January. Groundhog Day on Repeat?

I’ve procrastinated on this blog post long enough. I’ve looked everywhere for motivation only to find bags of Cheezies, fuzzy slippers and warm blankets to hide under. It's another freezing cold January day, so I might as well do this.

I wanted to write something like “Reach all your Goals” and “Manifest your Biggest Dreams Today” and “Find Your Superpower” and give you real life concrete examples of me doing ALL the things!

But January 2022 is not the time for that. It would be a complete and utter lie for me to even try to pull that off.

I mean, it's felt like Groundhog Day for awhile here during the pandemic. Work. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

Funny enough, I flipped the calendar to February and there it is --- Groundhog Day on February 2nd!

As Kate Bowler, author of No Cure For Being Human, put it in her January 20, 2022 Facebook post, “ . . .January [has] put itself in the garbage disposal and run itself a few times.”

A sales rep just visited our shop today, and accidentally called Kevin “Melanie”. After he left, he sent a profusely apologetic email saying “winter must be getting to me.”

I replied, “Don’t worry. It’s January and we’re all going a little crazy.”

I’m feeling the winter blahs. Are you?

I’ve always thought that January in the northern hemisphere should never be a high energy, motivating, renovate-your-life, be-your-best-self month. New Years Resolutions? Pffft. Why you ask? Because Winter in Saskatchewan.

January is cold. January is dark. Mother Natures knows this. January = survival. Everything lies dormant and the bears hibernate.

What if we followed Nature’s lead and just rest and be quiet? Can we let that be good enough?

I think we need to give ourselves a little grace (that’s my word for 2022) and feel all the January feels.

This January, I have decided to listen to the circadian rhythms of my body.

I’m doing slow yoga in the morning and not pushing myself into crazy high energy workouts, unless I feel like it.

I’m cooking comfort food --- braised shanks, chicken and dumplings, soups and stews that warm the belly and provide days of leftovers so the cooking routine feels lighter, simpler and easier.

In the evenings, we’re reading novels and playing cribbage by the fireplace wrapped in furry blankets. Kevin reads for an average of five minutes before the book drops and his eyes close for a delicious nap!

We’re snowshoeing and snowmobiling on our fields on the warmer days --- although those have been few and far between this winter!

Hmmm, it all seems pretty mediocre now that I’m writing about it . . . but I'm really OK with that.

There is still A LOT to be done this month that requires A LOT of energy --- all the farm planning must be done for the upcoming year plus it’s fiscal year end time for us. We’re finalizing farm budgets, production and marketing plans, while tending to the everyday chores of chickens, livestock, butchering, packing orders and delivering meat.

We’ve set some big, audacious goals for ourselves in 2022 --- and we WILL get to them! But for now, when the day is done, it’s dark, it’s cold, you’ll find me with fuzzy slippers and a blanket, hunting for Cheezies.

How do you embrace the January “blahs”? What do you do? Or is that not a thing for you? I’m curious to know.

Be well!