raising optimists

The kids are so ready for wintertime. It's pretty awesome to see how fully Minnesotan they are. I, on the other hand, feel just fine with these mild days. I think it was back in March that I decided to regroup my seasons to help me psychologically. I now have grouped April, May and June as Springtime. July, August and September are my new summer. Because September is always glorious. Fall doesn't begin until October when the leaves begin to change and includes November AND December. Which leaves winter in January, February and March. That last month was the real zinger. Because every children's book out there would lead you to believe spring begins in March. And in Minnesota that is a flat out lie. 

Anyway, I like this new system. I think of it often. And since it's December, it's still fall for me. 

But my kids are ready for the snow! And Christmas. I got out only the unbreakable decorations this year, and the kids promptly decorated the living room into "Christmas Land!" It is a lovely place that removes every decoration from around the house, way more fun to set up than to clean up. And you can only go into Christmas Land if you are wearing a christmas tree headband. (And those are our new grey walls! I LOVE them! We went with a different grey in the end because the one we started out with was too beige. So we started over, again, and love the feel in there...)

We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving, eating lunch with the Groves at 1:00 and dinner with the Harrington's at 4:00. The rest of the weekend was incredibly relaxed. Hardly went anywhere and I started and finished a book in two days. The best! And then Sunday night Elsie got a terrible bout of the flu and we've been passing it around every since. But as Elsie said, "at least I got to eat my toast in my bed! so that's fun!" And I realized I am raising some awesome optimists. It old her that even when things feel hard, if she can always find the thing that she is thankful for, like toast in bed while she recovers from the flu, she'll have a very, very wonderful life.