January Hope

It's another bone cold kind of day.  I don't have many druthers with the weather.  It is winter, after all. Winter in Wisconsin. I have warm clothes and a toasty house, and also the desire to stay in.  Except yesterday Miss Bit and I ventured out to witness the arctic sea smoke.  The steamy fog hovering over Lake Michigan is hauntingly beautiful.  We walked down to the beach to admire this winter phenomenon that has overtaken our inland sea.  The photographs I took failed to capture it, but still I tried.  As I stood there soaking in the sun, I realized it was the first time I've been outside for any length of time in over a week.  My fingertips and cheeks were chilled, but my heart was warmed.  There's hope for me.

The kids didn't have school yesterday, and Miss Bit won't have ice skating today.  She doesn't appreciate that fact and wanted to bring her skates just in case.  If it were up to me, I'd bundle them up and send them on the ice.  There's no wind, it's sunny and there is a giant fire pit in the warming house to unthaw beside. Alas there's always next week.  There's hope for her.

T. Bone is on his way to camp with his classmates.  They'll spend the next three days enjoying outdoor experiences like orienteering, ice fishing, snowshoeing and tabaggoning.  He was super stoked for this seventh grade excursion, and I was too given the fact that there is only so much Mine Craft one can play and Castle one can watch. There's hope for him.

It's a three caffeine day for me.  I'm on my third cup of coffee right now.  My list of all that I should do is staring at me, but I think when I'm done here I'll watch last week's episode of Parenthood and then finish my book.  If you must know, neither of these tasks is on my list.  I'm getting really good at this hunkering in, battening down gig.  So good it's starting to scare me.  I fear that I'm becoming too comfortable being home and alone. The truth is that I'm feeling a little under the weather both physically and emotionally.  I feel like the weight of the world is upon me so what do I do?  I ignore the world.  La la la la I can't hear you! I'm not in the best place so I'm giving myself space.  I'm treating myself with kid gloves until I turn the corner. I'm also believing that I will. There's hope for me...I know there's hope for me.