Winter Blues

I can just picture Elvis singing this song, hey; it is better than if it was country. I am convinced that people who really enjoy the snow do not have little children. Staying inside for a long Winter is, well, really boring. You can only play legos, geotrax, lincoln logs, and quadrilla so many times before you are sick to death of them. It isn't that we don't like to go outside it is just that with four small children; going outside is hard to do. Caleb is too young to be outside for more than 30 minutes, Andrew detestes the snow, and Josiah's legs are too little to walk through the deep snow. That leaves Elijah and I and no one to watch the other boys. If you are getting ready to have children I suggest that you get in as much snowshoeing and skiing as you can now, because once you have more than three forget it. I cannot go snowshoeing with these boys. I would have to carry one and drag two in a sled. Not to mention that we could only be outside for 30 minutes and it almost takes that long to get Eli's snowshoes adjusted correctly on his little feet. Add Tyler being gone 3 days every other week for work and you gain a clear understanding of why we are suffering from the Winter blues at the Smith house. Well, the boys don't know what it is called yet, but they are starting to get a little cramped being inside all day every day.

There are some benefits to never leaving the house though. Just ask Josiah who spends most mornings walking around in just underwear. Even when I dress him he tends to shed his pants in one bathroom visit and never puts them on again. The kid just likes to be naked. What am I going to do about that? Nothing, until he wants to go naked outside. Also, we have been doing pretty well keeping up with our schooling schedule, and chores. When there is no competition from outside it isn't very hard to make sure you do your work inside.

Enough complaints about Winter blues, here are some pictures of what the boys have been doing to stay busy this wonderful cold time of year.

Tent building is a lot of fun, and when you are surrounded by boys it becomes an art; especially in the dead of Winter.

Schooling in our house consists of a little bit of reading lessons (phonics), some number recognition, maybe some patterns, a lot of conversations about nature and God, and an insane amount of crayons and paper.

Every man for himself. Needless to say the boys get sick of always playing together. So how do they fix this? They build three of almost everything. Three tents, three block houses, you name it. I restrain myself from telling them that if they are all building the same thing it is pretty much the same as playing together, but you know, different.