A Break is a Wonderful Thing

     Forgive the absence. Life has been CRAZY busy with the EMT course. That, for me, in the middle of the winter, is a good thing. I do well with being so busy that January and February are now almost done. The winter blues catch up to me at some point, always, but this year they lasted, oh about three days. That's all I had time for.
     But this week, I have the week off, and it's perfect timing. I love February break so much better than Christmas break, because there's no Christmas to prepare for, no Christmas to clean up after. There's NOTHING going on, which I love, so it's a real break. My eldest has the same week off from college, too, so he's home. It's going to be a good week off.  I still have EMT classes two nights this week, and I think Bramble and I are going to restart training lessons again on Wednesday night, but other than that, my days are my own.  So far, I've been particularly thankful for:

• being able to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday with him at the nursing home, with my sister, both brothers, my brother's girlfriend from New Hampshire, and three of my four kids. We brought dinner to him, and he ate an entire steak, a whole baked potato, fresh green beans, and two HUGE pieces of cake. I could not believe how much he ate. He seemed happy I think.
• having found a phenominally good book to read throughout break. I have many lined up to read, but this one, The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, is one of those "can't put it down, keep sneaking back to read just one or two more pages" kind. I've never read anything by him before, and it's totally not in my usual repetoir, but I LOVE it.
• ten inches of snow last night that was predicted, and that we DID get, that would have sent me to bed hoping and praying for a snow day today had it not been vacation, but that would not have resulted in a day off, so all the more reason to be thankful!
• Irish chicken stew for dinner last night
• sitting around in my cozy little living room this afternoon, watching a really stupid and funny movie with my all of my kids, and NO ONE is fighting
• having a friend of my son's come, unasked, and plow out the driveway (not the first time he's done it this winter, but the first time I managed to get out there and give him some money for his kindness)
• having time to crochet some on the afghans I started last winter (while watching movies with my kids this afternoon). That, to me, represents the ULTIMATE in "free time." I NEVER have free time enough to just sit and watch movies and crochet. Never. Well, last winter when I was sitting in the hospital rooms with my dad for many days, THEN I did. And I guess I should be grateful I haven't had THAT kind of time since then, but I DO love to crochet. It's just as the bottom of the list of free time activities (especially when I have a good book to read...cough cough, Pillars of the Earth,cough cough)
• seed catalogs, CSA's, and summer gardening dreams...
• time to blog again

It is winter, but it is nearing the end. Mornings are lighter earlier, dusk comes later now, I'm busy, healthy, happy. My chickens are laying up a storm, each of the 8 girls laying nearly every day (one of my "girls" just decided s/he is a rooster, after having owned her/him since last May.) And I don't have to face lesson plans, or teaching five periods in a row, for another 6 days. AWESOME. Life is ok right now. No, to be honest, life is good. Really good, despite the fact that it is still winter and that we have ten inches of new snow (grr, just a little!)