sitting around and reading books

I decided to make this blog private last week after seeing some weird websites under my blog stats information. I'm so glad it's private now!! I had thought about doing this sooner, and now I wish I had! I can't believe what a tremendous relief it is to know exactly who is able to view this.

I'm getting back into the routine of things around here. Keith's parents visited for two weeks over Thanksgiving, and my dad visited for two weeks over Christmas and New Year's. Both visits were wonderful! We had all missed each other so much. But I was sick from before Thanksgiving until after New Year's.... just a stupid, persistent cold... and so now that it is mid-January, I am feeling more freedom than I have in a few months. Freedom to let the house get good and messy, freedom to spend an afternoon doing nothing but reading with my kiddos and cuddling with them and playing farm together, freedom to just be together and let the day go where it wants to go.

I love the freedom of January. I know that sounds crazy, probably everybody else is feeling totally cabin-feverish, and believe me, I've had a few moments of it! But I love that it is ice-cold outside. It takes all pressure off me to do something fun outside with the kids... which, yes, is pressure to me. Gardening is work to me. Even if I like it when I start doing it, I never look forward to it. Finding something interesting to do outside is work to me. Getting all the kids in the car to go somewhere along with gluten-free food, or going for a walk in the heat, those things sound like work to me. Do you know what I did outside while I was growing up? I read books. Do you know what I did inside while I was growing up? I read books there too. I like to sit around and read books, that is what I'm good at. And do you know what January is good for? Sitting around and reading books!! Wonderful, this month and I were meant for each other.

Priscilla and I are reading through the Kirsten series from the American Girl series. She loves them. I thought they'd be a little old for her but they seem just right. We are also halfway through the Little House series... we stopped after the first chapter of By The Shores of Silver Lake, in which Jack died and Rilla cried... and we are two-thirds through Heidi, and we just finished up the first book of the series about Rose, daughter of Almanzo Wilder and Laura Ingalls Wilder. So I'm probably not scoring top points for consistency right now. But Priscilla is quite happy with the whole arrangement and looking forward to reading ALL the American Girl series together... of which there are now, what, fifty? It's quite the profitable series of books. I looked up the Kirsten doll on eBay the other day... apparently it's one of the discontinued ones... and the absurd amount of doll accessories and clothes just for this one Kirsten doll made my head spin. We are absolutely not ordering an American Girl doll catalog around here anytime soon!

I'm going to catching up on my picture blogging a bit soon. Well, not catching up. Just doing a little bit of it. I'm trying to get the 3500 pictures off my camera memory card before I mistakenly ruin them all one way or another. So I'll share some here as I work on that.