JanuAIRy

 

The title of this post was inspired by the single worst part of the worst month of the year: the AIR. Seriously, the air quality in January (and often in August during wildfire season) is enough to make me NEVER want to live in the Salt Lake area longer than we have to. There were a couple of days this month when the Salt Lake Valley had the worst air quality in the entire world...that is not okay! It really affects me, my sinuses, and my mood.

When Christmas ends, I'm a little sad, but I'm mostly excited to get back into a good routine of eating well and pursuing new goals in January. The first week or so of January is great! I always feel so motivated and think that every goal I set for myself is great and attainable. And every year, without fail, I get so burned out by the second week, I make myself physically ill. I may have been actually sick during the second week of January, but I also just feel like my body was warning me that I'm doing TOO MUCH, trying to balance being a fun mom, working full time, including going to the office three days a week, exercising every day, cooking every night, making fun plans, keeping track of dates, getting my kids ready for bed every night, waking up with them when they need me, etc. I don't really know how to not do too much...there's not really anything I can give up. But anyway. Hopefully I'll read this in a year and remind myself that IT'S OKAY to take it easy the first week of January! Just do what needs to be done and don't be crazy.

Okay, okay...let's try to be positive here. This January hasn't been all bad! We've had some good times watching our babies play together and learn and grow. I did an at-home workout, and both of my girls had to join in, one in a leotard and one in just a diaper! SJ's getting pretty good at following along, and Julia mostly just likes to squat, and it's really funny.:) 

We have a pretty good, tight schedule going on, and almost every day involves SJ going to school and Julia going to the KidZone at the gym, and then playing at the library. At the library, she mostly just goes straight for the computers and plays with the hardware. Look at those cheeks in those headphones!

The middle picture here is from a day Julia apparently wore this mask for like 45 minutes and demanded to sit in the big chair by herself. Such a cute little stinker.

SJ got soooo many dress-ups for her birthday and Christmas, so the minute she comes home from school, she bee-lines it to the playroom, takes off all her clothes, and puts on a dress. She's quite the little princess, that girl!

This has been the single driest winter I can remember in my 11.5 years living up here. When I say it's snowed one time, I mean we got a tiny, tiny skiff of snow one afternoon that was gone by the evening. I often think back to the winter when SJ was the same age Julia is now, and it couldn't have been more different. Winter 2022-2023 was one of the snowiest on record, and now here we are, three years later, with basically nothing. I know I complain about the snow and the cold, but the weird warm weather is almost worse because it's scary. And without any storms, the air just stays stagnant and gross. I never thought I'd wish for snow, but hey, at least it can be fun to play in!

I figured I'd upload the rare couple of photos of my kids in the snow just in case we really make it through this winter without a single real storm!

The photo on the right here is one that SJ took of me while working at my desk...and I kind of love it! After I had Julia, I started to notice signs of my aging, mainly in the wrinkles next to my eyes. This picture captures pretty well what my days look like: working, wearing sweats, and trying to smile through it all and be present. It's a crazy, crazy life, but I love it, and I'm unbelievably blessed!

The girls both went to the doctor for their four-year/fifteen-month checkup, and they're healthy and strong! SJ is topping the charts at 98% in height, while Julia is closer to the middle.

Aaaaand here's Julia eating yogurt. She looooooves yogurt. It's her default food if she won't eat the dinner we make.

The uncontested highlight of this month was our trip to St. George! True, we went only like 2.5 weeks after our last trip, but honestly, this may have been a better trip than Christmas. It was so nice to stay at my parents' house without a million other people. The sky was blue, and it was like 60 degrees the whole time we were there. It was glorious! We spent most of the time outside, and I even snuck in a few good naps. It seriously restored my soul (and my sinuses) and made me feel like I can get through the winter if I can escape to my sunny home at least once a month for the next few months.

At the same time, the trip made me just long to skip ahead three or so years to a time when it's possible for us to buy a house down there. I've talked so many times about moving somewhere away from home just to have the experience of relying on non-family members and making lifelong friends, but after being in St. George in January, I'm not sure there's any place better. We'll see where the wind takes us, but we may just be ready to go home in three years when Hayden is done with his payback period.

We took the girls to the town square, where we got engaged over eight years ago! I rode the carousel with my babies, which SJ loved, and Julia was...not so sure about. But how insanely cute are they?!

Of course, our beautiful trip had to come to an end, but it really was a great reset and made me feel like I could conquer the rest of the winter. Here is a picture of the kind of air quality I'm talking about. I took the photo on the left after getting off the train in Salt Lake. See? Soooooo bad!

On the last Saturday of the month, Hayden took SJ to Uptown Jungle for a daddy-daughter date. She loved it, of course! I am amazed by my Sara Jane. She is so incredibly fearless and always excited about getting involved. She hooked up to a harness and climbed up all of these steps all by herself, and when she got to the top, she jumped off with no hesitation! She wasn't scared at all. I love her infinitely, and I love how well-adjusted she is. She is the thing I am most proud of!

The other bright thing about January was that it was relatively sickness-free! With the exception of getting over whatever cold we had after Christmas and a weird bout of exhaustion I had mid-month, we were pretty healthy. I already can't say the same about February, but we'll talk about that next time!