Doing Our Best to Embrace Winter

Jessica • February 24, 2016

We are doing our best to enjoy winter.

It has clearly been better for us this year then it was last year. Last year, I was very open about my depression and how hard the winter was for me. This year, it has been warmer over all, it hasn’t snowed as much, and because we are more familiar with Toronto, we have been able to venture out and try some outdoor activities.

Two weekends ago, we tried sledding. I wish I had some amazing pictures to show you of our fantastic adventure but I don’t, because it was a major flop. We started out by driving to the local Canadian Tire to buy a second sled, we figured both kids needed a sled. A 10 dollar sled is worth it when the other option is two kids fighting over one sled, but I digress.

Anyway, after buying a sled, we spent about a hour driving around trying to actually find a sledding hill. This of courses causes my anxiety level to rise because I all I can think is… we are wasting gas, we are putting miles on our car, we are running out of time, the kids are going to lose their patiences, and so on. Anxiety causes frustration and frustration causes fighting and that means Rusty and I started bickering.

At that point, I decided to learn from my own life lessons and just keep my mouth shut and let life happen. Finally, Rusty parked our car in front of a near by park and I instantly knew that the hill would not work for sledding but I committed to keeping my mouth shut so all I said was, go check it out first. The kids and I had a pretty good laugh as Rusty did his best to scoot himself down the hill slightly elevated land, but he didn’t make it very far. At that point, I was not interested in driving around more so I decided, “what the heck this might actually be the perfect hill slightly elevated land for the kids.” Well it wasn’t.

We had to basically run behind the sleds to get them to go down the slope and they would travel on their own for about four whole feet before they would screech to an abrupt halt. Doesn’t really matter, because the kids HATED it. I mean seriously hated every part of it. They would scream their heads off during those four exhilarating feet. They were “too cool,” “too tired,” and way too whiney to even try to enjoy a second of sledding. The whole ordeal lasted about 15 mins and then we were all back in the car. So fun, not.

This past weekend we decided to go with what we know and we went ice skating, again. We like ice skating. Every one was in a much happier mood and no one screamed in terror. Its always good when no one screams in terror.

So there you go. A little update on what the Glaze Brigade has been up to this winter. I hope those of you that are in the midst of winter are doing your best to cope and those of you that live in the year-round summer, go get a sun burn in my honor.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

 

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