The Slow Slog of January

      Is it just me or is January creeping by at a ridiculously slow pace?  How is it not February yet?  The first few days were glorious.  I shipped the kids off to school, fell back into an afternoon routine of homework and extra-curriculars, reminded my body what going to the gym felt like, and had a massage.  It all felt so refreshing.  The last day of chill was Thursday, January 7th.
      Since that fateful day I have been living with two over tired beasts.  I'm pretty sure the neighbors thought a family of banshees had taken up residence listening to our group trying to get into the car to go to karate practice.
      My evenings have been filled creating my yearly blog book.  I decided to go a step further and transfer all of the photos from our lives before the blog starting with Linus' birth and put them into an additional two books.  I spent many hours working on the books.  It was fun reminiscing over the past year as well as looking at pictures of sweet little babies.  I miss those babies.  I'm beginning to wonder if there has been some sort of invasion of the body snatchers in my house and the children I'm currently living with aren't actually the ones I gave birth to.
      This weekend I got motivated and decided to purge and reorganize the boys' room.  I even convinced Dave to go to IKEA with me.  I was surprised by Linus' willingness to go through his stuff and get rid of things.  I'm so glad to be part of an awesome Buy Nothing group.  I was quickly able to unload a ton of stuff.  I took a big step and even gave away the crib mattress and toddler bedding.  It was like ripping off a bandaid.  Nothing is more invigorating than purging and reorganizing a room even if it means closing the door a little more on babies.
    Yesterday was a loooong day with the kids.  Rough does not begin to describe it and I was so glad when it was over and the kids were all in bed early.  I was determined to make today, a non-school day, better.  All three kids slept in today.  The kids haven't believed me when I told them they were really needing more sleep and everything would just be better if they slept.  We then went and played at the Swing Set showroom and ran off some energy, followed by naps for everyone.  In better moods, the kids self-entertained with all the cardboard left over from IKEA.  That's right.  I provided no help.
     It's hard to see but Eileen is drawing horses (they turned out pretty impressive) so the 3 of them could ride around the house on them.

 Some larger boxes were used to create castles.  Eileen preferred Linus' to hers.  Not shown is the giant soldier drawn on the box, guarding the back of his castle.

 Eileen didn't know the password for entry so Linus was whispering it to her.

I ended the day baking applesauce muffins for breakfast in the morning with Eileen and Robin.  I am hoping that the kids will remember that they had a mom who baked with them and not just a mom who constantly made crazy eyes at them and tried to to not lose her cool. 

Oh January I need you to move just a smidge faster.  I can't handle anymore long days of winter.  I can't rely on trips to IKEA.