into january . . .

Ok, so I’m just going to say it… January is the worst month out of the year. Just is. For those of us not living in the tropics, it’s cold. Really cold. And long. Yeah, and boring. And all seems sleepy and tired. Even the snow outside looks like it can’t wait for the spring melt. Sigh.

But the good news is that it’s almost February (an equally dull month) and that means one more month closer to rising temperatures and more daylight. Yay.

Anyway, just a little update as to what I’ve been doing…

My oldest brother lives about 25 minutes away from me with his wife, Mary, and 6 children (ages 5-15). He and Mary were lucky enough to head out on a little vacay to the Mexican Riviera so I told him I would baby sit if he needed me to. 2 years ago, I had watched all 6 by myself for a full weekend and we had a blast.

So, he took me up on it. I was going to watch them Saturday and Sunday and then Mary’s mom was going to come into town on Monday to watch them until the next Saturday morning.

My mom came over to hang out with us and we played Sorry and Monopoly, went bowling, watched some movie named Flubber, spent some serious time on the Dance Dance Revolution, and had a great time. On Sunday, they had stake conference which I was totally nervous about…. The 2 youngest are 5 and 7 and the thoughts of keeping them entertained for 2 hours instead of just 1 sounded exhausting, but it worked out. The last time I had watched them, they had 9:00 am church and I wasn’t sure how we were going to get everyone up and ready. But when I got up, got mostly ready, and came out to check on everyone at 8:15, they were almost finished getting ready and eating breakfast. As it turned out, we were 10 minutes early to church. Me and 6 kids. And I had nothing to do with it… those kids are a well-oiled machine. Loved it.

This time was no different, we were again early to church (not because of anything I did) and ready to sit and listen for 2 straight hours. Who are we kidding, sometimes it’s hard for ME to sit and listen for 2 straight hours, but I went ahead and armed myself with coloring books and fruit snacks and it turned out to be ok. I sat and took notes so that I wouldn’t be temped to take the coloring book away from my nephew. Sweet.

All in all, it was great to spend some time with the kids. It’s fun to watch them grow up and be ‘people’. And they amaze me with what they observe and what they know…

So thanks, kids, for the good times and for the little bright spot in January…