The robber of daylight

One eye creaks open, stuck with sleep, and spies a bright star twinkling through my curtainless, naked bedroom window. The night (or is it early morning?) is like heavy velvet. Without my glasses on, the lone star is just a bright blur. What time is it? It can't be time to wake up yet, it is still pitch black outside. I check my phone. It is 6:05 am.

It is late October and not even Daylight Savings Time—the antiquated rationalization to save energy—can stop the oncoming Swedish high-latitude darkness that defines winter. Click here to continue reading over at Medium.

The Snow Globe Effect

Last Christmas, Mother Sweden pulled out all of the stops and gave us a lot of snow that created the perfect magic to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.  It was lucky that my parents were there to experience the beauty themselves.  The snow hanging on the branches of the trees made it feel like we were walking in a snow globe that had just been lightly shaken and all of the glittery snowflakes had just settled down again.  The woods were quiet except for the crunching of our boots. We kept marveling at how beautiful it was and I called it the "Snow Globe Effect."

This Christmas we had weather that was rainy and consistently in the 40s and gave us the overall blah feeling.  Though the weather didn't help put us in the Christmas spirit, Stockholm still dresses up for the occasion and we hit up the Christmas markets and the NK store windows.

So, here we are in January and we finally, finally, have snow in Stockholm that is suitable for sledding.  Yesterday as I was walking Calvin to school, these huge flakes started falling and I just sighed and thought, "here's the snow globe feeling I've been waiting for!"  Calvin looked at me and says confusedly, "It's Christmas? It's not Christmas..."  No, it's not Christmas but it finally feels like it.  Hope you can enjoy the snow globe effect where you are this winter!

Here comes the sun

The past two weeks have been joyfully filled with tons of SUNSHINE!  You have no idea how happy this makes me. I can handle cold weather (to a point) as long as there is sun.  It really makes a difference in mood, energy level and just plain enjoyment of the day.   Plus there is BLUE SKY!  No more gray blah dreariness.

So blue!

It was -10 this morning, so Calvin still has to be bundled up in 2 layers for everything -- 2 mittens, 2 socks, 2 pants, 2 shirts, 1 sweatshirt, snow pants and jacket.  I think he's a little tired of it all, as am I.  We've gotten our morning snow-clothes routine down to only 6 minutes as long as Calvin participates and helps me with all of the items.  Putting a pair of mittens on flailing hands is impossible, let alone 2 pairs of mittens!

Calvin's tired of all of the winter gear.  Me too buddy!

One tantrum-stopper that actually worked for me (no idea if it will ever work again), was that I gave him his time to freak out.  He really didn't want to put on his mittens and he kept flailing his hands and yelling.  I told him he had 5 more seconds to have his tantrum but after that, the mittens had to go on.  I counted to 5 with Calvin freaking out the entire time (not sure if he even heard me) and when I was done, he magically stopped and put his hand out to be properly "mittened."  Amazing! After those 5 seconds, he was a normal kid again and we went outside a few minutes later.

Spring can come anytime it wants...really spring - come on already!