The polar vortex of 2019 didn’t miss us like it seemed it would. Instead, we got a week of intense winter weather that rocked our state. It’s been a lot of fun to embrace the change, but it’s proved challenging after a full week of endless snow. Between not being able to get to work, losing power, stores running out of goods, and damage being done to buildings, enough is enough. Thankfully, we’re on the road to slightly higher temps and melting snow, and that has us all looking forward to spring!

I’ve been surprised at myself for having such a bad attitude toward the winter weather, I’m usually not so pessimistic. The first day of good snow excitedly found us outside with sleds, and Remy’s first trip down the slopes (although she wasn’t really the biggest fan, she preferred snowy walks). After that, I was struggling to pull myself out of a pool of negativity. I made myself do little things just for my own happiness and at least one thing interactive with my kids each day.

We baked a few things, watched a few movies, and read some books. But we also began a bible study of sorts, which proved to be my favorite thing of all. I’ve been looking for ways to have better conversations with my kids, more meaningful and engaging. My favorite church is the one where I feel most connected to life: out of doors. I honestly hadn’t thought before to do anything like it, but stumbled upon a series of mini lessons with overarching themes (time management, anger, self image, etc…). Again, to my surprise we’ve been enjoying it a lot, and we’ve had some of the best conversations this past week because of it.

I’m not sure what the future of this sort of thing will look like, but for now, I’m really enjoying this connection with my kids, and I hope it’s that part that will last.