Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Bleak Bleak Week

January. Blerghh. It definitely got off to not so much of a bang and more of a gentle kerplop. We all had colds, we all had the blahs. Sounds like Januray.

One fun thing was that Romney grew in to a full-size cello. I have been so proud of how she so quickly adjusted to playing the bigger instrument. She named him Austin, and she and Austin sound great playing together. It's been such an adjustment with our auntie/teacher Margaret moving away but I've so appreciated Peter for stepping in as a teacher and managing the long-distance lessons.


One way I decided to keep myself busy and happy during January was to knit myself a copy of the hat I made for my sister a year or two ago. I loved knitting that hat and I loved the way it turned out, so I decided to make one for myself as well. I love this hat. The only downside is that once I put it on, it had better stay on because it give you the absolute worst hat head you've ever seen. Romney has decided she loves the hat as well, but I'm not sure I'm ready to knit another one yet. Maybe if she's really really good. Or if she asks too often to borrow mine. Then maybe I'll consider it.

 

An evening I'm sure we'll all remember is that night that we offered to keep an eye on this little nugget while his parents went on a much-needed date night. Things went well for the first hour or so but then something went wrong, who knows what, and we this poor kid put in over an hour of furious screaming. Some of us did a little crying as well. We are hoping he has forgiven us and will return for a visit soon.



Then Bleak Week hit. Last year it was a major hit for our family, this new holiday focused purely on pampering ourselves while we got through what we deemed to be the worst week of the month and therefor the entire year. Last year we went out to a movie and had a dance party with neighbors and I watched all the Jane Austen movies I could stand. This year? Well, we made plans. We sat down as a family and made a big list of all the things we thought would add to a great Bleak Week. We had movies and service projects and dinners and game nights...and it all just didn't happen. Because guess what. We all felt too bleak. It just sucked. And other things kept coming up. I can't even remember what all, but it was not great.

This is how I felt. Blah.


We did manage an evening with everyone's favorite take-out: Panda Express:


And best of all we were able to follow through with our plans to spend Friday evening at Crystal Hot Springs. I don't have a picture because I didn't take a single one. I was too busy sitting in very hot and minerally water with our friends the Bucherts. What a therapeutic place to go that week. We just sat and soaked and talked and talked and then got out and ate pizza. Couldn't have been a better ending to a truly bleak Bleak Week.

One event that took place after that week was a surprise visit from my darling friend Natalie - we got to sneak off to lunch with Kalleen. That was happy. Short, but happy.


I have to be honest - this was not the worst January ever. I know our Bleak Week turned out to be not as fun as we had hoped, but I can honestly say that this January wasn't awful. We didn't have any snow - that in and of itself is a bummer, especially for our climate here, but it did make it so that we didn't get the horrible inversions we often struggle with in January. And the kids were out of school for Christmas break clear until the 9th of the month and so January was a third over by the time real life kicked in again. Romney also has been able to start singing lessons and has loved that. There were lots of ups. And I'm happy to say that February came faster than it did other years.

1 comment:

Linda R said...

Happy first day of Spring!