Tag Archives: winter

My Kind of Winter

This is not my kind of winter.

My kind of winter involves enough cold, snowy weather to hide all the sins of fall until spring.

This way if you never got around to getting rid of those thistles in your pasture they are out of sight until the thaw.

Or if there isn’t enough snow to hide them there ought to be enough cold to frost them.

Even thistles look alright covered in ice crystals.

Same goes for nettles.

Neither looks lovely in mud.

Today we’ve got mud.

This is not my kind of winter.

Resting

In the bed, on the bed, around the bed.

When John and I had Ivy that advice was given to us by our midwife. Meaning that the first week after you have a baby you should be in bed, all people who might visit should be family and those close enough to you to see you in whatever state you may be in – in your bed. The next week you can be a bit more mobile but mostly you stay on your bed, and by the third week you should be up and moving some, but staying in the house, taking it easy – staying around the bed.

It’s possibly the best advice ever and, fortunately for me, John is a true believer.  Jane and I (as with Ivy and Clara when they were born) have had such a great chance, to rest, heal, sleep when we need, remember how nursing works and spend an amount of hours probably only new mothers and babies can spend staring at each other.

Of course now that I’ve been hanging out in my bedroom for a week and half I’m getting a bit restless. “On the bed” I’ve been getting our Christmas (turned New Years) cards ready to send out, folding laundry and reading to the big girls. Every now and then I even sneak into a different room for awhile – until John finds me and sends Jane and I back to bed. Then for few moments of completely uncalled for self pity I think that I would much rather go outside and do something, it’s January, January weather is great. Then I look out the window and remember there is no snow. Then I look at the mud covered dog and remember that until today it wasn’t even that cold.  Then I look at the pictures John took of Clara playing in the sandbox last week and think that the weather is completely ridiculous! Then I look at Jane and happily snuggle into bed with her. One of the very best things in the world is taking a midday nap with a warm baby on a nasty day. My weeks of rests are almost up, so I’m going to enjoy it while I can!

Faking It

This morning when we woke to a winter wonderland outside and a huge flock of red winged blackbirds I thought we’d better go take advantage of what may be the last good snow day.

So during breakfast I took stock of the situation.

Ivy was better, but cranky from being cooped up.

Clara was not feeling as well as Ivy, but definitely on the mend.

And as evidenced by my multiple trips to the bathroom during breakfast, I was feeling decidedly worse.

Left with no option other than to survive the day I took the plunge…

…some herbal tea, a neti pot, a handful of Tylenol, a Diet Coke and it was snowman making time.

Clara ate snow and cried.

Ivy made tracks, snow angels and a snowman.

I helped with the snowman, held Clara, took pictures, and pretended I felt fine.

Faking it with Diet Coke.

It’s not the answer to a quick recovery, quite the opposite I’m afraid, but it gets us through the day!

No Snow

It is winter in Wisconsin and we don’t have any snow at our house.

I hate that.

The dusting that we got overnight is not enough to make a snowman, go sledding on the new sled, or go skiing.

No matter how much a certain almost four year old asks in a day there is only enough snow to make grassy snow angles.

The only benefit that I can find in this nasty circumstance is that Clara can get outside again.

Not that she couldn’t go outside when we had ten inches of the white stuff, it’s just that now she can walk, and when she falls over she can get back up again.

This means that we have been outside for longer than it takes to get ready to go outside.

I count that as a major success!

Even with Clara’s increased outdoor mobility I still hate the cold without the snow, so I’ll keep on wishing for more.

In the meantime I have been thinking about people with little dogs.

In specific the people who shovel trails in their yards so their dogs can get around.

I’m just wondering… …would it work?