During our four years “down south” in Missouri and Kansas, I often missed the snowy winters of my childhood. I really loved winter — not so much because I liked playing outside, but because I enjoyed curling up inside with a good book and a cup of cocoa. But when we moved back to South Dakota, I was a little unprepared for the long, cold days cooped up indoors with a toddler (last year) or a preschooler and a baby (this year). And so I find myself spending most of winter longing for spring to start. But it is not even the end of January yet, there is still much winter to live through, and so…
… right now, I am trying to focus on the things I really do love about winter:
~soup~
~hot chocolate, hot coffee, hot tea, hot cider~
~watching the snow fall~
~watching my 3-year-old watching the snow fall~
~knitted hats~
~my slipper socks~
~my new favorite knitting spot, right by the window~
~soup~
~staying in pajamas all morning, because there’s no reason to get dressed if we’re not going out, which we’re not because it’s darn cold~
~snowmen and snow forts~
~watching hungry birds out the window~
~soup~
~shoveling snow~
What do you like best about winter?
making life 
I love the snow. I long to be outdoors when it snows, unless the temperatures are subzero or it’s terribly windy. (And much to my chagrin, housework often keeps me inside when I’d rather be out.) I love walking in snow, playing in it, lying in it, shoveling it, snowboarding in it, sledding in it, listening to it, and feeling the big fluffy flakes fall on my face. I love to breathe the crisp, cold freshness of snowy winter air. Abram shares this affinity for snow, for which I am truly grateful. But we do eventually go inside when we’re sufficiently frozen.
Note: While I am admittedly a “winter person,” I do not love Minnesota winters. Not in the least.
Ha! You are used to those lovely Black Hills winters, with snowfall followed by days of 40 degree weather, where you can go find snow up in the mountains when you want it and then come down to lovely Spearfish and go to class without a coat on. 🙂 Those were the days! I can’t tell you how many times I went home from college for the weekend and forgot to bring a winter coat — which is a grave mistake when you’re heading to East River SD (where the winters are much more like those in MN!) This year, I have not ventured outside without a coat since November, not even to take out the trash!
I do love winter and in ND that’s a good thing ’cause we’re going to have it for about 6 months. We love soup and slippers too…and I still say it’s easier to bundle up and have fun outdoors in the ND winter than it is to strip down and have any kind of sweaty/muggy fun in a SC summer…
I agree! I hated summers in St Louis. Kansas wasn’t much better, but at least it was windy there, so the mugginess didn’t just hang in the air and suffocate you.
Sara~
I’m glad you posed this question because I was seriously starting to doubt that there was anything I liked about winter. But, you know what- the sun is shining a little bit today and the temp is above freezing, so I can come up with SOMETHING I like… I have to agree with you on the soup and the hot drinks. I do really love ice skating, but it’s been too cold to even consider it. Maybe in a couple weeks I’ll have a whole new attitude towards winter! Here on the plains winter is not for the faint of heart! Speaking of living on the plains, I just finished reading The Giants in the Earth. Have you read that?!
It was so nice to see the sun today! It was quite strong and bright. It seems like last winter was colder, but it doesn’t really matter what the temps are this winter, it’s just harder for us to get out with the baby. Jake took Adeline ice skating last weekend — she loved it! We have an indoor rink here (USD’s hockey team plays there, actually) so that’s where they went, and they had little walker things that she could use to help her. I like an outside rink, myself, but this is nice too, especially since we don’t own our own skates and can rent them there. Adeline loved it. Every time we’re on the computer she wants to watch that video of M.E. skating (even though the sound isn’t working on our computer)!
I haven’t read Giants — I own it, but just haven’t read it yet. Should I drop everything else I’m half-heartedly perusing right now and get to it? Speaking of winters on the plains, I am reading The Children’s Blizzard, about the blizzard of 1888 that killed so many school children, and it is very good, but I have to take it back to the library on Thursday and there’s no way I’ll finish it in time. But it certainly does make me thankful for the shelter I have and the current national weather service!
I have purposely avoided reading The Children’s Blizzard just because I don’t think I could handle it. The thought of school children being caught in a blizzard, so sad. On the flipside, it does make you grateful for what we do have, like you said. I really enjoyed The Giants in the Earth, I guess it’s the first book in a triology. I have the second book on hold at the library. It’s about Norweigan homesteaders here in South Dakota. Super depressing, but it makes you really appreciate your ancestors, and the plains. Plus, it’s a good time read the book because winter was SO much harder for them that it makes me realize we don’t have it too bad.
P.S. I love that Adeline went ice skating! Sometimes the indoor rinks are better because the ice is smoother. How fun.
I can’t handle media involving harm to children, either. Just hearing it about it in passing is enough reminder for me to appreciate our many modern blessings.
Since having kids, the level of death/horror/violence I can tolerate in what I read and watch has dropped to almost nil. It’s weird to me, since I used to really love horror movies and books — I guess maybe because my own life was relatively tame and uneventful. Now that I’m a mama, there are enough potentially scary and threatening situations in my real life that I don’t need it in my media!
The first part of Children’s Blizzard was very interesting — just a lot of history of the settlers in this area, and the inner workings (or failings) of the early National Weather Service. I can’t quite shake this mistaken assumption (left over from high school, I think) that all writings about history are boring, so when I find a book as well-written as this, I’m thrilled. I’ve not read about the actual blizzard part yet — not sure if I’ll make it through that.
So, I noticed several soup references. Do you have a favorite? And do you have recipes you are willing to share? Any for corn? Ok, that was enough questions. 🙂
Fennel and leek soup is probably at the top of our list — we use a recipe pretty much like this one.
I also really love:
roasted tomato and eggplant soup
Whitney’s butternut squash soup
broccoli rabe and sausage soup (I’ve adopted this as my greens/beans/sausage soup, using whatever greens are handy (spinach, kale, swiss chard, etc.), whatever sausage we have on hand (chicken sausages links sliced up, bulk sausage, etc.) and white beans … mmm)
and being in Dakota Territory, you’ve probably had or heard of kneopfla soup
I don’t make any particular corn soup, though I have a couple recipes I’d like to try, but I do love to throw some corn in when we make tomato soup or chili. I went through a phase for a while where I checked out about a zillion soup cookbooks from the library, and a few of my favorites were A Good Day for Soup, 365 Vegetarian Soups, and Love Soup.
Happy souping!
Thank you! That butternut squash one looks extremely yummy!
Sara, I think the fact that you enjoy shoveling snow says a lot about you–all good. 🙂
Great list, and so funny to hop over here and find it, because when I read your comment at {:.}Nesting Season, I was thinking that I needed to make such a list myself, to focus on the positive. Sometimes the hot cocoa and cozy layers lose their allure after the holidays, but maybe they just need a little twist to feel fresh and exciting again. Perhaps I’ll make Mexican hot chocolate tomorrow. (Wild, I know.)
Winter can be so tough! We haven’t even gotten snow this year, but still, the dreariness of the season can drag on and on. I love how you’re looking on the bright (and funny!) sides of things and jotting down the things that you can do. And I’m all for staying in jammies!