Winter Update

I seriously think that I went through some sort of seasonal depression disorder (or whatever it is called) this year.  Not that I was depressed or anything, but just unmotivated.  As you may know, our family is a beach family.  And, part of being a beach family means that starting around approximately June 1st of every year, the rule is that we do nothing around the house unless it is absolutely necessary (like cleaning, mowing the lawn, etc).  All other hours of the day? Spent at the beach.  So, because of that, I try to make it my goal to get house projects done during the winter.  Because, if we don't do them then, they aren't getting done....which is the case this year.  I don't know what happened, but every time a weekend would roll around, I found it impossible to get organized enough to get out the door and be productive.  Very strange.  That said, we didn't sit around and do nothing ALL winter. 

January started off with our traditional Holland Super Bowl party (aka, make appetizers and have a picnic in the family room while watching the game). The kids love doing this...

And, the rest of January...I don't know what we did.  I was depressed.  I told you.

February?  February was the mother-load of activities.  Both for the kids and for mama. 

The first two weeks were pretty normal.  Other than the fact that I was crazy busy at work because I was getting prepared to....start my new job!!!  Yep - after nearly 5 years with my previous company, I took a job back in the big city of PVD.  While it has been great, it was definitely a bit stressful/challenging at first.  It didn't help that the weekend before my first day, we were hit with a blizzard that resulted in no electricity from Saturday morning through Monday evening.  We tried to stick it out for a while on Saturday, but once the house hit 55 degrees, we decided that it was time to move to Grammy and Grampy's. 

They were smart and bought one of those fancy shmancy generators that kick on as soon a the electricity goes off.  Little did they know that it would serve as an open invite whenever we lost power!  So, off we went....me, Josh, the kids, Deacon and later that day....Kristen, Randal and then even later that day....Shakespear and Hamlet, K and R's two black labs!  Fun times in the (eldest) Holland household. 

Of course, when you live in a place like LC that is in the middle of nowhere, the electricity people tend to think that we aren't as important as the rest of the state, so we didn't get our electricity back until Monday night.  Which meant, the last 2 days at my old job were anything but relaxing and organized. 

Then, I started my new job on Wednesday of that week and Valentine's Day was Thursday of that week.  Thank the lord that the new office is connected to the mall, which gave me the opportunity to get the kids something before heading home.

The next couple of weeks were filled with late nights for me in the office (like, midnight late), which was an adjustment for everyone.  But, we did manage to find time to have fun...

And, yes, you are seeing that right - yet again, we were unprepared for the winter season and Alex had to wear his sister's old snowpants.  He doesn't seem to mind, so until he does, we may just continue with this routine.  I mean, really?  Why buy snowpants every year when they will only be worn once or twice?  That's me.  Thrifty Mom (well, when it comes to the kids....and not really even then)...