Dear Mama Who Is Done With Winter

Dear Mama -

Christmas is long gone (although there may still be some decorations kicking around the house) and Spring is nowhere in sight. The shortest month of the year stretches out before you like a never ending unploughed road and you're a vehicle with 4 wheels spinning. You're done with Winter, but Winter's not done with you.

You've exhausted every craft, puzzle and game option with your kids, and your toddler hasn't been outside to play in at least a month. He contents himself with running and screaming at top volume around the kitchen table to rid himself of pent up energy. You put earplugs down on the grocery list. Some or all of your family has been battling one virus or another since Halloween and you're plumb out of sympathy for even the smallest of your brood. You know you should feel badly, but you just can't muster it. All of the days begin to meld together and instead of marking them by the rising and the setting of the sun (which you haven't seen in months), you mark it by how often someone dumps out a bucket of crayons, asks for something to eat or tells you they're bored.

 The snow continues to fly more often than not, and if you are one of the lucky ones with a husband available to shovel or snow blow, God bless you. To everyone else who is heading out with a shovel over their weary shoulder, a pregnant belly or a baby bundled in a backpack, there are no words. You know this, I know this. Too. Much. Snow. The temperatures have been so frigid that all of that snow remains untouched by children's hands until a balmy 13 degree day when you shove them out the back door for all of 5 minutes just to keep from committing a felony.

You keep up the grocery shopping diligently, despite the fact that it's near impossible to push a fully loaded cart to the car through frozen slush. You forget coffee on the grocery list and almost have a mental breakdown. If you do bundle up the kids (just to unbundle them to buckle them into car seats and then re-bundle them upon arriving at your location) to get them out of the house and visit any indoor play area, you are rewarded handsomely by a full family stomach bug that sticks around for 3 weeks. If your kids are in school, it's cancelled on beautiful days and in session on days that require you to risk bodily harm to get them there. If they're homeschooled and you are desperately looking forward to co op days, the one day a week that someone else watches them and you can connect with another adult over a cup of coffee for five minutes - it's cancelled.

Your hair is staticy and your skin is dry. Your child discovers "the Wheels on the Bus" on Netflix and is either watching it or begging for it constantly. You forget earplugs at the store. Every cell in your body, object in your home and flake of snow outside seems to have a personal vendetta against you. You are Done with Winter.

To you, dear Mama, hang in there. Someday soon this will be a distant memory, and, hard to believe as it is, next Fall you will actually be looking forward to the first snow like someone whose memories have been wiped clean. For today, have your husband bring you home a bottle of wine and know that I'm right here with you, dreaming of Spring.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to future posts.  Thank you.