Family Choices- Moving to the Great White North

I live in the great white north with our family. Sometimes there are Family Choices you just have to make. It is currently -20 outside and it’s March 25th! I can’t wait for spring, but I am told that it doesn’t actually become nice like that until May. It has warmed up, in the early afternoon it’s been -4 a few times and we have been outside… a lot those days!

We moved here in June of last year. It was gorgeous when we got here, I had never been happier. We live in a small town where it seems that you go outside and start the BBQ and all of a sudden your neighbors and people who know you and them, will start pulling up their own lawn chairs to join you. I loved that! We spent plenty of time outside, the humidity is not even close to as bad here as it is in the city, in fact, there was barely any of that.

Then September came… it was starting to cool down drastically and I knew that winter was coming. 8 Months of winter. I am so used to the city winter that only really lasted two months at best with minimal snowfall and generally “cold” but not crazy freezing temperatures.We stocked our shelves with canned goods, condiments and sauces, we bought extra shelving to put our stock pile of cans, toilet paper, laundry and dish soaps on. The grocery store here is expensive and small and not really the quality I would expect for the price, so we would go on our shopping trips to the small “City” (If you can call it that) about an hour and a half away and leave with a fully loaded trunk. We knew that we couldn’t make that trip too many times in the winter with husbands work schedule and the weather being what it would.

At the end of September the first snowfall came, then melted, then seemingly came right back. Winter was here. Halloween was generally cold but not unbearable, but again, it snowed.

Then the first day of -40 with a windchill of -45 came. I think I hid that entire day. WHAT WAS THIS!? I knew that I was supposed to expect this, but I never really knew what -45 would feel like until I went outside and the wind smacked me in the face, taking my breath away and making me wish I was a bear and could hibernate.

It is now March. It has been cold like this for a long time.. too long. Yes, everyone, I AM COMPLAINING. I can’t say I HATE it, hate is a strong word, I just wish I could treat this weather like an ex boyfriend and tell him that it’s not him it’s me and I just need to move on to warmer, brighter things….

I had held in there without going completely insane.. or even moderately insane… until about two weeks ago. I need spring now. I think 6 months of winter has been enough for me, of course I will persevere. I am shocked I lasted this long. I can’t wait for the days that the kids and I can go outside in the morning, and stay out there until bed time, enjoying the weather, the sun and friends.

This move has been a change for us, we are 26 hours away from friends and family, but we have made more friends up here and some of them are close like family. We went from living in a big cityish area to living in a town of 1,000 people, with nothing for an hour and a half each way away from us. The weather is much different, the house is different, but I am with my family, and no matter where that is, it will always be home.

Have you made any big changes in the passed year?