The Mid Winter Blues

This is not my favorite time of year. Everything feels dark and cold and messy. It feels like we’ve gotten past the fun winter activities of Christmas and New Year’s. We’ve had our snow and done those fun outdoor winter things. We’ve snuggled up in our warm pajamas. We’ve checked off all those boxes of “fun winter activities”.  Really, we’ve DONE winter. So now we’re done.

It’s maddening. It always seems to snow, or sleet, or ice, when there’s an activity that we want or need to do and the thought of either a) driving in the ice or b) postponing, seems so overwhelming. We get annoyed when people cancel stuff for no reason, and we get annoyed when they don’t cancel and it’s sloppy out.

We have big heating bills, and furnaces that don’t sound right, and we’re sick and tired of coats and boots and mittens clogging up the entryway. It feels like the dirty slush or white salt has migrated onto every surface, no matter how much cleaning or preventing we try. The nights are so bitingly cold that picking up kids from activities feels downright cruel.

There's sickness all over. It's the stomach bug, it's the flu, it's a cough that won't quit, or a cold that rapidly morphs into a sinus infection. We're desperate to air the house out, but it's just too cold for that. So we drink our grape juice to ward off the stomach bug and our honey and ACV mix to ward off colds and our elderberry to ward off the flu, and we hope.

And just to drive the point home, this is where we’ll get the slightest hint of spring. A day when it’s 50 degrees, or when the air feels fresh, and we’ll start to think we’re heading back to the warmth...and then it snows. Again.

My energy drops big time. I'm sloth like. I can get SOME stuff done, if I have to, but it's done either last minute or with a complete lack of energy and enthusiasm. I have projects to do, but my brain just isn't there.

Truly, I’m usually not a season complainer. Winter isn’t my favorite, but I like a few things about it in moderation. It's just that after a few weeks ... or months .... moderation is over, and I'm done.

All in all, I'm done with the snow and ice and cold. I'm ready for open windows and outdoor time, and I have a feeling we're still a good six weeks off, groundhog or no groundhog.

But, since we're here in February, I need to buck up and make the best of it. Get out and make snowmen, and cuddle with hot chocolate, and celebrate birthdays, and look at the days getting longer each night as I drive to dance and lay down the law that you need to wear pants over your tights when it's 20 degrees out. Spring will be here soon enough.