Every parent dreads the cold winter months because they mean less time outside for the kiddos. Less time outside means fewer chances to burn off that endless kid energy, and fewer moments for Mom’s sanity to recover. By the end of January, everyone has settled back into regular life after the holidays. By mid-February, people like me are just crabby that winter is still here.
I’ve never paid much attention to Groundhog Day because, let’s face it, that holiday means nothing in the Dakotas. We always have six more weeks of winter, regardless of what that little prairie squirrel has to say. But as soon as the temperature creeps above 25°F and the sun starts setting at 6:30 instead of 5:00 p.m., I get this jolt of excitement that spring is coming.
I was cleaning the house this weekend, like I usually do, when my three-year-old, Autumn, came into the living room wearing a hat, boots, and a jacket, no pants, and heading straight for the door. I told her her outfit needed some improvement and that she wasn’t going to enjoy it outside at 7:00 p.m. This, of course, started World War III. After a lengthy sass attack, I finally said, “Fine. You’re not going to like it,” and opened the front door.
The funny thing about kids is that freezing weather and missing pants don’t faze them the way they do us. She stepped out onto the porch with a huge smile on her face, pointed at the sky, and said, “Wow, pretty stars.” Just like that, I forgot it was freezing and watched my little girl take in the sky as if she hadn’t seen it in months.
We both stood there for a moment, outside in the cold, taking in the silent beauty of winters night. Three minutes later, she ran inside yelling, “Soo cold!” haha Told ya kid.
People often ask us Midwesterners, “Why don’t you just move if you don’t like the cold?” Most of us answer the same way: because it’s home, and spring will come again. I think we all reach that point in winter when we’ve simply had enough.
But in that moment, I found myself counting down the weeks until warmer weather returned, not just for my mental health, but for my kids’ and their adventures. Because spring means warmer days and longer evenings. Morning coffees on the porch again. Tiny buds poking through the ground and grass slowly changing color. The sound of birds returning and snow melting, while the kids finally get to use their outside voices, splashing through puddles.
It’s that feeling of new beginnings, the sense that you made it through something hard and that brighter days really are ahead.
