February Funk

If I were asked to choose my favorite month of the year, I would find that a nearly impossible task.  There are so many wonderful ones from which to choose!

Selecting my least-favorite month, on the other hand, would be quite simple:

February.

Except for the brief splash of excitement caused by Valentine's Day, there's just not much about February that compels me to truly delight in it, if I'm being honest; and this particular February has felt a little extra challenging for me.  I'm not sure if it's the added fatigue that being pregnant brings to my body, or the mild but recurrent nausea I often feel at night, or the discouragement that has been dogging my steps from the ever-increasing list of unfinished projects, or whether it's just February itself; but for whatever reason, I have been in somewhat of a funk recently.  My normal second wind that hits me at night after all the children are in bed has been MIA the past few weeks; and most evenings, I don't feel inspired to do much of anything after goodnights have been said...and even if I do briefly feel a surge of inspiration, my exhaustion usually deflates the inspiration pretty quickly.

I'm just so tired, and then I start to think that maybe it's more than being tired.  Maybe I'm just lazy.  Maybe at heart, I'm really a bear that would like to crawl into a cave and hibernate until spring comes to warm the air and awake some strength within me!  ;-)  

It wouldn't be so bad if snow covered the ground outside; at least then, there would be beauty to uplift my soul.  But we've had barely any snow, and the landscape outside is at its ugliest of the whole year.  (That may change later today, however, since the forecast is actually calling for an accumulation of snow; some of us hope we get all they're calling for--and more!)  ;-)

As always, I have piles of ideas about the blog posts I want to write; but more often than not, my mental energy is so far gone by the end of the day that I don't even manage to squeak out anything on the blog.  Additionally, the hard drive that holds my photos is in our library--the coldest, least-appealing room of our house right now--so when faced with the choice to stay in the warm living room and read a book on the couch by the woodstove or go downstairs to exert my brain while freezing my fingers, the choice becomes clear. Obviously flopping down on the couch with a book and reading a few pages before falling asleep in the delicious warmth has been my preferred option most evenings of late!  ;-)

Well, enough explanation--and more than enough complaining!  Despite my less-than-sparkling mood at times, I am still overwhelmingly blessed in so many, many ways; and even when my soul is weary, my heart is filled with gratitude!

This past week, we had a day that could not possibly have been any more gray and brown and plain and dismal outside.  From the sky to the ground, everything was bleak--and not the kind of gray that precedes the excitement of a snowstorm!  Just the kind of bleak that makes February feel twice as long as it really is.

On this particular day, however, God gave me a sweet gift.  He gave me laughter.  :)

We had finished up the schoolwork that we were able to get done that morning; and before we had our lunch, the kids decided to have some "horse" races.  I'm not sure who started it, and I'm not even sure why it tickled my funny bone so much, but I found it hilarious.  It was just the medicine I needed on such a gray day.  :)

Oh, those boys!  And that girl!  They demonstrate the truth of Proverbs 17:22--surely, "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine!"  :)

Well, now that I've confessed the funk I've been in, maybe I'll be able to step out of it more easily!  I sure hope so, because there are some really important (to me) blog posts that I'm eager to get posted.  Let's see...there's Valentine's Day I want to write about...and my big Canada post I need to finish...and a long-overdue pregnancy update...and so much more.

Always, there is so much more.

Just another evidence of how full and rich and blessed my life is.

Even in February.  ;-)