roosters in my coffee

good morning! have you had your coffee yet?

this has been my view the last few mornings. at first i was all...
"small people please stop filling my mugs with your strange creatures. thank you so much."
uh huh no. this was before my coffee. i think i was probably more like...
"you gu-uys!!! seriously i don't want to find your junk in my cup okay!?!?" but then it didn't stop... and now i kind of secretly like it. this morning i just about drowned a very small blue wooden rooster. it was a close call.

it has also been a total pee-fest at our house. like 5 beds in 4 days kind of thing. at this point we have gone 24 hours without anyone peeing the bed and i'm doing a tentative happy dance. can peeing the bed be contagious? can it be some sort of strange bladder control virus? what is going on?
i have yet to train any child to not wear a diaper at night. it's the blight on my parenting record. arianna has been potty trained since she was 2 and still..i try to wake her up at night and she literally barely recognizes me she is so out of it.  she forgets where the bathroom is and what she's doing. it is actually pretty funny. but i have only exploited it a couple of times. :)
still... dealing with a pile of stinky sheets every morning is less than my idea of a good time.

and then there is this weather.

 pretty right?? yes. yes it would be. in january. march snow is depressing. it's difficult to get behind. it reeks of over confidence. winter just thinks she can barge in and trample spring's delicate voice whenever she wants to. winter is the girl that nobody likes but still gets invited to everything, because what can you do with a girl like winter??
she does what she wants.

it's so warm that the pretty snow turns to slush and mud by 9 am. but at least i have my rain boots to slosh through in...

 not helpful. ;)

but something i know to be truer than true is.. things are what you make of them. if you see things for what they can be not just what they seem like then the world opens up to you, the clouds part and angels sing. even winter bends under the weight of your optimism.

so.....
we wore our capes. because if winter can just show up whenever she wants we can wear capes for as long as it takes... and i made up my mind.. next year i am SO making one for me. :)

 we went slush mud sledding. after about 2 passes on the hill all the snow was gone and it was basically just mud sledding. but it was fun. take that spring snow.

luci had the best seat in the forest and daddy is a big stud. :)

and we went on an adventure walk and found big sticks, and marched loud songs and just generally showed winter what we were made of.
tenacity. long suffering. true grit. we will outlast you winter... mark my words.

and in the end.. i have three sets of little eyes looking for me to set the tone. it is amazing how quickly my crankiness can color a day.
it is not always easy to rise above the piles of sheets.. but it is part of this gift of motherhood.. to teach these little souls to find the good, see the sun, be resilient and roll with the punches.
and i am beginning to think that they are here to teach me the same. :)