Winter...

... needs to go away.

Seriously. The blizzard was cool, its been awhile since we've had that much snow at once and the kids thought it was amazing! Aside from that, winter has been cold and uncaring this year.

Joelene's been sick on and off for what seems like weeks now. Nothing major, just annoying. The boys and I now have a massive cold. I'm drowning in school work for 5 classes and 2 of those are accelerated 7 week classes so I've literally barely had time to breathe. Add to that Peter's "angry" meltdowns and Beth's spikes in anxiety over yet another project at school (this would be project number 3... the anxiety is getting worse with each project) and the boys' sudden and unexplained fear of dogs we've owned for a year or more... yeah its been crazy.

I've only made it out of the house for quick store runs, my husband's weekly appointment, or the inevitable runs I have to make to the school every couple of weeks for Beth since November. My own health is iffy mostly because of stress coming at me from all directions.

So I started simplifying. I am making an active effort to stretch every hour. I've damn near tripled my water intake. I've simplified my nightly prayers/blessings because it was taking over 40 minutes a night to get through what I wanted to and I don't sleep all that much as it is so I needed a new game plan there. I like the simplified format better and nothing really had to be cut down.

I've been spending some time inbetween school work researching ways to cut expenses. I'm going to grow our vegetables this summer, we're going to eat very light this summer and focus on hitting sales to stock our freezers for the winter, and we're going to slim down birthdays and Christmas to fun but financially responsible.

I really need the spring to come back so I can get outside. I really feel better overall, and so do the kids, when we're outside. The girls are much more stable in mood, temperament  and mental health when they can spend most of the day riding bikes and playing in the yard. We all benefit hugely from being out in the sun!