24 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

A list is a kind of a cure. I keep a small pad on my bedside table for self-curing end of day (or early morning) stress bouts. I keep oodles of lists on our computer, I scribble them on our new kitchen chalkboard and I have a gazillion all over my iPhone to boot.  Lists galore! That's the way to sooth what ails you.

 I do eat trash to calm myself but I am trying to break the habit and one of the recent ways I've been reading about is replacing the habit with a different soothing mechanism...a good way to figure out what works for you is to observe yourself and see what else you do to set things right again. And the first answer that came to me in the midst of my ill-tempered fit this morning was LISTS!

It's February and my id is sulking and sobbing by turns. Time to solve it. Here's a list of what I love about February today, greyest of months, center of winter's numb heart.

25 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

1. Its the month when we celebrate love with its very own holiday.
2. It has a Leap Day!
3. The snowdrops bloom in February.
4. It's great baking weather.
5. Chilly days mean snug fires in the fireplace with a big stack of library books teetering next to us.
6. President's Day is a special surprise I always forget about that brings us a little long weekend together.
7. Maple syrup season starts!
8. There are always stray clementines lingering in my coat pockets.
9. We use the snuggly throws on the couches.
10. Sunny days feel potent and rich, even if they are infrequent.
11. Greenhouses. 
12. In February I sew and knit and paint and all other manner of industrious indoor things.
13. Dee was born in February.
14. February is short.
15. It's a great time to read design blogs.
16. Sleeping comes naturally in February...a healthy habit after all.
17. February is a great time to test out new teas and coffee spices.
18. Watching costume dramas (which my boys consider a fun treat!) is a wonderful chilly February occupation.
19. The people in my life who love me feel warmer and brighter and more potent to me in February.
20. Scarves and boots come out to play!
21. I get to try out chapstick and lotion flavors with impunity. 
22.  The weeds in the garden stay in check perfectly.
23. I think of having company.
24. The Academy Awards happen!
25. Coffee houses.

See? Not so bad now! February...my new pal. Just don't wear out your welcome, eh F? I have hyacinths out there budding and we're not gonna wait forever for 'em.

I Gave Myself Flowers

Happy Monday world!

Today started out a classic Monday for me. I got on the scale and found I'd gained for weight than I would have liked over the weekend, I couldn't figure out what to wear (which always makes me feel ugly) and it was cold and grey with lots of wind outdoors. I started the morning by crying in the refrigerator while I was trying to get breakfast.

Image by mbgrigby via Flickr

But you know, I washed all the dishes, I planned out a fresh juice to make myself later that day, I took Aaron to work and then bought myself an armful of flowers on the way home, found a voicemail on my phone from an acquaintance who just called to say she admired me and was thinking of me and then the sun came out and the wind died down. By the time my aunt knocked on the door with her sewing machine cheerfully tucked under her arm, ready to sew the day away together, I was feeling pretty alright.

Sometimes you just need to figure out how to heal what ails you...even if it means a few indulgences. You're worth it.

Related articles

• Which Flowers Are in Season in February? (proflowers.com)
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• The Pink Hyacinth Orchid (jenniferscoullar.com)
• Floral makeover:: Free Spirit (whitetshirtsandpetals.wordpress.com)
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• A Self-Care Challenge (joyfortoday2012.wordpress.com)

Winter Blues

Just kind of a funny odds and ends kind of day. I am not sure exactly what happened to the whole thing really. I hate it when a day does that to me. Somehow it managed to creep by slowly, feel molasses sloggy and then not really come to anything except for a funny whooshing at the end that amounted a sudden overwhelmedness and a tinge of the blues. I think part of it is the dragging slump here at the end of winter, part of it is kid whining, part family illness (hello Round of Earaches that has been keeping Mama up all night!) and part of is just a big pile of tiny complaints that have heaped and tittered about my ankles for some time now and have just managed to creep up high enough to really whisper persistently in my ear.

Losing the baby weight has been slower than I wanted it to be. Of course it is my third baby we're talking about and I've aged since the first go 'round and then there's my willpower with dieting which is a bit lacking but, even if we can explain it, friends, that doesn't make it all better, does it.

The house is wonderful and a home-improvement queen's dream but, a few little improvement set-backs have made it suddenly feel like an impossible, laughable, I'll-never-get-it-done mountain of work for one woman to tackle on her own while three small children howl in the background. I know this one is real and lots of people would think I was crackers for even trying to fix up a house single-handedly while raising three kids but then, that's just the brand of loony I am. I am determined to get re-inspired on this one and not cave to the popular conception that what I am attempting is ridiculous. Ahem.

I am planning our garden and while on the one hand I am fidgety with excitement over the soon-to-be-muddy yard in front of me....on the other hand it is a big job and although I really want to be a gardener who can handle a whole yard, I've never really done it and I'm trying not to listen to the section of my psyche that is screaming "You're going to waste so much money and destroy that perfectly good lawn!!! What do you think you're doing, you nutcase!" Isn't that silly? I should be thrilled but instead I'm intimidated and believe I'll destroy the property. Fabulous.

A neighbor wants to give me some cast-offs that she doesn't need anymore. That sounds nice, right? I keep avoiding her phone calls. She called this afternoon and I went as far as to press talk and then panicked and hung up. I think part of it is that I suspect that part of what she wants to give me I may not be able to move myself and I don't think A will be very thrilled at the prospect of being looped into the project. Then also part of it is that I kind of suspect that part of what she wants to give me I may not actually want and I will take it anyway and then hate the fact that I brought a bunch of crap into the house that we didn't need. Am so weak of will.

I don't entirely know what to do to get out of the funk. I am not all the way down in a depression yet and I think I can avoid it. Am thinking, early to bed, good talk with A, a nice warm drink and an early morning by myself. Hopefully tomorrow the world will be a kinder place.

The Real Estate Blues...

Have to chuckle about this cute blues man and am sending my sympathies out to you folks on "the other side" tonight because at this house, we're digging these blues and shimmying down to them, we're buyers not sellers and these blues aren't ours. I like the sound of the this guy and of the current market both, pretty musical if you ask me.

Tonight we put in an offer on that half-timbered Tudor we have been eying up and now we wait to see if they wanna sing the same tune or not.