Good-bye February (I never liked you too much)

We made it through another Upstate February. I don't like winters around here too much. They are so long and dark and cold that I almost forget how beautiful the other three seasons of the year are. But we did survive February. Now that it's March, it seems like winter is broken. Even though there's a month of it left, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaking of light, let me tell you something: living this north of the equator, I have become keenly aware of how many hours of daylight I've been given. It's dark around 3:30 p.m. when we're close to winter solstice. Although I will mourn the loss of an hour of sleep, I am grateful for the extra hour of light that's coming my way.

But, I digress.

Today's post is meant to be a small sampling of what's been going on and what's about to be going down:

1. In February, we got caught up on all our shows. We are never consistent enough to watch shows when they actually premiere. We're not sophisticated enough to figure out TiVO. So, we just wait until it's the dead of winter and there's nothing left to do and we watch the entire seasons of our favorite shows. This is how we've plowed through all of "24" ,all of "LOST", all of "Ugly Betty", and most of "The Office."

2. Finishing all our TV faves, and still having winter hours to burn through, Trent tapped into his inner Mr. Darcy and watched a bunch of wonderfully-made BBC epics with me. We've made it through "Cranford" (FABULOUS, by the way), "John Adams" (technically an HBO show but is long and sober enough to feel British), and are almost done with "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." This one is killing us. It's heartbreaking; we watch it hoping against hope that Angel Clare really will forgive Tess this time. We love him and hate him all at once. He ends up being a jerk, of course, and the knowledge of that is killing us. I woke up thinking about Angel Clare this morning. It's in my subconscious.

3. Trent said to me last night, "I'm really sick of watching shows." This is a sign that winter is almost over and we've got to get back to running, rollerblading, walking, hiking, and being outside.

4. We sat down and planned out our yard. This made us feel very grown up. The yard this year is going to be a blooming extravaganza. One word: primroses. Another word: peonies. Another two words: flower boxes. Oooh, so fabulous.

5. Lillian has learned how to sit up and how to roll over. This extreme activity has left her quite hungry. We spend a little more time than usual lately doing the feeding thing. I tried to feed her rice cereal and she looked at me like I was insane and spit it out. I look to my sister, Trish, for inspiration on this one. Trish says to keep going without any supplementation (which Lillian would refuse anyway), so we do.

6. Lillian also has started singing in a really high sing-songy way all of the time. She's doing it right now as she plays in her exer-saucer. It's looking like she's got her dad's music genes. I'm thrilled. We got her a toy guitar and she thinks it's awesome.

7. I have kicked up my tutoring business a couple of notches. Last week I had a conference with a teacher of one of my students. I didn't like how he had critiqued her writing. It felt good to fight the good fight.

8. I redecorated our bedroom with our trip to Belize as a theme. It's a pretty darn good idea to redecorate your bedroom with memories of your honeymoon. Every morning I wake up to a giant poster size picture of the Carribean ocean that my awesome sister Sara made for us.

This week, Trent and I are now officially going on vacation. We've decided to vacation in the glorious land of Upstate New York. That is to say, we'll be spending our vacation here at home. I spent the better part of two days trying to negotiate a trip to Orlando that just didn't ever quite come together. So, we're saving the money and staying here. I won't have the waters of the gulf coast lapping at my feet but there is a pretty good pool at the Y; we're going to bust out our camping equipment set up a tent in the living room to camp out awhile; we'll run and walk and probably finish Tess. But best of all, we're just going to be together.

That whole, "there's no place like home" thing? It's true. Even in the winter.