5 ways to beat the winter blahs

Are you starting to feel the “bleak midwinter”?

I am.

The weeks before Christmas are filled with anticipation. Decorating! Cooking! Gifting!

The few weeks after are filled with a flurry of “new”.  New year! New stuff! New resolutions!

But come late January, things can start to feel stale.

Crunchy snow is hard to play in, everyone has just a hint of a sniffle, and you’re even getting tired of cocoa. (Maybe not so much that last one)

This time of year I have to make a real effort not to stay in my pajamas and just “blah” the day away.

Here are 5 things I like to do to keep spirits up midwinter.

1) Plan the garden

REALLY plan it. I always have a vague idea what I want the place to look like going forward. But this year I got out my tape measure, graph paper, seed catalogs and worked out my plans on paper. To scale. Because nerding out on the garden just makes me happy. I’ll admit though, the arrival of each new seed catalog has me tweaking the plan to fit “just one more”.

I also couldn’t resist picking up some live herbs at the grocery store the other day.  The fragrant pops of green at my windowsill brighten my day each time I pass by.

2) Get a jump on Spring Cleaning

This one comes courtesy of Marie Condo.  Thanks, Marie!  I couldn’t take they hype without finally tuning in to find out about the magic of tidying up, and before the first episode was even over, my daughter had purged her drawer.  Talk about motivation!  The next day hubby and I did ours, and we’ve continued to to a bit of purging here and there since then, which is exposing long-cluttered corners and allowing me to dust, scrub and organize.  It feels great to get a fresh start even in one area.

3) Open a window

I always wait till hubby is out before I do this, because open doors make him batty.  I know it’s freezing out there, and we can’t afford to heat the neighborhood.  But it’s stuffy in here!  I turn off the heat if I’m going to air out the downstairs and open the front door for just five or ten minutes.  I like to open our bedroom windows while I’m making the bed, and if it’s a nice day I’ll leave them open for an hour or two.  It just makes me feel better.

4) Take a walk

Even if its cold out I try to take at least a couple walks every week.  Every day would be better, but in winter I like to walk at our local park because our city park maintenance guy does a great job keeping the walking trail clear for us–Thanks, Patrick!  I typically walk while my middle daughter has music, (and I have to be in town anyway) which is only every third day.  My husband doesn’t mind hiking in the snow so he heads for the hills four or five days a week.

5) Get Together

The children’s song says the more we get together, the happier we’ll be, and it’s true.  We don’t pass on many invitations this time of year, and we don’t hesitate to host when the opportunity arises.  Bonus points for outdoor gatherings.  Nothing raises spirits like gathering with friends around a bonfire with a warm pot of chili, taking in huge lungfulls of crisp air while laughing from your belly.

And know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! 

March is typically spring around here, and that is only 5 weeks away!  We won’t be able to trust the weather entirely by then, but we can certainly be preparing garden beds, nursing seedlings, and spending days outside, even occasionally tossing aside our jackets and shoes.

Keeping busy to evade the blahs can be essential to making it through the winter with your spirit intact.  I admit I have a hard time not pining for spring, but it’s important to realize winter has its purpose.  In nature it’s a slower paced season, a time for rest, and it wouldn’t hurt us to embrace that a little more too.  So make time for that nap you’ve been wanting!  Get lost in a book.  Finally sit down with that quilt you’ve been meaning to finish.  Call up a long distance friend to chat.

How will you spend the last weeks of winter?