February blues

I read a great blog post today over at Heart of the Matter about the February blahs.  Funny thing was, I had been thinking about February today.  The basic jist of the post is that come February, the excitement of the new school year, the new supplies and books, the joy of Thanksgiving and Christmas has all worn off and you're in for a long stretch of short days, few holidays, nothing to look forward to for a while.  February is usually the time lots of moms question homeschooling just because February and March are such a tough time to slog through.  I totally agree....to a point.

We really like February here.  True, the books are old, the subjects aren't exciting anymore, the school supplies are getting worn, the days are short, it's just the same thing day after day.  But...we love winter and snow here.  My girls don't usually get a snow day, a day totally off from school.  They sure get to enjoy the snow though.  They usually get up and are out the door first thing in the morning, sometimes before I'm even out of bed.  They play until they're cold, come in for breakfast and cocoa and some schoolwork, head back outside for more snow fun, then more cocoa and school.  Why take the whole day off when we can have the best of both worlds, snow and school? 

The other reason February isn't so bad is we have a vacation to look forward to.  For years, the girls and I have gone to NH to visit my wonderful sister-in-law, her hubby, and now there's a new bundle of joy to visit, little Z.  The girls and I have gone to play in the snow since they get lots more than we do, now they ski and snowboard and it's a chance to do that on much better (bigger) mountains.  We usually spend just less than a week there, visiting, playing, having fun.  The trip is always towards the end of the month so it does a nice job of breaking up the long winter.

I tend to get the winter blues after we get back.  The fun trip is over and all we have to look forward to is months of school.  I did find some good ideas over at Heart of the Matter, some good ways to break up the sameness of the days during this stretch.  I think we'll make time to take the dog over to a nearby park for a walk, maybe in the snow; we'll head over to the outdoor ice skating rink, maybe we'll pull out the pasta machine and make some homemade pasta or try cooking something more extravagant than we usually do.  Now the trick will be to remember all these ideas when we get to February.....