The Long Winter

When I was in 5th grade, we read the Laura Ingles Wilder book "The Long Winter" as a class. The thing I remember most about the book was how she captured just how long the winter was. It seemed to go on and on, even as you read the book. This winter has felt a little like that. Snow in December is fun. Snow in February is just cold and wet. Add to that an unusually high number of cloudy days, coupled with being stuck in a windowless cubicle farm, and it feels like time stands still. I leave home at 6:30 a.m. when it's dark, and usually get home about 6 p.m. when it's dark again. The winter has seemed to drag on and on.

One of my primary ways of fighting the winter blues in the past has been to exercise. Well, I've been working so many hours I don't have time to go to the gym anymore so we cancelled the gym membership. Plus, being pregnant, I don't exactly feel like taking walks outside at night on the icy sidewalk when it's 17 degrees outside. (Yes, I said 17 degrees. You'd think I was in Omaha, no St. Louis.) So for the last three weeks or so, I come home from work and plop down on the couch where Ryan and I watch TV for three hours and then I go to bed. This is not how I want to live my life.

Each day I get a little rounder and a little more uncomfortable. The winter seems to stretch on and on. I'm really looking forward to the day I hear a spring bird (not a winter one), when the ice has finally melted, when I see green buds on the trees, and when we finally get to meet our new little girl, who has been making her presence increasingly known in the last several weeks. Yes, I'm ready for spring.