyed having them home for a few days.
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| John has a reading assignment each evening and is so good to read to Reese. |
When the kids do watch television, they love to watch Mountain Men. We highly recommend it. For us, it showcases regular people doing fairly regular things. For town folks I would imagine it is rather novel. Due to this show the kids have found a passion for trapping raccoons. Not that we need another chore around here, but it has been fun to drive by our traps each evening and see if the kids managed to catch another critter.
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| Thank goodness, we've only caught one skunk in our traps thus far. I got to shoot him and made a clean shot where he didn't make any stink, thank goodness! |
Many of these days and weeks have been trying but when I take a step back and really analyze our situation, I realize we've gotten a pretty sweet deal in life.
