February

I noticed several years ago, when I was making calendars for our family at Christmastime, that February has very few pictures.  I thought about what I usually do in February and realized that I spend most of it day dreaming about warmer places.  For the last two years I have been getting settled in with new children.  And I had just returned from Ethiopia, which provided that taste of summer in the dead of winter.  As I type we are socked in with a winter storm warning and fat flakes are falling from the sky.  I am very thankful for the treadmill I got for Christmas.  This year we are spending a lot of time watching basketball, and playing board games.  I got to explain the term "cabin fever" to Martha.  She knows the feeling.

It is hard for me to put myself in her shoes sometimes.  They had a rainy season in Ethiopia, when being outside wasn't the greatest, but they could be outside.  Fruit was always in season, and was actually ripe.  The weather was almost completely the opposite of what it is here.  I know that the weather doesn't help her adjustment.  I know she did not want to leave Ethiopia.  I don't think that she thinks America is all bad.  She sees the benefits of living here, especially the medical care that she has.  But honestly the weather gets her down.  She is in good company, but it is hard sometimes to see the bright side of the long cold winters.  If we had glorious hot summers it would be one thing, but really we don't.  I'm still working on the silver lining here.

The rest of the children don't know any better, so they just grab the sleds and make the most of it.  Soren thinks snow shoveling is the morning chore.  They don't mind being cold for the most part.  We do spend a lot of time at the HIRC (indoor gym) playing basketball and running around.  The big girls start track the end of the week.  That should be a blast.  I'm looking forward to it in a weird way.  Sitting all day in the snow to watch your child run for 1 minute seems silly sometimes, but that's what we do.

Brooke wrapped up her basketball season last week.  They ended up with 6 wins and 6 losses.  She enjoyed it, I didn't.  I remembered why I didn't like basketball in Jr. High.  The refs don't want to slow down the game, so they don't call much.  I am not a rules Nazi by nature, but really, some rules are helpful.  It reminded me of playing board games with my toddlers.  The rules only apply intermittently, and usually to someone else's advantage.  I had to leave a couple of games, and I am sure the refs had hoped I would have left more.  I guess if the girls don't mind skinned knees and fat lips, I shouldn't complain.  She says she wants to play next year, so I better start praying now for a better attitude, or laryngitis.