Final thoughts for this final day of January

Four illnesses, busting my butt to get the house ready for market, and trying to work a casual freelance job (casual in all sense of the word), I managed to survive January.

Goodbye January! See you in 11 months.

Since my last post, it has been a roller coaster. I got sick. Dear husband got sick. And darling daughter was still sick. We managed to kick another gastro bug out the front door, but now darling daughter is sick again, this time with a cold. She isn't a happy camper as she is operating on very little sleep. However, she has plenty of two-year-old attitude to dish out to me and her father.

Despite battling illnesses, we managed to reach our goal and get our house up for sale. I didn't realize how much work is involved in getting a house market ready, but we have managed to transform our humble abode into something very nice. While I wanted to pull out my hair during the staging process, the results provide that it was worth every hurdle we had to jump over.

Now we wait. My house is immaculately clean. Hopefully it will sell fast. That's our wish, but we shall see. We don't know what the future holds. We know the house will sell, but what we do in the future is a mystery to us. I'm just taking it one day at a time.

Twenty-eight more days to go

It seems like a pity that I have to be so negative in my first post for 2011, but I honestly have nothing positive to say about the month of January. Nothing. Not one single word.

I'm not a fan. Not at all as I find January so bleak and dark. Maybe it is due to the fact that the Christmas crash has arrived. Everything Christmas is on clearance. People are packing the holiday decorations away and turning off the Christmas lights. It was like Christmas never happened.

The day after Christmas, I start to get anxious as I know January will arrive in less than a week. Forget happiness in the New Year. I'm too busy worrying how I'm going to survive January. Next to November, I've got absolutely no love for the first month of the year.

The new year is definitely here. The amount of traffic at the gym is astounding. Once January 1 arrives everyone dusts off their gym membership and head back to the exercise grind. The week of between Christmas and New Year's was so delightful. I had my choice of treadmill to choose from. I didn't have to inch myself to my locker in the change room because it was crowded with women. It was like I had my own private gym. Not anymore. I went to the gym on Sunday and it was crazy. It was no better this morning. Every bench, weight and weight bar was claimed in this morning's pump class. Learning from past experience, I claimed my spot and set up my equipment a good 15 minutes before class started.

So hurry up January. You can end at any time. I won't cry. Once I get to February, I'm on the home stretch to spring. Only 28 days to go to the end of the month and they can't go fast enough.

Small things make my day

We are already four days into January and I'm already sick of the snow. Snow, snow, snow. And just for fun, blowing snow. It seems like it has been snowing since New Year's Eve. I'm tired of putting on my boots, trudging out to the car with a toddler in tow, teetering on the snow bank lining the sidewalk, hoping I won't fall before I get to the car. Freaking snow. Hate it.

After a frustrating morning which involved me only getting a 30 calorie workout at the gym before the child minding lady handed me darling daughter right at the elliptical machine and then grocery shopping with said grumpy toddler, I parked my car on the street in hopes the snow plow operators would do something with the snow.

My prayers were answered. Shortly after lunch they arrived, plowing the snow away. And God bless their hearts, they even scraped away the huge snow bank growing along the sidewalk away. What a huge relief. I no longer have to worry about climbing over it while carrying darling daughter to the car.

So thanks snow plow operators. You made my bleak January day a bit brighter.

The January Blahs

There is no doubt about it, January is a blah month.

Poor January. It can't live up to the expectations of December, filled with Christmas cheer, holiday parties, weeks of vacation for the both young and old and of course, presents. Sure, a new year starts on January 1, but most people are holed up in their houses taking down Christmas decorations, coping with a fuzzy head from the night before or bracing themselves for the credit card statement that will arrive any day now to really enjoy New Year's Day.

And after the decorations are put away, the outdoor Christmas lights are turned off and the credit card statements arrive, people hunker down and wait for spring to arrive. Yep, there is no doubt about it, January has arrived.

I find this time of year to be sad. It is sad when you have to pack away Christmas decorations. It is sad when people turn off their outside Christmas lights as the winter darkness seems a wee bit more darker. It is sad when family visiting for the holidays leave for home. The Christmas cheer and holiday plans that you had been basking in for the last several weeks have vanished and come to an abrupt end. Although the eggnog is on sale at the grocery store at discount prices, there are no more holiday movies or specials to watch on the CBC when sipping eggnog out of your reindeer punch bowl glasses. The way I look at it, only four more weeks until February arrives, the shortest month of the year. Until then, I'll be hunkered down, knitting, waiting for winter to end.