Motivational Monday: Hello, February!

January, I'm kind of glad you are over.

We haven't seen this kind if snow here since 1978. Mention inches.  At first, I was good with it. The fresh white blankets of snow made everything pretty, even on gloomy, cloudy days.  We were able to go sledding. There is nothing quite like flying down a hill with the wind in your face. It brought back all kinds of cozy childhood memories, especially when we took the kids down the same sledding hills my parents took me when I was a kid.

But then the cold came. Cold as in 35 degrees BELOW 0 with the wind chill.  For days.  

School was cancelled. The days off were fun in the beginning. We didn't have to go back to school after our Christmas break so it felt like an extended vacation.  We were cozy in our jammies with nowhere to go and unlimited screen time on all devices.

But as the month drudged on, the inclement weather days kept coming.  During the whole month of January, we only had one full week of school. 

The cozy feeling began to feel stifling. I lost track of the days. The less I did, the less I wanted to do. So I tried to find the silver lining.

I baked cookies.  There were many benefits of this: the oven kept the house warmer.  The cookies were delicious. (Obviously).  The kids were into baking (for the first couple of batches), but began to loose interest.  But that didn't stop me.  I baked and baked and baked.  

I needed to feel a sense of accomplishment since everything else was falling apart with no schedule, no motivation. When those warm, delicious cookies came out of the oven and melted chocolate oozed out with the first bite, I felt like a winner.

However, I started to notice that I was developing an extra layer of insulation.  It kind of snuck up on me.  I mean, it's not like my clothes felt tight since I was only wearing jammies with elastic waistbands. I like to that think by adding this extra layer of insulation by the means of baking comforting treats, I was honoring my biology, a need to stay warm before we had things modern luxuries, like furnaces.

But we do have furnaces.  For quite some time.

So February, I need to get it together.  Enough of drifting through each day in your bathrobe, eating cookies. Enough of the unlimited screen time which is defiantly warping your children's sense of reality. 

I can't live like this anymore. Nothing is getting done.

Today I am going to go to the gym and run. I think being cooped up without the release of a good workout has made me crabby. My mind feels fuzzy.  

I created some charts to help the kids stay focused on things other than screen time.

This reminds me of a lesson I already learned with summer: I do better with a schedule and a routine.  I do better when we have places to go or things to so. And when I say I really mean we.  Not that I don’t love cuddling on the couch with my babies, but I really am a better mom when we are doing stuff.

Did you have a lot of snow in January?  How did you cope?  How are you feeling about February?