A time to chill

The last few mornings it's been especially hard to roll outta bed.  I'm not a morning person by nature and it's so tempting to just swaddle back into my cozy flannel sheets and multiple fleece blankets when my other option is to throw back the toasty covers and step onto a chilly floor in a cool semi-dark room.  6am comes around alot earlier it seems when you beat the sunrise every morning and the temps are hovering just under 10 degrees in the pre-dawn hours.  Then I still have to bundle myself and the kids into multiple layers of clothing, brave the breeze to the van and head to the barn fighting yawns the whole way.  There the cement floor is slick and icy, the wind blusters it's way thru every crack it can find, and my fingers begin to fumble from the cold.

You'd think I'd be pretty miserable at this point, right? Sure things are slippery and I spend the first 10 minutes of chores getting my shivering back under control but this cold snap brings about a certain feeling, a sense that Winter is at hand.

There's a magic in the air when those few snowflakes drift down and tickle my nose as I'm heading out to feed calves.  There's something so charming about seeing rosy cheeks on my children as they come in from outside.  There's this sense of anticipation as calendars begin counting down days til Christmas.  I start dreaming of afternoons spent cross-country skiing, ice skating, or sledding followed by mugs of hot cocoa and snuggles under cozy warm blankets.  I consider Winter as time for our family.  For us, it's the slowest time on the farm so we are able to enjoy evenings instead of the hurry up rush-rush pace of Spring planting, Summer haying, and Fall harvesting.  L is around a little more and there's time to work on housing projects. We are able to travel a little more (depending on the weather of course) and the holiday season gives plenty of opportunity for visiting with family we don't see on a regular basis.  Outdoor activities become family outings.  In fact, this year V might even fit into his skis!  And since I apparently have a fishing license (the hubby bought it but didn't tell me) I'm guessing ice fishing just might be added to our list of things to do together.

Sure there will be the frigid days where it's so cold vehicles won't start and your eyelashes freeze together as soon as you open the door.  There will be snowstorms that dump inches of snow, winds to build drifts across the driveway, and ice-covered roads to make driving perilous.

But just as I find the magic in new life burgeoning in Spring, in watching the crops and pastures growing lush and thick in Summer, and in walking through the colorific splendor of an Autumn forest, I'm seeing magic in the crisp snowy Winter.

So while I'm attempting to keep feeling in my fingers and toes while doing chores, I'll be dreaming of all wonderful things I'll hopefully get to do this winter and it helps warm me from the inside.