The February Blahs...

So, I know I haven't done a particularly good job of blogging lately. Something always happens to me in late February- I don't know why, but I seem to have the overwhelming desire to slow things down & go into hibernation. It doesn't seem to matter what's on the agenda, February has just always been weird month for me. This year has been no exception. First, I was busy getting us ready for the cruise, and then there was the cruise itself and after that there was the recovery period after the cruise. And finally, just when it was time for me to get back in the swing of things again, I came down with a horrible case of the February Blahs.... I know what you're thinking, excuses, excuses!

But I have to say, it was a particularly nasty case of the Blahs. While I was able to keep up with the daily grind of life - the laundry, the meal preparation and the general maintenance of my 2 hooligans - I let everything else go. And as I puttered about and took a long time to get very little accomplished, the house began it's frighteningly rapid decent into filth and disarray.

I began noticing yesterday that things had really started to get out of hand. The pile of ironing was approaching the 4' high mark (I began having nightmares about poor K being buried alive under a gigantic avalanche of horribly wrinkled clothes), the hard wood floors were getting downright icky (your socks shouldn't stick to the floors, right?), there was a thick coat of dust on every piece of furniture we own, and I can't even talk to you about the toilets... shudder, shudder. Let's just say I'm glad no one has dropped in on us unexpectedly as of late.

Even the yard was in a sad state of decay that wasn't only due to the cold and dreariness of winter. Nope. You see, while I am really diligent about dog "waste" removal during the warm months, I really let it slide once the weather gets cold. If a dog poops in the yard and no one is there to see it, is the poop really there? I mean if the kids & I aren't out in the yard than does it really matter how much poo is out there? OK, maybe it does but I figure what I don't see won't hurt me, right? We only have 1 dog these days, so it didn't seem so bad in December or even January. But once late February comes & the snow melts all of that poo starts making me a little twitchy. Seriously, there's a lot of poo out there people! I knew I had to get things jump started relatively soon or the Easter Egg hunt could be really scary this year.

Happily, I think I am on the road to recovery. I'm not sure if this week's warmer temperatures have been the cure or if the filth we are living in finally got through all my layers of apathy, but I can say I am starting to return from the land of the hibernating zombies. I actually took a good swing at the ironing yesterday & I'm proud to report that it's height has been reduced to about 14" or so. I am hoping that I can knock the rest out tonight (the good news is that even if all of the ironing fell on top of K - I think I would be able to find her quickly before she suffocated!)

I also went outside into the yard and tackled the area around the kids play set. I can now proudly say that the hooligans can play in about 1/3 of our yard without fear of stepping on any doggie made land mines. This morning I even vacuumed & mopped all of the downstairs floors. Now I am finally getting a new blog entry out there. Wow, compared to my activity levels over the past 2 weeks I'm on fire! Geez, what's next? Maybe I'll even don my hazmat suit and tackle all the bathrooms. OK, I take that back, maybe I'll just do one of them. I'm still in recovery after all & don't want to overdo it. Baby steps, it's all about baby steps.

Watch out world, February is almost over and I'm getting ready to kick some serious March butt (or more realistically, I may be ready to get the house back under control again)!