What you do in February

Everyone warned me that I would hate the winters. Or rather, that the winters would be depressing. The lack of sun,the cold and wet. The gray days blending in with the gray and dirty (or yellow- yuck!) snow. And so on and so forth...

It's all there of course, lots of gray days. Lots of dirty snow. Not a lot of sun. And since we are militant about not killing our children's lungs with the air, we also don't enjoy a lot of play time outside.

For the record, I want to make on single statement about the winter so far, and yes, there is still more to go, so there is still plenty of time for naysayers to be right but... I love the winter. I know I'm not supposed to like it, no one else does it seems, and maybe in a few years I won't. It could get old. I can see that. But right now, the newness of it, coming from Texas, and the falling snow, which is always beautiful (even if  a little inconvenient) and just the difference it is from the last season and the season to come really endears me to winter. Not so much as the Fall, which was breathtakingly gorgeous, but in it's own way. I really love the coziness of being indoors and the sparkling snow. I don't mind the wet so much and for the most part and I rarely complain of being cold (even though some part of me always is. :)  )

All that being said... there is something in the air. I can't quite explain it. There is an anxiousness. Some of it, at least for me, comes from the fact that we are, literally, inside all day. There are several reasons for this. For homeschooling to work you have to actually be at home. And then we have to be inside most days because of the air (and trust me, when the air is "adequate" or above, those boys are outside in an instant! AND, just so you don't think we're overdoing, it's actually against the law for the schools to let the children out for recess on the bad days too, so we take our cues from them AND, lastly, this is certainly more of a problem during winter than any other season, we are discovering). Inside means all of us on top of each other, playing and working, and eating...all day, together, all day, every day, together, all day, every day, together...

I'm going a little insane. 

We are doing our best to spend time on the weekends out of town and in the fresh air, no matter the temperature or conditions. And we have been eagerly inviting people to our home to help keep things exciting. But, in the end, I think we are all sun deprived, fresh air deprived, and space-from-each-other deprived. We are workin' on it, trust me. We have plans for changing things up, it just takes time...

Here is what we have been doing to help keep things lively. And soon, I hope sooner rather than later, someone (Martin) will be writing the promised post on comparing the cost of living, taxes, all things financial, between America and Poland. Some visitors, I think, would be interested, as am I. Plus, you get to hear him talk for once, and I think he happens to have an interesting story and an interesting voice. Perhaps you all should threaten encourage him.

We threw them into those positions. 

Flick and Flack.

A mall dance exposition.

Hand motions to poetry. 

Making Pierogi with Martin's Ciocia Ala.

Some day I will be taking pictures from my kitchen window and the pictures will look just like this.