Intentionally Getting Cold and Other Ramblings

On this snow day while my kids are home and I'm not working, I'm reflecting on one of my biggest fears about moving up north, not being able to go outside during the winter months. Before we made the move, I had a fear we would be stuck inside for months at a time, eating carbs and sobbing. I worried we'd suffer from a lack of vitamin D and exercise, and constantly fight with each other while the kids tore the house apart with all their extra energy that wasn't getting released because it was too snowy and cold to go outside.

What I've learned so far is that my fear could come true if we let it.  The kids could easily get absorbed in Fortnite and I could sit on the couch eating the latest Trader Joe specialty flavored potato chips every night dreaming of warmer evenings outside.

If we don't make a point to go outside, it would be easy for us to hibernate all winter. It's cold and there's a lot of snow on the ground, and sitting in front of the fire is easier than putting on layers and brushing off our cars.

We have to be intentional about going outside. This takes a little work and shift in thought, especially for me. Instead of taking the kids to an indoor jump house last week where it was warm and cozy, albeit full of unruly children, we decided to go to a second-hand sporting goods store in Amherst to buy used ice skates and snowboards. (Side note, there needs to be one of these in Niagara Falls, is there one that I don't know about? Someone needs to open a Play-It-Again Sports around here. I can't imagine that it wouldn't do well. The place in Amherst is tiny.) Back to my ramblings, we made a small ramp off our back steps so our kids could practice snowboarding. My husband made an ice rink in the backyard, which wasn't hard at all because there was already a decent layer of ice from previous melted snow. On Tuesday evening before the temperature dropped too low, the kids practiced snowboarding and my husband ice skated. I walked around the yard taking in the winter wonderland we were creating. The snow cascaded down all around us and it was beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures but I was too busy enjoying it.

My friends in Charleston have been texting me nonstop over the last two days checking in on me during the winter storm. They want to know if I'm surviving. It's not that bad, really, it's not. I love the texts, I feel loved, but I'm doing ok. It's too cold to go outside today but by Saturday we will back on the ice rink.

And it's not just about being outside, it's about getting out. Last Friday night I was feeling a little stuck. I'm a freelance writer and I've been writing a lot, which is great, but it also means I'm home a lot. I haven't been exploring as much as I want. I voiced this to my husband and instead of ordering pizza like we normally do on a Friday night, we piled in the car to go to Lewiston for dinner. It was cold and snowy but we had a great time. The restaurant was packed and it reminded me that winter is what you make of it. We (maybe not the locals but the rest of us) let images of snow and cold temps stifle us but we can't let the instinct to hibernate take over.