It does not seem possible that on January 31st, we were moving out of our old home and into our new rental home. That was only 29 days ago. It legitimately feels like it was at least four months ago!
February is my least favorite month of the whole year. It’s just so cold and dreary and snowy and it feels like it has been that way for 109234029384 days. We are going stir-crazy but are afraid to leave the house and be exposed to all the nasty germs floating around. It’s around February that my seasonal depression kicks into high gear and I start to wonder if there will ever be any season besides winter. LISTEN. I KNOW THIS SEEMS DRAMATIC. But it’s legit. You will notice a theme in the following pictures: any day the temperature is manageable, we going outside. we are getting desperate for fresh air. DESPERATE!
We moved on January 30th and within a few
We are trying to get settled and get into a routine, but that takes so much work! It’s exhausting!
Thankfully, the day we moved was slightly over freezing. The next day it snow flurried all day long and was FREEZING cold. And the day after we moved, Ezra had another huge breathing episode that nearly landed him in the hospital again. Thankfully, we have medication (inhaler, pulse ox) at home this time and were able to stay home, but it was around the clock monitoring for two days. I can’t remember ever being more exhausted!
Finally, the snow cleared and the temps went up a bit, so we went for a family bike ride to explore the neighborhood!
While Tera is not very interested in toys, Kiah has become very good at playing with creative toys like trains, magnatiles and blocks.
When we sold our house, we gave away our couch so when we moved in, we didn’t have a couch! We went about a week before deciding that we needed to find ourselves a couch! We scored this one at Big Lots and are seriously enjoying it as a family!
Before snagging our couch, we stopped in at several local furniture stores. Here is Theo enjoying the one and only time he will be sitting his butt in a 5000 dollar chair. HA.
We finally got some snow to go with the cold temperatures, and Theo promised the kids we would take them sledding. Our old house had a PERFECT sledding hill, but now we have to drive somewhere to find a place to sled. While it is inconvenient to have to drive somewhere, we did find an epic sledding hill and all had a blast sledding until our noses and fingers and toes were numb!
We bundled up on Valentine’s Day for a hike, but with a high of 19, we didn’t last long!
On Tuesdays and Thursdays when Tera is at school, it’s just me and the boys! I mostly build stuff with Kiah and then spend the next 20 minutes trying to keep Ezra from destroying said construction. And then the second I turn my back, Ezra does destroy the project and then I comfort Kiah and help him rebuild it. Repeat all day. I will say that as Ezra grows a little older, I am starting to see glimpses of Kiah and Ezra playing together. Which is FUN!
On one of our snowy days, we made snow ICE CREAM! It was so, so easy and I can’t believe I’ve never done it before! It’s just snow, a splash of sweetened condensed milk, a drop of vanilla and some colorful sprinkles. We did not eat even half of this bowl, so next time I would make less.
We had a wonderful visit from my mother in law, who hung out with us while my father in law attended a nearby conference. Its always so nice to have her around as an extra pair of hands and a good conversationalist.
Theo and Tera worked together to make her Valentine box for school this year. Listen…I know this is extreme. But they both had so much fun and joy making it together, I do not mind that Theo clearly had a heavy hand in it’s creation. And Tera will be keeping that box for years to come. And OF COURSE, the Valentine’s have to go in and out of the portion under the tail- you know, the butt. The kids got a kick out of that!
The school had a two hour delay on the day that they had their Valentine party, so they basically went to school to party. Ha. Those teachers are saints! I got to go attend Tera’s party which was such a blast!
Our new house isn’t huge, but it does have a large living room. I really wanted my own desk space and I love this little spot that I created out of a folding table! It’s perfect for what I need and I love it’s central location in the house. I use it far more than I would an “office” and I actually love it’s simplicity. $0 spent!
More cold and snowy hikes…like I said, we just need the fresh air! I snapped this second picture because for the first time in what felt like weeks, I saw a peek of BLUE SKY! It went away behind the clouds, but little things like that give me HOPE. Spring is coming. It will come. Winter will not last forever.
More time outside giving their bodies fresh air and exercise. We are within walking distance from a pretty great park, so I foresee daily trips to the park in the upcoming spring and summer months!
Rock throwing. Friends, just take a look at the scenery in this picture. Do you see the sky? It’s gray. The trees? Brown. The ground? Brown. There is just something about the vast deadness of winter that GETS TO ME. Those dreary clouds and weak grasses for miles on end just make my spirit sag. But, oh….the JOY of SPRING bursting forth. It’s coming.
This month came with a hard blow: Theo had to re-bid for shifts. Normally, his department bids based on seniority in December. The shift they bid on is the shift that they get for the entire year. So back in January, he received his shift and I planned out our family reunions, vacations, getting together with friends, which church discipleship group to be in, etc. This month they decided to re-bid and essentially what happened is that someone else took Theo’s shift and he had to choose a different one. It was incredibly disappointing. On top of the entire schedule change and all the
And that’s a wrap on February! Bring on March- the month of SPRING!!!
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