February: A Love Hate Relationship

I can't wait for February to be over. I don't want February to end.

Three reasons I am not loving this month:

1. Hubby has been off work. This is something I would have done anything for a year ago. I would even have shaved my head to have home just a few hours a week. He lived on the other side of the state, I was 36 weeks pregnant and chasing a one-year-old. Since he was gone, I moved us to our new house by myself and literally had zero sane thoughts the whole month of February 2013. It is a miracle our marriage survived and even came to thrive out of such a tough time. But now... he is home all day, every day. And I am also home all day, every day. Our small children are there as well. We live in rural Iowa. It is winter. I often parallel my life to the Shining, or to riding on an airplane on an overseas flight where you are confined to a small space and are afraid the blood in your legs will clot from lack of movement. And our house is "open concept living" which means you can't really escape each other because there are no walls. We suffer.


2. The weather. Duh.

3. A major budgeting mistake. So we decided to try spending cash instead of a credit card on groceries, clothes for the kids, and eating out. We sat down together, had a very precious excel spreadsheet, punched all the numbers and figured out what we would need for the month. We were out of money by February 13th. Because I married a rule follower, he insists  we I learn from our my errors and go the rest of the month without buying groceries. We are living off a large bag of sweet potatoes and red meat. We buy "half a cow" every year and yes, I know this is confusing to some. If you are a suburban girl like me, when your husband tells you that you are going to pick up half a cow, you might think the cow has literally been cut in half. When you arrive at the gas station at 11pm to pick it up from his old roommate, you will start to hope that there is a tarp covering the poor halved cow. You will wonder if you will see its sweet brown and black spots. Do not worry! You are instead picking up coolers filled with steaks, ground beef, roasts, that have been packaged for you. It is all very clean and proper and un-vegetarian of us.

Reasons I am loving this month:

1. It is short, which makes for less days on the spending fast.

2. Next month Spring starts. And I am a firm believer in seasons starting on their official calendar date. So on March 21st, we shall see tulips, and blue skies, and 50 degree days. Also, spring clothes are out at Target so surely they are are in tune with what the weather is doing because we need some warm days to wear cute crochet shorts like these:

3. WE ARE GOING ON VACATION! Real deal. Not that anybody has noticed, but this winter has been a doozy. And I married a man who loves living in Iowa, bless his heart, so I spend 365 days a year begging him to take me to the ocean. We are going to Puerto Rico (due to some type of specialized fishing- so much animal slaughter- sorry to my vegan readers for this post!) We fly out of Chicago and are leaving the little people with our parents. This time with Hubby  is precious because we need to stop "discussing" who is doing the dishes and instead get some quality time together before he starts to travel again. Ohhhh the emotions. I will miss this:

But not this- a small snapshot of what our table typically looks like at lunch (I am lying, it is always much worse):

In some ways, I wish February would spill over into March so that I can have more time at the beach but I will miss my babies. And once we get back from our trip, I get to go grocery shopping-- Alleluia, all will be well in the world.