What I Learned in February

So I'm sitting here at three a.m. because (without oversharing for other people) someone dear to me is in labor--actually two someones! Busy night in the baby world. Since I'm awake anyway, I decided to take the risk of writing a post with only three hours sleep under my belt. Fun fact: I'm an extrovert when I'm sleepy. No, wait: I just have fewer inhibitions when I need sleep. It's like being drunk for normal people. This should be...fun. :)

(Update...I forgot to post this earlier, possibly because I fell asleep. At least one of the babies has arrived, though, safe and sound. :)

Despite being a few (or a couple) days shorter than all the rest of the months in the year, February tends to be a learning month for me. Soul-searching, deep learning; book learning; random fact learning. February had it all, as it usually does. Here are a few of the things I learned:

1) Beginning with the most mundane... I learned that there's an island in Canada welcoming Americans who 'd like to move away if Trump becomes president. I find this very funny. If I weren't so done moving in my life (a dozen times is enough), I'd be tempted no matter who wins the election. Because... Cape Breton is awfully close to PEI.

2) Besides being a violin maker, painter, writer, really good chef and best papa ever, Mark can be a plumber if called upon. Our furnace broke on St. Valentine's Day. When it was conveniently eight below zero Fahrenheit. And so our pipes froze. And burst. And Mark re-piped (plumbed?) pretty much the entire first floor of our house. Better than it was before, because that's the way he rolls. ;) We had no heat downstairs for two weeks, though, so we ate our meals picnic-style up on our bedroom floor.

3) I binge on convenience, not food. Lent is a great soul-searching time, and in my yearly quest to find just the right thing to give up, I realized that giving up sweets would be about a million times easier for me than giving up plastic grocery bags or occasional disposable diapers or plastic wrap.

4) The best way to steal time from the day is simply to shut the laptop between 8:30 a.m. and 9 or so p.m. It's like magic.

5) 2016 is a great year for new books. Here are a few I've read so far:

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys

Pax, by Sara Pennypacker

The Turn of the Tide, by Rosanne Parry

Two I'm in the middle of:

Red, by Liesl Shurtliff

Maybe a Fox, by Kathi Appelt

And a few I can't wait for/can't wait to start:

Grayling's Song, by Karen Cushman

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, by Leslie Connor

Shy, by Deborah Freedman

Sweet Home Alaska, by Carole Etsby Dagg

Raymie Nightingale, by Kate DiCamillo