The holidays are over. There are no more short work weeks and long weekends. It’s January. This is when the reality of cold, bleak, monochromatic Iowa winter sets in. Along with it always come a certain level of depression and sadness.

It’s dark in the morning; it’s dark at night. The only time I see daylight is on my lunch break and even that is not a given, depending on the bleakness of the day. Some days it’s just lighter than darkness, but not really daylight. That’s how bleak it can be around here.

When I get home at 5:15, I put on my pajamas to make dinner and we’ve fallen to the horrors of eating dinner on the couch most nights. This would have been completely unacceptable in my family as meals were a regular and scheduled event at the kitchen table, no excuses. Breakfast was 7:30-8:00 with morning devotions included. School started at 8:20, so there was a flurry of teeth-brushing and lunch-grabbing promptly after breakfast. Lunch, during the summer or on weekends, was at 12:00 with a variety of Tupperware containers of leftovers—a small buffet really—to choose from. Dinner was at 6:00 and Saturday night was always pizza night. (I’m sure if my mother is reading this, she is horrified at our lack of organization when it comes to meals. Maybe someday, Mom…)

I can’t wait for spring and taking up running again [maybe] and the smell of green grass and flowers.

It will come, right?