Routine Required

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this winter has been brutal, no?

We are firmly planted in the Midwest, but not far enough north to expect a bunch of snow and sub-zero days as a general rule of winter. This winter, however, my children have already have five snow/cold days off school. There have been many school years when we had zero such days, or maybe one. We are officially at the point that we will have to make up days if any more school days are cancelled.

I have to be honest, not working this year, it hasn't been that big of a deal to have those extra days off. Our winter break was extended by two days and we all enjoyed some extra laying around in our pajamas. I'll admit that I don't even cringe much at the thought of needing to add an extra day or two to the end of the school year, especially since the children's last day of school is supposed to be May 22. (Though I'm not sure anything academically significant will happen in those extra days!)

So in theory I don't really mind the days off. However, between the winter break, snow days, a blessedly small handful of sick days, I can really feel that we are out of our routine. Now that they are a tiny bit older, the children definitely roll with the punches better than they did when they were infants or toddlers. But, man, this has been a rough stretch. I feel it, too. There's plenty to be done around her but the unpredictable nature of our schedule lately kind of makes me want to take a nap and not much else - which is partly responsible for the lack of posting here. As for Harper and Michael - they are growing irritable and weepy, respectively. We all do better when things go the way we expect!

We are in the thick of another frigid stretch, tonight/tomorrow being the worst, and I'll be surprised if the children have a full day of school tomorrow. But maybe, just maybe, we can get back to our regularly scheduled schedule after that.

Happy New Year!

Once again, in lieu of making a list of resolutions for 2014, I am choosing a word which I hope will steer my decision-making this new year.

My word for 2014 is nourish.

What's yours?