January Blues

Does anyone else get the January blues like I do? I mean I just got to spend some good quality time with my husband while he took a few extra days off work in December. We spent some time with family and were just able to relax and not think about anything but being together for Christmas and New Years. Then January hits, the kids are back in school, Bump is back at work and here I am.

I figured out a long time ago that I need things to look forward to. They don't have to be big things like vacations - although those are very nice things to look forward to. It can be little things like getting together on a Friday night with friends or going to a book club. Maybe it's just knowing that I will be having adult conversation and get to leave the house for something other than driving the kids to or from school. I guess right now I just look at a blank January calendar and wonder when I will have something to look forward to.

Part of it is just the period of life that I am in too. My kids are young. I have one in Kindergarten half day which makes your schedule just all revolve around hers. I have one in preschool 2 days a week and one that still (thankfully) takes naps. My days consist of making sure my kids get to school on time and are fed 3 meals a day plus enough snacks that you would think I was feeding 15 kids instead of just 3. Also, trying to keep my house from looking like 3 little kids live in it (a pretty impossible task, since they do live here), making sure enough laundry is done so that said kids and hubby have clothes to wear to school and work and all other things that any other stay-at-home mom does like helping with homework and remembering to just read and play with your kids (that one gets forgotten way too much, doesn't it?). Anyway, you all know what we do when we get to stay home, but with young kids it makes things difficult because of how much I am just tied to the house. It's hard to take 3 kids to the grocery store and pretty much impossible to do any other shopping with them.

I love projects! Well, at least I used to love projects. I say this because when I would get in moods like this in the past I would just start a project to keep my mind occupied until Spring. It used to be really fun to do projects before I had to deal with little fingers getting into my projects. I loved the idea of pulling out the paint and going to town on a room even if Bump wasn't around, but now when I think of re-painting a room (which I have a few that really need done) all I can think about is the mess that my kids will make and how much they will whine and cry because they want to help and I really don't want them to. The whole idea of doing a project has new meaning to me now that I have young kids.

A perfect example is that I still need to fix the tile around the fireplace, but every time I think about just getting it done, I can't seem to get to the tile store to even pick out the tile that I need for the project. I don't want to take the kids because I wouldn't be able to concentrate with them running around the store. And I have to drive into Salt Lake and that takes too much time to do while Gabby is at school and too much time before she goes to school, but the store is closed by the time Bump gets home from work. See the problem? So, what about Saturday? That is pretty much Bump's only day off and he doesn't love projects like I do so I have to pretty much pick out the most important things that need to get done around the house.

Okay, this is sounding like just one large complaint and I don't mean for it to be, really I don't. It's just interesting what life throws at you. For everything there is a season and a right time to do projects and another right time to just be a mom and a wife. So, I don't have anything big to look forward to right now, that's okay. Life is really good and I am just grateful for what I have and who I have in my life. I think I will just buck up and get some kind of project going. Maybe this Saturday I will head to the tile store with or without Bump. . . hmmmm we'll see.