It's Been a Long Winter

There must be an overwhelming amount of words bottle-necked up in my head somewhere. There is nothing coming out so I am just going to try and flush them out. My silent brain is scaring me. I hope it is not empty.

So I shall purge and release. You have been warned.

I just wasted another weekend.

Sure, I worked on Saturday. I suppose earning enough money to pay for my Kijiji shopping last week is worth something.

Yes! Kijiji shopping!! It was a highlight of last week and I didn't even share it.

We (my daycare family and me) have been loving the gorgeous weather lately and spending a great deal of time outside. I knew winter was scheduled to return and I was trying to think of a way to prolong our outdoor activities and fun once the temperatures took a dive and the snow returned.

And I found this:

We already had the picnic table but the playhouse is new. It took hours to scrub it down and my son was happy to grant my wish and assemble it for me. We had the "big reveal" here at daycare on Friday afternoon.

The kids were thrilled and so was I. I simply cannot wait to spend hours upon hours outside, soaking up the sun.

I have officially worn a tire off of our double stroller. We went for a nice, long walk one of our pre-spring days last week and the tire fell off its rim at least a half a dozen times on our way home.

I MacGyvered a fix. I took the tire off the well used, front/left rim and exchanged it with a tire in the middle. I then used electrical tape to try and convince the stretched and worn tire to stay where I need it to stay, so it doesn't wreak havoc as the other eleven tires do their job.

Isn't it amazing that one tire out of twelve can render a stroller immobile? Hmmmm.... I wonder if I have a loose tire somewhere within my broken brain. Maybe that is my problem.

Anyway, I don't have a lot of faith that my MacGyver skills will take me through the upcoming spring, summer and fall. We do a lot of walking. So I checked out the prices of double strollers (at least what I could find online). They are ridiculous.

So eventually I found this on Kijiji:

After several hours of scrubbing, it is now fit for human passengers. I was embarrassed for its previous owner. Who would ever consider putting children in something so dirty, let alone selling it in its as-is state?

The bottom basket is worn out on the bottom (I assume from over loading it and having it ride along the ground?), the back tires feel a little wobbly and I am not quite certain how we will make this work for us. But where there is a will, there is a way. So we will manage.

For $50.00, we will be back on the road again. Once our last blast of winter melts.

Aaaack!! Winter! I knew it wasn't over but I wasn't expecting wet, heavy and drifted snow. It took over an hour to shovel. It wasn't even nice outside. The wind was blowing in my ears, I had to pull out my heavy duty winter snow-shovelling mitts and I didn't even unzip my jacket due to overheating from exertion. It wasn't even nice outside.

I just checked the forecast and it looks like we can expect another 10 cm of snow tomorrow. Winter isn't going to last much longer. We can do this. Thankfully the daylight hours are increasing. Minute by minute, our days are outlasting our nights.

I need daylight and sunshine. It has felt like a long winter. I finally understand why the birds fly south for the winter. I think that is what I want to be when I grow up. A snow bird.

Winter can be hard. But it is behind us now. We are officially into spring now. Winter, give it your best shot because this is your last chance! 

Mind you, here is a picture of "Slushy, the Snowman" from April 29th of last year:

But here is a picture of "Slushy" the next day:

No matter what winter has in store for us, it will soon be nothing but a memory.

I can't wait.