Mid-Winter Blues Attack

The wind is howling outside my window with a view of an icy white tundra. Everything is frozen. The snow is dirty, hard, and still piled too high for us to get to the mailbox. In the past weeks we endured insane blizzards making us scoop snow for hours, subzero temps that have locked inside for days, power outages, and ice storms. We don’t go out and we’re going a bit crazy staying in. Yes, winter is here with a vengeance this year.

At first I was enjoying a change of routine, the early evenings in, running in extreme temps. But now I just want to go for a walk without my back hunched and toes frozen. I want to hear bird song and feel sunshine on my skin.

This is our third Dakota winter and with each year we get a little better at the survival game. We make sure we take our vitamins — plenty of fish oil and vitamin C. We invest in super warm running clothes and ice grippers for our shoes so we can continue to get exercise. We figured out the importance of scooping snow BEFORE you drive on it. Saturday matinees, baking scones, taking warm baths, investing in a hot water bottle, and of course, building an insanely cool home theater helps.

February is just around to the corner, ending this longest, coldest month of the year. With it comes the Olympics, our anniversary, and a short break to Austin. I can do this. I can make it through a -30 below, two feet of snow, everything frozen and closed down winter. Because as they say, “There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues.”