Things Fall Apart

I'd be lying if I said I'm not glad January is over.  Its been a tough month.  I can't really pinpoint the direct cause of the..."toughness", unless it would be the general malaise that seems to set in this time of year, and possibly the fact that we had nearly a month and a half between paychecks. 

The weather has been bizarrely mild; warmer than normal (in the 30's F), super windy, not much snow.  While the sunshine is nice, its like we're all walking around warily, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I find myself feeling cranky more often than not...having a short fuse (especially at work) and just generally being kind of a bee-yatch.  Yesterday, I let slip that I don't think my boss' boss is a good person.  Which, you know, is totally true but probably not something I should have said out loud...to anyone.  I skipped a work happy hour last week because the thought of seeing those people one more minute than required made my stomach flop over.

In happier news...

Otto's been attending swim lessons.  Its so great to see his confidence in the water growing with each lesson and his willingness to try new things like going under, floating, etc. when there are other kids his age doing it along with him. 

Also, he is cute.

 This is his last week of Level 1 lessons...I'm hopeful that he'll be ready for Level 2 when it starts in a couple of weeks because we're both enjoying our time at the rec center after work, twice a week.  He gets to swim and I get to sit in the warm, humid air and read.  WIN WIN.



We do have stuff to look forward to...my mom is coming to visit during her spring break in March.  Otto will get to hang with her instead of going to daycare and we'll save a week's worth of daycare payments, and..you know...get to hang with my awesome madre.  And, I've signed up for a half-marathon on April first so I should probably devise some sort of training plan other than the 4-6 miles, three times a week that I've been doing since the holidays.

Deep breaths.  I can do this.  I can make it until spring!! 

Can't I?

Doldrums

We've now officially entered the Doldrums of Winter.  No scheduled paid holiday until Memorial Day.  And as  Hello Giggles  says (have I mentioned that I LOVE Hello Giggles???) ,

" Our mornings, afternoons and evening all look the same. Slush covers our streets and invades our homes. Slush is not just what we walk through with our boots that will get stained-slush, is what we become. Slush is the worst. You can’t pack slush up into a snow ball and you can’t get school canceled either. Slush is good for nothing and America, we are too."

 Truer words were never written. 

We'll do our best in the coming months to keep our heads above all the slush...ski outings, dinner parties, swim lessons, counting the extra precious moments of sunlight that seep into each day,
...I even signed up for a half-marathon on April 1st, so that will at least motivate me to get out and train
but I know from experience that it will be hard.  Now until May is a trudge. 

I'm gonna do my best to come up with some new strategies for beating the doldrums...I'm thinking maybe some home reorganization projects, tackling swimming/biking with the end goal of someday competing in a triathlon, teaching Otto how to play Uno, lots of good books, maybe some new recipes...

Ideas??

Yule be sorry!

...and we're back!  One of the benefits of working where I work is that we get 11 days off for "Winter Closure" which effectively covers Christmas through New Year's.  What's more, its paid and we don't have to use any sick or vacation time.  A fabulous perk.

This year's winter break started off amazing.  We hopped in the car, laden with gifts and cookie tins and snowsuits, skis, etc. and headed to the Mister's hometown.  Once there, we ate, laughed, played, opened gifts, ate, laughed, ate...well you get the idea.  We got some cool stuff but the best present, really, was getting to play in glorious fresh snow with the grandparents and uncles. 

On the sleddin' hill.  It was cold, but fun...all kinds of fun!

Skiing through the trees near sunset.  So amazingly beautiful.

After a couple days of this debauchery, we headed home, only to find an unwelcome guest waiting for us:  the stomach flu.  Or whatever you call it...I guess its not technically a flu?  A bug?  Well, whatever it is, the Mister and I were completely miserable and yet Otto seems to have escaped relatively unscathed (knocking on wood.)  It trashed at least 3 precious day of our break, though, which sucked with a capital SUCK.

By New Year's we were mostly back to normal and enjoying eachother's company and our cozy house.  We played some games, put together some models, went ice skating, saw some movies and tried to make up for lost time.

The boys, reading a book before dinner on Otto's new "big boy bed"

All in all, our Yule coulda been worse, coulda been better.  And now, suddenly, here we are back into our routine of work, preschool, home and its both sad and comforting, if that makes any sense. 

I'm hoping to come back here soon with some ideas for the new year...who else still does resolutions?