Mondays are our "busy" days with institute lunch and gymnastics. There's not really enough time between when we get home from institute and when we have to leave for gymnastics (it's about 20 minutes away) for Matthew to get a good nap, so we just generally count on him being cranky the rest of the day. But it's worth it to have things that are scheduled! And Joseph is just the cutest, funniest little kid ever at gymnastics, and he adores every single part of it. So that has definitely been good this winter.
The rest of the week . . . honestly, there's hardly anything going on in the day with the kids! I know that I will be really jealous of this phase of life pretty soon, but it can get a little boring in the winter. Besides all the fake-homeschooling stuff I mentioned in my last post, here's what we've done on and off lately:
Joy School: I think it only happened once or twice in January before maternity leave started. It will probably start up again in the next few weeks, and hopefully more than one mom will return! That said, I haven't been the biggest fan of the curriculum . . . maybe it just felt like I was acting out those Deseret News articles on parenting by the Eyres I used to read. And maybe it's just this stubbornness in me -- if I'm going to be working even a little hard for preschool, I would rather get to use my own creativity for all of it, like I did last year when we did one letter a week for preschool. Oh well. Live and learn.
Library: free place with toys and books and temperatures above 64 degrees. What's not to like? (Besides the lack of technology, of course. None of the libraries have self-checkout, which I didn't like at first, but now I get to sort of enjoy/be embarrassed by Matthew scowling at the librarians every time we go to the counter.)
The one time we made it to story time (all the library branches around seem to require that you register for story times, and that just seemed silly to me) the storyteller forgot to show up, but other moms told me that there usually is a real storyteller there.
Baby signing time: this is just a walk across the street in student housing, and we've been consistent unless kids are sick. Both boys usually really like it, and I'm assuming my friend who runs it appreciates us coming since we are the only ones there half the time!
Parks: Overall, we've been lucky this winter in that it warms up pretty often before cooling down again. So if it gets above 40 degrees (usually once or twice a week), we try to go to a park for a little while. Sometimes we're not there very long, but at least we get out! (Obviously, I wish that we didn't have to go all the way to a park for my kids to play outside for 20 cold minutes [other than when they play on our sidewalk], but I'm almost used to it.) Usually we time the parks with other trips, such as gymnastics, the library, or errands.
Walking to the mailbox: Our new mailman has not accepted our outgoing mail the way our previous mailman did (standing up vertically in the box with the un-postmarked stamp clearly visible), so sometimes Joseph hops on his balance bike and I stick Matthew in the stroller and we walk over to the nearest blue mailbox. Exciting times, I know. Then if it's not too cold we keep going.
And, just so you know every other detail of our lives, here are the last few things I can think of that we do on a regular basis to fill the time. Not quite outdoor, but they at least involve moving around.
Exercise: On the rainy/snowy/cold/I just feel too wimpy to go out but still want to exercise days, I usually turn on some music or YouTube video and try to exercise with my kids. Because Joseph gets sad if I ever do it without him. Honestly, I'm sad if I don't see this every day. (Lighting was better in the kitchen, but that's not usually where we do it.)
They also get lots of wiggles out with the most useful Christmas present ever (even beating my new ouchless hair ties and Kevin's 2 copies of Hero of Ages). The best part is between 1:30 and 2:00.
Play dates: I've tried to be good about inviting friends over for Joseph as long as we don't have too bad of colds. So that breaks up the monotony! (And then some.)
Dinners: Now that I'm not nauseated, we've had a few people over the past few weeks. I like it because it's an excuse to get things clean and talk to adults on weekdays. Joseph and Matthew like it because they like to show off. One time Matthew kept running back and forth putting nativity pieces in someone's lap because he was just so excited to have company.
And honestly, I think that's just about it for the past six weeks or so! There are other various things I drag the kids along for in the daytime (visiting teaching, shopping, appointments, kindergarten junk) and some things I leave the house for in the evenings and weekends (Relief Society activities, presidency meetings, baby showers), and then the rest of the time we just kind of stay home. Sort of funny how much I call my mom and sisters and regale them with all our non-news!
It's not quite ideal, but we make it work! And soon spring will come.
ps: Unrelated, but in the evenings, I do try to do some bits of personal enrichment here and there. Not just whiny blogging. Haha!
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