Winter Wonderland...I'm working on it

I'm pretty sure that I suffer from SAD...I get really sad in the winter. I find myself going down a very sad thought path and I have to catch myself, pray and remind myself that it'll be ok. Winter is just - hard.

I think I'm reminded of my birthday as a kid always being icy, cold and not much fun. Apparently it runs in my family as my mom was quick to get out of the Northwest as soon as she was able. My favorite past time during the winter is to research warm tropical places to move,...I've looked at a lot of real estate over the years. Admittedly it happened also in Arizona - it's just wintertime and the cold. I don't like it.

My mom once said when we lived in Seattle, "if you wait for it to be sunny to go outside, you'll never go." Point taken. I'm finding the best medicine for the winter doldrums is to indeed go outside. Thankfully there's still plenty to do and I'm starting to create the space to get out and do it. I'm taking this week and next week off from working (at least in going to the property) and am doing a few things that bring me sanity.

The picture above is from my walk on the Centennial Trail by Kendall Yards, just blocks away from the project I'm currently working on. It was a typical gray, icy, foggy day, but I got out anyway. I set my timer for 20 minutes and started walking. What a joy that was and surprisingly it totally changed my attitude.

The walk I take the dogs on is trecherous indeed, with ice and crusty snow, but they do love it so. I try to get the dogs out every other day and best case scenario would be daily, which is a two mile walk in the woods. It's good for them and it's good for my pysche.

Balin and I have been encouraging each other to get out either for a hike (me) or a run. He loves wearing his ice buds (running shoes with ice picks on them) and his skirt. He's a unique one that Balin is.

My neighbor Holly and I headed out on the lake a couple of times and it was absolutely wonderful. I love to ice skate. It's so peaceful and relaxing for me. I hesitate to go out by myself because it does freak me out a little bit. Case in point, we went to the other side of the lake on such smooth ice until we came to what look liked a large crack. We're were hoping to go all around the lake so we carefully approached the crack....and heard more cracking, which FREAKED me out. We quickly scurried back to safe ice and decided it was a good idea to head back to our side of the lake.

We had some friends up at Schweitzer two weekends ago and instead of going skiing, she and I headed off on a snow shoe adventure. I had an idea of where we were going, but had never been there before. We found some untracked trails and headed up. It was amazing and so quiet.

After my snowshoeing adventure, I took the kids up into the hills and they had so much fun, especially going downhill through untracked snow. It was like they were 5 again, laughing and jumping off snow hills....definitely a repeat.

Thursday Balin's boss offered us his courtside seats to the Men's Gonzaga Basketball game, which we gladly accepted. Sam was super tired so decided to skip it, but Perrin was more than happy to attend. She sat between Balin and I and asked question after question. I guess that's a result of not making them play team sports...or even watch them on television. I'm pretty sure the only basketball games we've ever been to are Gonzaga Men's...we're a little spoiled it's true.

Tuesday and Wednesday I made plans with different friends to head up to Mt. Spokane to go X-Country skiing. It was spectacular. The snow was good, the terrain was both up hill and down hill...such a good work out and even better, great conversation with friends. We liked it so much we're doing it again next week.

As I look back on the things we've been able to do this winter, I have to say it doesn't seem all that bad. Did I mention the gift of crawling into bed at 8pm or sitting by the fire at 5am? I do have so much to be thankful for and that does change my heart to be present in the moments of even the darkest of nights.

Even the dog likes to sit in front of the fire....