Favorite Things to Do in the Winter - The DV Walking Wounded:

So, as I’ve aged (and my kids have aged), I have a list of THEN and NOW things that i’m going to list. The THEN items will include limitations of being held captive by domestic abuse, so give me some grace on that part.

THEN

Then refers to when I was a young child and a young mother. As a child, my favorite thing to do in the winter was to sled. I had a Flexible Flyer sled, the kind that was wooden, but had the metal runners. I honestly don’t remember if it was my mother’s or was a garage sale find, but I remember my Dad and Grandpa both hammering the runner blades flat and sanding the wood so I wouldn’t get splinters. All I knew is that it was fun and fast and reliable. I really didn’t care where or how I got it, I just remember it always being there. If there was a snow day, we’d bundle up in layers, not forgetting the Wonder Bread bags on our feet before we stuck them in our snow boots. Two layers of mittens. ALWAYS a scarf to keep us warm, but also because that also acted as safety gear, much like today’s NASCAR drivers with the neck brace. I’m definitely not making this up! My Mom’s knitted scarves saved me from frostbite AND whiplash!

We’d bundle up (going to the bathroom before getting geared up) and take our sledding devices to “the hill.” I say sledding devices because you could tell the poor kids from the kids whose parents were well-to-do. The rich kids had the wooden toboggans, middle class kids had sleds like mine (hand-me-downs from our parents), the kids from homes where Dad worked away or they were from divorced homes had the ones that looked like small red plastic john boats, and the poor kids had trash can lids or worn-out tires or even heavy duty garbage bags. You see, none of us cared. All we were there to do was to have unbridled fun, not judge socio-economic statuses. All we saw were fellow sledders and race partners. We’d all slide down “the hill,” which was next to the Catholic church I attended, staying out for hours, traversing up and sliding down, until we could no longer feel our legs our our faces. I would take my kids sledding, as a young mother, because I loved it so much, at the local golf course. I wish I could say my children were as resilient I was, but I’m Gen X and that could be a WHOLE entire blog post on its own! They didn’t want to stay out nearly as long as ole Mom!

I really didn’t love building snowmen until I had kids of my own. When I was a kid, you built snow forts or igloos instead. “Babies” built snowmen. As a young mother, I would be the builder and my kids would put the finishing touches on the snow person. My then-husband was okay with us doing the snow sculpting, because he could watch us out the window (as he sat inside with a hot beverage), and he knew where we were. He would open the door and supervise from there. When he did come outside, he’d want to start a snowball fight, which usually ended up with our children crying (and one year, I got a bruised face, a black eye, and a bloody nose from it, because he put thick pieces of icicle in the middle, packing snow around it. After hitting me with it, he told me to toughen up, that’s how he did it growing up. That, needless to say, ended our day of fun. Sometimes he would come outside and coerce our oldest to add body parts to our snow people. My children loved building snow people to represent all members of the family, which I thought was sweet. My then-husband convinced the oldest child to add snow balls to the one representing me, for breasts, and an extra carrot to the “daddy” one, to represent that he was definitely male. I had gone in with my younger child, to change her pants, and came out to the anatomically correct snow family. I removed the added body parts, because I felt it was wildly inappropriate and I did not want to kill my elderly neighbors with shock. Ironically, that caused a huge fight between their father and I. Regardless of all the difficulties that I had with him, it never killed my love of playing in the snow with my children.

After a hard day of playing outside in the snow, I always loved coming in to hot cocoa and chicken noodle soup (and cheese and crackers), to warm up and fill up the tummies. Sometimes instead of soup there was chili, which was more prevalent when I became a Mom. Then, after fueling up with hot food, I’d bundle up in a blanket with a book, then take a well-deserved nap.

As my children became older, we discovered a fun pass time called geocaching. Geocaching is treasure hunting with a hand-held GPS unit. We did this year round, but loved the challenge of doing it in the winter, because it made it that much harder to find the cache, because it was usually snow covered. I highly recommend geocaching, because it is extremely fun and educational, not to mention challenging and mentally stimulating. Go to Geocaching.com, to find out more.

NOW

Now that I am older, as well as disabled, I do not really enjoy being outside for long periods of time. For one, I am an asthmatic, so the cold air really locks up my ability to breathe. I prefer indoor activities. My favorite is reading, wrapped up in a blanket, with a hot beverage, and preferably with a cat in my lap. I enjoy taking in the beautiful snow scene, but I much prefer staying indoors. Watching a good movie or streaming is a close second.

I also enjoy getting time to write, especially now that I am free from abuse. It seems as though everything slows down in the winter. It is also very bright white, which allows me to stare into the white void and let my imagination run wild. I still struggle to find time to write, so when I am trapped indoors, that allows me more time to do this (but not enough). I write serial fiction, books on abuse survival, contributions to anthologies, freelance newspaper/magazine pieces, essays (many for competitions), and sometimes poetry. I’ve been dreaming of being a writer since I was four. My then-husband didn’t like me writing, because it me exercising my free will. I do it EVERY chance I get, to be completely honest…snow aborbs sound and I enjoy that solitude in order to think deeply. I’m even contemplating enrolling in a bachelor of arts degree for creative writing — still currently praying on THIS situation. I believe God wants me to be a writer also, inspiring people with my words and my truths, so if this is to happen, it WILL happen.

Finally, I also immensely enjoy photographing snow scenes. They’re really very beautiful and I want to capture that beauty forever. I will forever praise how great of an artist that our Lord God is! I view winter as a time of “reset” and “sleep” for the world, so new growth can come in the springtime. I truly try to capture what i see, in order to show everyone else how beautiful my Indiana is. I also try to never take anything as simple as nature for granted, so photography helps me to remember it. Snowy scenes of the countryside, as well as amazing ice formations, are things that I love to capture. I also love to see wild animals interacting with the outside. Just yesterday, I saw young fox kits running and frolicking in the snow. They are not that different from human children, whom also love to play in the snow!

Love and light! Stay warm and safe!