Winter!
Today is February 5. My father-in-law has a birthday today. I think he is 86! Happy birthday to you Ken Kredit! Roger was in the easy chair, dozing off after dinner. I said, "hey! call your dad! its his birthday...do it quick! He did call and they had a good talk." phew. I would have felt terrible if we had missed it. I didn't talk to him....but I know he is having a good birthday. I also know that he knows how much I love him.
February in Iowa means....it is still winter here. We had lots of snow today. Snow in the forcast for lots of days in the next week. Not just snow. Cold. Sickness. Influenza is rampant and everyone is ill. I struggled for almost a month with it. Even now, in week 4, I still have a sore throat and cough. Claire is sick. Jeremiah is sick. Isaac is almost sick. Hopefully he can sleep it off. The littles are not sick, thank goodness.
Today I made fat-burning cabbage soup which also happens to be very tasty and flavorful. Roger and I are working on our health and fitness. I made homemade chicken soup because I believe that if you are getting sick, you should eat home-made chicken noodle soup. I chopped a lot of onion and carrots and celery today. I seasoned and I stirred and I mixed. I washed lots of pots and pans.
I also washed lots of pillows and blankets and sheets and stuffed animals. Apparently Precious wet the bed 2 nights ago and didn't tell us. She tends to sleep with multiple blankets and comforters and stuffed animals. It was all wet. And smelly. Her bed-wetting was an accident and I don't get mad for an accident. Her inability to tell me and clean it up is another issue. I had a stern talk with her about it. ( more than once. I think she gets it. ) We are washing and line drying and washing and treating everything....but her mattress is wet because we had to wash it. ( the carpet cleaner broke. we are at an impass.....and need to buy a new carpet cleaner. we need it. we can't not have one. oh my word. and her mattress wasn't dry so we had to set up a cot for her to sleep on. ) It is not a punishment. It is simply a consequence. You peed on your mattress. we have to clean it. you have to sleep somewhere else tonight.
Sometime soon it won't feel like winter any more. It will feel like springtime. We will have rain instead of snow. We will wear sweatshirts instead of mittens. We will make sandwiches instead of soups and stew....and the season will change in Iowa.
I hoped to exercise today. My plan was to go and walk a few miles at the rec or do a half hour on my elliptical in the basement, which I hate. I later wondered if I could modify the goal and just go out and scoop snow from the driveway for 20 minutes. As I pondered this, I was finishing up the dishes from my double soup cooking, and moving laundry from the urine incident. I picked up my John Piper book and read a page or two....and just felt tired. The sun was streaming into my living room and the blankets we all use were crumpled up here and there....and I felt summoned. I moved to my couch where I had not sat for days upon busy days, and I pulled the crumpled blankets up and smoothed them over myself. I didn't need to set an alarm. The bus would deliver kids soon enough.
I slept. In the sun, under a blanket, on a Monday afternoon in early February. It was delicious and scandalous. It was deserved and indulgent. It was necessary and it was sweet. I slept and I did not exercise. So there. Take that.
People. If you can.....take the nap. Especially in February. Tomorrow I plan to be more productive. But if I am not, I can still crawl under a pile of scrunchy blankets in my messy living room and take a nap. again. If my body says I should, I just might. What is your body saying? February. Iowa. Influenza. Snow. Work-ethic......Comfy couch. Sun in the windows. Fireplace burning. Winter.
February in Iowa means....it is still winter here. We had lots of snow today. Snow in the forcast for lots of days in the next week. Not just snow. Cold. Sickness. Influenza is rampant and everyone is ill. I struggled for almost a month with it. Even now, in week 4, I still have a sore throat and cough. Claire is sick. Jeremiah is sick. Isaac is almost sick. Hopefully he can sleep it off. The littles are not sick, thank goodness.
Today I made fat-burning cabbage soup which also happens to be very tasty and flavorful. Roger and I are working on our health and fitness. I made homemade chicken soup because I believe that if you are getting sick, you should eat home-made chicken noodle soup. I chopped a lot of onion and carrots and celery today. I seasoned and I stirred and I mixed. I washed lots of pots and pans.
I also washed lots of pillows and blankets and sheets and stuffed animals. Apparently Precious wet the bed 2 nights ago and didn't tell us. She tends to sleep with multiple blankets and comforters and stuffed animals. It was all wet. And smelly. Her bed-wetting was an accident and I don't get mad for an accident. Her inability to tell me and clean it up is another issue. I had a stern talk with her about it. ( more than once. I think she gets it. ) We are washing and line drying and washing and treating everything....but her mattress is wet because we had to wash it. ( the carpet cleaner broke. we are at an impass.....and need to buy a new carpet cleaner. we need it. we can't not have one. oh my word. and her mattress wasn't dry so we had to set up a cot for her to sleep on. ) It is not a punishment. It is simply a consequence. You peed on your mattress. we have to clean it. you have to sleep somewhere else tonight.
Sometime soon it won't feel like winter any more. It will feel like springtime. We will have rain instead of snow. We will wear sweatshirts instead of mittens. We will make sandwiches instead of soups and stew....and the season will change in Iowa.
I hoped to exercise today. My plan was to go and walk a few miles at the rec or do a half hour on my elliptical in the basement, which I hate. I later wondered if I could modify the goal and just go out and scoop snow from the driveway for 20 minutes. As I pondered this, I was finishing up the dishes from my double soup cooking, and moving laundry from the urine incident. I picked up my John Piper book and read a page or two....and just felt tired. The sun was streaming into my living room and the blankets we all use were crumpled up here and there....and I felt summoned. I moved to my couch where I had not sat for days upon busy days, and I pulled the crumpled blankets up and smoothed them over myself. I didn't need to set an alarm. The bus would deliver kids soon enough.
I slept. In the sun, under a blanket, on a Monday afternoon in early February. It was delicious and scandalous. It was deserved and indulgent. It was necessary and it was sweet. I slept and I did not exercise. So there. Take that.
People. If you can.....take the nap. Especially in February. Tomorrow I plan to be more productive. But if I am not, I can still crawl under a pile of scrunchy blankets in my messy living room and take a nap. again. If my body says I should, I just might. What is your body saying? February. Iowa. Influenza. Snow. Work-ethic......Comfy couch. Sun in the windows. Fireplace burning. Winter.
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