The Un-favored Month

"Many hands make light work."  This is true.  And when I feel like doing a good job being a mom and preparing my children for the real world, our kids help with pretty much everything.  14 hands can get a lot done in a very short time.  It's a lot of hands.  However, those little hands are connected to bodies with more energy than I am able to comprehend with my immense brain.  All put together, they could pull Paul Bunyan backwards across Minnesota on any given day, and they have no problem wearing me out before noon. Needless to say, these small bodies -confined to sunless, tiny spaces over a few months time- do not make my work light...or pleasant...or possible.  

Despite the fact that it has the fewest number of days, February is always the longest month of this confinement. December is just delightful with all the anticipation. January has the residue of holidays, and March has the naive and misplaced hope of spring.  

February has Valentine's Day.  

That's like giving your middle child the last sip of your coke after all the other kids have had their turn, and all that's left is carbonated, caramel colored spit.  

...Poor, middle-month February....

And here we are.  Treading water in the dregs left behind by all the favored months.

As I type, my children are lined up in front of Netflix, arguing about which show to watch. One child is making strange squealing noises (not the baby, oddly enough), another is giving unsolicited advice to the squealer, one is demanding the remote control, another is sucking her thumb and rolling her eyes at the general state of things, and the baby is overdue for his nap...and wet.  Oops.

So, how do we cope?  Well, we don't always sit in front of a screen...but they certainly crave it constantly, and would become fully consumed by it if I allowed.  Some days I can force them outside into the cold.  Other days, even grocery shopping provides a reprieve from the confines of a stale house. And let me tell you, after the chaos of navigating THAT labyrinth with five kids, trying to stick to the list and avoid a tantrum in the cereal aisle, these four walls feel like a haven.

This February, however, there was hope.  My parents decided that their Christmas gift to the family would be a weekend away.  A respite in the dead of winter. A shelter from the storm.  A beacon of... {okay, I'm done}. So off we went.  A hotel with a pool, no cooking, a long awaited movie, and a circus.  Extra hands to help with -and love on- our dear, completely insane children.

What an amazingly well-timed gift.

Was it a crazy weekend? Yes.  Did my kids have too much sugar?  Probably. 

Are they currently in withdrawal from all the stimulation?  Oh yeah.  

But wow.  It was so. much. fun.

There are still 18 days left until I can begin dreaming of spring.  I am fully aware that February will still try to torment us with more snow and sub-zero temps and perhaps a stomach bug or two. But my tank is full, and as the Lego Movie so brilliantly proclaims... 

Everything is awesome!