Warm days ahead... ..

Well February is about to end, finally. It is approaching a year and a half since my separation. I have recently realized that "winter blues" do exist and weather can play a huge roll in your overall mental state. Previously to being separated, I usually took February as it came. Crew begins at the end of the month and honestly, before you know it, it's March and spring arrives. I usually am happy to be outside during this time, no matter what the weather, it's a nice change of scenery.

Lately, I have been thinking of some of the problems that winter weather brings. I have listed a few obvious ones below:

1)You can't enjoy your deck, it's snow covered.
2)You can't take your kids camping, and my four year old keeps asking when we can go ??
3)You really can't lace up your sneaks and LOVE your long runs- bundled in gloves, hat, fleece and tons of underarmor makes for a rather uncomfortable 2 hour run
4)You definitely cannot get a cheap ticket to Florida, because the entire upper east coast is going there for the same reason that you want too, to escape the 'winter blues'.
5)Walking the dog is okay, but it's freezing and often gloomy, you realize 1/2 way through the walk that you are forcing yourself to be outside
6)My house needs to be painted- desperately. I will be waiting until it's warmer.
7)It's nearly impossible to pack your child for a day or weekend out. You need a peice of "luggage" for all the warm clothing. Gloves, hats, snow pants, extra underwear, and really the snow boots are the clunkiest heaviest shoes in our house. Lugging all this stuff around, really gets old.

Last week, we had a few warm days. One was actually 68 AND it was sunny. I realized how my mood changed. It felt so nice to be out in the sun getting some vitamin D. Winter months as a single parent get a bit gloomy, weekends seem long, and the 5 pm dark evening makes me want to jump into bed for the night at 8 pm. I thought training for a 1/2 marathon would get me out and force me to excercise myself into a state of bliss and happiness. However, after a month or so, I began to feel the 'winter blues' anyway. I may not have escaped the blahs this winter, but the winter is approaching an end, and I am really looking forward to the Spring. I am going to hopefully end the winter blues next weekend in Miami, as I venture off to run my first 1/2 marathon. This should be interesting and fun. It's also my first little vacation with my sweet significant other. I will be feeling both sorry for him (as he will be waiting for two hours), and resentful, as he watches me cross the finish line with his visor, newspaper and starbucks latte. In any case, hopefully, we will bring back the warm weather and move into a "spring" like warm March.