Family + Kids

Come Pick Me Up

by erin |

Well, it’s just that the days are really, really long in the short kind of way. The dark by 5:30 way, the pent up energy way, the bouncing from walls way (her) and the silence, please way (you).

The beauty of motherhood is that you learn to power through it. You do it because you must, not because you want to, or because you’re selfless, or because you’ve been blessed with an extra nurturing gene. You do it because there’s a little person following you around, and she hears the sigh in your lung, the edge in your voice.

I mean, you might as well address the issue.

So, new Loechner law:

She who is feeling bluesy must hereby draw a remedy from the official ‘Winter Blues Cure Jar,’ located just north of the kitchen counter pistachios. Contents of said remedy must be acted upon immediately, with no arguments from the subconscious mind/body/soul of said bluesy one. Cure will take effect in five minutes or less, although patience is always encouraged.

A few standby cures that have worked wonders so far:
Spritz some lavender
Listen to this song
Build a fire
Google a toddler joke
Host a kitchen dance party (playlist here)
Thirty jumping jacks
Make raw brownies
Speed walk around the block
Drink a full glass of water

Tell me, what’s your best cure for the winter blues? Have any good ones for us to add to the jar? I’m all ears!

  • What a great idea! Here’s some of mine: Tickle the toddler !! Assuming he/she enjoys it, there’s nothing like that bright, shiny peal of laughter to lift my heart. Also, eat a piece (just one so no regrets) of good chocolate, gaze at the christmas tree, and/or steal away for a 3-5 minute meditation. Cheers, Erin! xoxo

  • I love this idea!

    I had never struggled terribly with winter blues…until we moved to the northeast 4 years ago. In fact, winter had previously been my favorite time of year. But our first winter in Boston hit me like a sack of bricks. Stuck in our tiny apartment with a baby and toddler and little time to come up for air–eeks.

    The thing that absolutely turned things around for me was when I began supplementing with Vitamin D3. Seriously! My winter blues disappeared and it helped a TON with anxiety that I had pretty much struggled with my entire life. I swear that it has cleared up any mental fog and has helped a lot with tiredness, as well. Definitely a bonus for any mom!

    My husband teases me now, because I am always looking for ways to share this with other people. But it is so good, I don’t want to keep it to myself. D3 supplementation really has changed my life!

    • Vitamin D has saved my life in the winter. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, so I was used to dark at 4 pm, and countless gloomy days growing up. However, when I went to college in Eastern Washington (dark just as early, but much more sun in the winter) I always struggled when I went back to the west side with the grey and gloomy days. My mom bought me Vitamin D and it helped immensely. I’ve started again this winter, and I can definitely see a difference between the days I take it or don’t!

      • Reem Faruqi–I take around 4,000-5,000 IU of D3 daily, combined. Some of it is in my multi (I do the raw Garden of Life) and calcium. It’s important to make sure that what is in your other vitamins is indeed D3 and NOT D2. The rest I get from D3 capsules. I have my levels tested from time to time and have found that I have to take this much to stay at a healthy level. Unfortunately, many people (previously myself) are very deficient and completely unaware.

  • These are so good! Especially love the spritz of lavender! Mine would be: we all pile on the couch and watch a favorite Jane Austen movie, usually Emma or P & P ( I should mention I have two girls, almost ten and eleven, and we homeschool, which I absolutely love, but the days do get long in the winter!), make a big batch of cutout sugar cookies and decorate them, turn on our favorite Christmas music, and oddly, reading aloud from a favorite book (right now we’re doing The Secret Garden) helps so much to recenter us and reunite us all at the same time.

    • ohhhhh YES!!!!! we plan to homeschool as well, so this is a nice peek into what we might look forward to. ;)

  • Yes. Me too. Except without a darling babe. But I must do a winter cure jar and remember, it is the little things – as simple as a glass of water that can ground, reflect, calm- Lovely.

  • beautiful!

    on blah days, we light a candle, turn the lights out, and sunset watch.

    Or visit http://www.gonoodle.com for a few minutes of a kid friendly exercise video – great for us too!

    Raise the blinds as high as they can go — always helps me somehow!

    thanks Erin!

      • thank you Erin. You write so beautifully and I really gather inspiration from your words.

        Another thing I do for off days is I buy a couple of Betty Crocker cake mix boxes and bake. it is less mess since we dump 3 ingredients in it! But my 2 little ones still feel like they are doing something super exciting.

        On days, where I have more energy and willingess to bake/get the kitchen messy, we attempt the from-scratch-thingies, but an extra cake box is a good fix when we’re feeling really blah.

      • oh and something really random is play Mommy-Baby, but swap roles so you get to be the Baby which means you get to lie down and be lazy for a bit while your child acts bossy and tries to put you down for a nap :).

  • i have a jar, not just for winter blues, i call my ‘jar of happy’. it’s not an ideas jar like yours exactly, but it has a similar result in mind… i started it three years ago on my 40th birthday. i want for nothing, really so – instead of asking for gifts – i asked all my friends to write one or two things that make them happy on to little cards for me to slip into my jar. i have even added to it over the past few years and asked new friends to also contribute. now i have a jar full of happiness i can reach into and get some joy from whenever i’m having a blue kind of day.
    in yours, i would add: ask a friend / loved one to text/email/tell you one thing that makes them happy. revel in that for a moment.
    x

  • I am with you! And, it gets dark at 4:30 here. Mix in 3 little boys and jr. high drama and you have a mix for catastrophe or a lot of carpet burn from wrestle mania in the basement-ha. 20 minutes of yoga helps, and a tropical candle……..something that smells like vacation and warm weather. Stay strong sister. xo

  • Bubble Bath (optional: with a candle)
    A cup of pour over coffee (the slow process helps)
    Walk down the block to the local thrift store
    Turn on the Christmas tree (even if it’s still daylight)
    Watch some Jimmy Fallon clips

  • Why haven’t I heard of this before? This is a brilliant idea for all year round!

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  • And when all else fails, I repeat a little mantra to myself: it’s okay if today feels hopeless. Tomorrow is a new day, and I just have to make it through these 24 hours. Without fail, I always wake up feeling new the next morning, and reminding myself of that fact gets me through the hard days.

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