Welcome February! Flowers and Mom-Doesn't-Cook Dinners!

Pretty pretty flowers! 

The longest, dreariest, uneventfullest month is over. Uneventfullest isn't a real word, but it should be. I talk about January and the doldrums I find myself in every year. But it's okay, because February is here! I made it! Whew.  Next year's resolution is to find a way to successfully enjoy January. January did see my return to the habit of buying fresh cut flowers for the house. Fresh flowers are never tacky.

There's a lot of reasons to celebrate February. For one, our newest Longmont pub/restaurant is celebrating Stout Month and I love stouts. I'm having one as soon as my pint glass gets properly cold in the freezer. For another, spring is around the corner! Okay, not really, but close enough... 28 days and we can start talking about March showers (blizzards) and April flowers! I can think about things to grow, and start planning my container gardens.

But mostly, because my role as 'the Responsible for Everything Person' has greatly diminished in the last month. For instance, the only laundry in this family of five I'm responsible for, is mine! All my children are now doing their own laundry. I don't even worry about how folded the clothes are when they are put away. Mine are usually sort of just packed in tight in a shelf, and only resemble folding, so I'm not one to judge.  And chores! Drama girl is empty/load dishes girl. Turbo and Bear are 'sweep the floors, trash, recycle and cat food feeding' boys. While the children are doing daily chores I used to do, I mainly flit about, and occasionally giggle at the sheer joy of having a moment and not having a thing that must be done in that moment.

And dinner, ah, I think I've talked about dinner. The greatest thing of all. I only cook on Mondays, and sometimes a Friday or Saturday. Yep, I've decided that the responsibility of cooking homemade meals is a necessity, it's just the right thing to do for your family, however, that responsibility can be shared. Five people 11 and over, means we can spread that burden across five family members! I shared this vision of mine with a few people, but none have been nearly as excited as I have. I decided it's a control thing. I am not particularly picky about dinner, provided it's reasonably good, reasonably healthy, and everyone makes an honest attempt. Some people are probably thinking, kids, can't be healthy, but, surprise! Most meals can be made 'healthier,' but overall, my kids aren't doing too badly. For instance, look at this week's menu. We've got a healthy salad, a yummy chowder, Turbo is doing BLTs, which, okay, bacon, but then, mmm, bacon, we've got a pizza bar on Wednesday with both boy's helping out, terriyaki chicken drumsticks and brocolli and salad by Bear and chicken parmesan on Friday.

Homework, you say, oh, the homework? What homework? I am not the one attending school, pish, I say to that, and posh. Pish Posh.

I have, after all these long years, finally released some of the burden of being the Responsible for Everything Person. It's not me, that's doing dinner. It's all of us. It's not me that has to clean the house, it's everyone. It's not just me. The biggest winner of all, though, is me, because while everyone has seen an increase in chores, responsibilities and overall 'Do It Yourselfness' I have seen a large decrease.

Except, I still am the one who has to do appointments. No one in the house aside from Husbear and I can drive. Still. /sigh.