It’s cold. It’s dreary. And I’m getting that cooped up feeling, no matter how many times I leave the house to run errands.
Even if you don’t live in a cold climate like I do, where winter means hurrying from car to building to car with as little flesh exposed as possible, chances are you feel the drag of wintertime. After several months of shortened daylight hours everyone can get a little twitchy.
So what to do in the weeks left until spring arrives? Here are four mom perk-ups to break the doldrums of winter:
Grill all out
There’s nothing like the flavors of summer to bring back that warm-weather feel. So dig a path through the snow to your grill or roll the Weber closer to your back door (but not so close as to be a fire hazard). Then put together some hamburger patties (or veggie burgers, if that’s your thing), slice up some tomatoes, fix your favorite summertime salad and grill away. Just the smell of burgers cooking on the grill is enough to whisk away my winter blues.
If it’s too much to cook outdoors, but you have a fireplace, load on some logs and make up some s’mores indoors.
Psyche yourself out with a summer flick
Mix up some lemonade, pop up the popcorn and cozy up with a beach flick. You’ll soon forget that it’s frosty outside when you’re immersed in the sunshiny, summertime scenes on the big screen.
Some fun beach/summer-inspired titles to check out:
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
Mystic Pizza (1988)
The Flamingo Kid (1984)
Beaches (1988)
50 First Dates (2004)
Give your space a makeover
When summer does arrive, you’re going to want to spend as much time outside as you can. So why not take the time now to spruce up the indoors? Maybe you have a linen closet that won’t stay closed for all the clutter. Or a laundry room that’s gotten dingy. Pick one small project that can be completed in a day or a weekend. Then go to it!
Empty out the linen closet or laundry room and give it a fresh coat of paint. And don’t be boring with your choice of colors. Pick something fun that you normally wouldn’t use but have admired in someone else’s house or on the pages of a magazine. Ditch anything that you don’t really use – the emptier space will appear more inviting. And play around with re-organizing like putting in new shelf paper and buying or creating colorful storage containers. See what everydayMOM has been doing for some inexpensive ideas.
Give yourself a makeover
While we all complain about what heat and humidity do to our hair, the bone-dry climate of winter turns your summer style into something else. Spice up your look by asking your hairdresser to try something new. Too radical? Give your tresses a pick-me-up by way of a hot oil treatment or scalp massage.
Now is also a good time of year to try out a new color palette for makeup. Indoor lighting isn’t the same as natural light, which may make your skin color more sallow. Add to that the fade in shade that happens from lack of sunlight and you’re dealing with a different skin tone in winter. Take some time for a makeup consultation at your local department store. Then pick one or two (or all) of their suggestions to try and see if brightening up your face can brighten up your mood too.
Whatever you choose to do to break the boredom, just remember this: we’re already on the upside of winter. The days are getting longer. And soon we’ll be answering our kids’ summer break complaints of “I’m bored.”
What do you like to do to fight off cabin fever?
Or you could clean out every single closet and drawer in your house! 🙂 Thanks for the link! I’m looking forward to painting the inside of my linen closet! Now that it’s all cleaned out, I want to give it a pop of color on the inside!
Emily – thank you for giving validity to my suggestion. And I love, love, love your organizing projects. My own office could use a makeover, like you’ve done. But I think I might have to be satisfied with a simple linen closet fix-up.