No matter where you live, this time of year can be rather blah. The excitement of the holidays are over, visiting family have returned home, and everyone has returned to the routine of work and school, anticipating spring break.
After my post about waiting for spring, I had conversations here and on Facebook about surviving these months. Michael Hyatt had a couple posts about dealing with winter blues and boosting your energy that prompted me to begin to look for ideas to beat the blahs and make the most of this dreary, yet amazing season. When we have our eyes open, every day is beautiful, no matter how gray and cold outside (or hot and humid!)
I hope you’ll join the conversation over the next couple weeks and share with me your own ideas and stories of what you’re doing this winter to beat the blahs!
Plant an indoor garden
Little Miss Sunshine a cute little fairy garden for Christmas. The kit contained a little pot, dirt, seeds, and a few items for her to paint and decorate her garden with. A few days after Christmas we set the garden up, covering the pot lightly with plastic wrap to help the seeds germinate.
It’s been like watching a small miracle to see the little green sprouts pop their heads through the dirt. The garden sits in the center of our dining table and every morning at breakfast we marvel at how tall the grass and bean stalks are getting. It’s been so fun, I’m going to make it a yearly tradition.
The garden is a colorful reminder that even in the dead of winter – life is happening. Deep beneath the surface of the cold and snow, God is giving needed rest and sustenance to the world around us. A chance to pause, re-group and be ready to grow full force in the spring. Winter seems to offer the same opportunities for our soul if we allow it – more time to sit inside curled up with good words and good company. Time to lounge around and rejuvenate. Time to just be.
I personally love the idea of watching a seed germinate and grow, especially since I’m terrible at keeping house plants alive long term. In fact, February is National Indoor Gardening Month. For those of you who are more green-thumbed than I am, here are some ideas of house plants, even some that bloom, to brighten your winter home:
-Christmas cactus
– African violets
– Geraniums
-Impatients
-Aloe vera
-Spider plants
-Kitchen herbs
And a few good resources:
Edible Landscaping, and growing food indoors at Garden.org
Kids Gardening
Growing Green in the Kitchen
Houseplants for Dummies – sounds like a book I need!
One thing that I do when the sun in shining in through the windows in the winter is to stop what I am doing and sit in the sun (indoors usually) and it does so much good! I feel like my whole demanor attitude changes and I feel that I can find good in this season. Something else that is fun is to do is to go to all the indoor activites that you want or like to do. For example, we have wanted to visit museums and such and decided this summer that we would do it in the winter when it is not so nice to be outside anyways and we can fully enjoy the lovely summer days outside doing the fun things that come along with that season. Just a few ideas from our journey of learning to embrace the winter months and make the most of the gift of life. We are still looking for more ways so I look forward to your ideas and the ideas of others too! 🙂
I read your comment, and totally did that. I turned around and there was a nice spot of sunshine. I lay down in that spot for about 20 min. It felt sooo nice! I’m also thinking about getting a membership to the Gardens for a place to go in the winter (and summer too!)