Cabin Fever

Oh my, cabin fever is starting to set in...
I have noticed my mood is a little blue lately.
I am an outdoors girl and really enjoy and need time outdoors...the sun is my "drug" and I am addicted to it. Kind of reminds me of how Superman needs the sun for energy and to repair himself...yeah, I like that. I am like Superman...the boys will get a kick out of that one. Well, they will probably laugh but I like it. :)
During the Spring, Summer and Fall the boys and I spend a lot of time outside.

First of all, it helps to save a little wear and tear on the house, the chaos is much easier to bear, the noise is so much more tolerable when they are outdoors and they burn off more of that endless supply of energy they each have. (A little less energy = them napping and sleeping better...always a bonus for an exhausted parent that is ready for some quiet time. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my children but everyone needs a little down time now and then to recharge.)

Everyone's moods are better when we are able to be outside. We thrive off the extra space, the freedom, and the smells of the great outdoors (well, sometimes that smell is cow manure, or something the dog dragged up that you aren't quite sure what it is but you get the idea).

Well, right now I am tired of the smell of musty rooms of boys and the constant smell of my Scentsy pot in the house trying to mask the stale air from not being open up the windows for weeks. We are ready for spring in our house.

Just as I am about at wits end and planning a move to a much warmer place many states away, I noticed this on the outside of our playroom window.

Frost on the window, the swirl patterns were pretty intricate and neat. 

It made me realize that winter does have some really neat things that we might not get to experience if we lived somewhere warmer and I should apprecaite it more and make the best of it.

If we weren't cooped up inside because of the cold, I wouldn't have had the time or the opportunity to play with Little Man today like we did. We sat for almost 2 hours together (which is a VERY long time for a 3 yr old) and played with this...

Shaving cream activity. Pile it on the pan and play in it with whatever you want.
The idea is to get messy because it cleans up easily!

We drove our trucks and tractors in the shaving cream...

We liked burying our cattle in the "snow"...

We even practiced writing some of our letters and numbers in it...

Then we even had fun washing everything up when we were done.

Now, you might not think this sounds like something YOU would want to do...but let me tell ya, I don't care how old you are...smashing and squishing stuff with your hands is extremely therapeutic and a lot of fun. It puts you in touch with that inner child of yours that is hiding. So, pull up your sleeves and dive in with both hands! You can thank me later. ;) Well, it was a lot of fun for us at least. It was just what we needed to keep us going and surviving another day of winter cooped up in our house while the windchill was -20 degrees today or whatever it was.

As I was putting things away from our activity, I noticed the begonia plant our third son, "Tank", gave me from his preschool Mother's Day activity in May of 2013. It finally bloomed for the first time since I brought it back inside before winter!! I am proud to say I have kept alive all this time too! ;)

Pink Begonia in bloom.

It was just the reminder that I needed the Spring is right around the corner and I needed to stop complaining and being mopey. I got the message loud a clear today from all the "signs" that were presented to me today. We need to stop and appreciate the small stuff, we are more blessed than we realize.

Oh, and by the way, that stale stench that the house had, well now it is different smelling in our house...it smells like Barbasol shaving cream! Might not be the smell of cow manure or whatever from summer but it is a welcome little break from the current normal that I will appreciate for a while. :)