#209: Winter Isn’t Forever - 10 Ways I’m Making It Through February

February can feel endless—especially when you’re home with little kids, battling cold temps, cabin fever, and low energy. In this episode, I’m sharing my honest, gentle “survival guide” for making it through winter without burning out. From at-home lattes and simple meals to lowering the bar, leaning on community, and finding small things to look forward to, this is a reminder that you don’t have to thrive right now—you just have to get through. If you’re feeling tired, foggy, overstimulated, or lonely, this episode is for you.

Psst. The grout renewal I found!

www.daraboxer.com

Transcript

Welcome And Winter Funk

Dara Boxer 0:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Raw on the Cooked, a weekly podcast that provides simple routines around the home plus raw and honest book reviews. My name is Dara. I'm a Midwestern stay-at-home off to four young kids, and I thrive on simplicity. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode. Oh my goodness, you guys, this episode is just surviving the rest of winter. Um, maybe not even the rest of winter, because I don't really want to even plan or think that far ahead. I'm just talking about February. And I don't know, January is just so rough. Like, I always have high hopes, and then you know, just start the the new year, right? Like clean start, fresh blank page, and then just like winter gets the best of me. And it has for the last couple of years running. I don't know if it's an aging thing or I'm just like totally I I don't know what what's going on. Um, have you have you guys seen the meme where it's like welcome to January 3rd, right? Where it just January like the 3rd, January, whatever. Anyway, it's just you know, January always feels like it's like three months long, it's just so weird. And um, it's usually just packed, at least here in the Midwest, with frigid temperatures for racing wind gusts, and that is really what gets me. Like I can deal with single digits on a stroller walk, but the wind on top of that, it just makes it unbearable. And so I just feel like I'm not able to get to the gym as often as I would like between snow days and sick children, and this year in particular wasn't the best. Um, my kids, I mean, they've been relatively healthy, thank God. Um, so I I really can't complain about that. But you know, like my my kids when they're hit with even just like a mild fever, it still takes their body like days after the fever has cleared for them to shake off the sleepiness. And so there have just been many, many days of that where they just need that extra long nap mid-morning. And so, I mean, my obviously my gym plans get pushed on the back burner, and that's totally fine. But I'm realizing that if I can just I can just get through February, right? It'll be like a hop, a skip, and a throw away from spring, and spring is just the best. So I put together somewhat of a survival guide, mainly for myself, but also for you, because if you've been stuck at home with sick little children, if you've been stuck inside because it's so cold and you haven't been getting that sunshine and that fresh air, if you feel irritable, foggy, lonely, overstimulated, understimulated, exhausted, but wired, this episode is for you. Okay, so I I'm just gonna list out 10 things, my 10, my my top 10 for surviving February. And you know what? By the time this episode airs, it will be February 5th, which means we're like basically a sixth of the way done with this miserable month. You know what? But if you're like on the other side of the equator, you're probably like, what are you talking about? February is great. So just your mark this episode for when you're in the midst of your terrible frigid winter. Oh, I should also say before we get started, my my family, most of my family is located either in um Southern California or South Florida, and they're just like, oh brrrr, it's been so cold, it's in the 50s. And I would I would probably murder somebody to spend a day outside when it's 50 degrees. Like that's kind of where I'm at right now with this cabin fever of winter. Okay, so number one, Nespresso pods for an at-home latte. So I don't love the little shot of microplastics, obviously, but if I'm gonna be stuck in the home with napping babies and toddlers, I might as well enjoy a latte that costs me less than a dollar, as opposed to spending seven dollars out and about at our local coffee shop. And so that's one advantage, right? I'm saving a lot of money on coffee that I would probably otherwise maybe be tempted to buy when I'm like out and about, right? Like I feel like when the weather's nice and warmer and everyone's like in a better mood, like the money happens to flow a little bit more. So, okay, an at-home latte, great. Uh, number two, I like to pick one or two easy, doable household projects, whether that's cleaning out a closet, um, organizing a cabinet, um, or just like a small home improvement project. Um, everyone's kids are different when they're sick, and I guess maybe I'm lucky because mine really like to sleep a lot. Um, you know, they also are very cranky in their awake windows, but this the extra sleep is very nice. Uh so I usually have a few hours here or there during the day while I'm nap trapped at home. Um, and this winter I've decided to focus on our master bathroom grout, which sounds really silly, but redoing the grout is incredibly effective and very therapeutic. So I did our mud room grout over the summer, and the difference was night and day. So I wasn't ever in love with the tile that's down there in our mud room, but replacing tile when there's like it's perfectly fine tile, it's just ugly and not what I would choose. Um, it just seemed like wildly unnecessary and expensive. Um, so my friend actually suggested redoing the grout, and oh my gosh, let me tell you, it made all the difference. I feel like we have brand new floors, and for a$15 bottle of grout paint and a little paintbrush, I I could not believe it. I actually like our mud room now. Um, so yeah, that's that's been huge. I'm gonna put the link for the bottle of of like grout paint. It's I guess you could call it grout. I don't, I don't know what it is. I'm gonna put it in the show notes in case you want to check it out. They have like a bajillion different colors. I'm actually using I had to use a different color in our bathroom than in the mud room because of obviously different color tiles and whatever. Um, I cannot even tell you how much of a difference it made. So I just please take my word for it. Okay, number three, good audiobooks to do this, to do the grout, because I mean it's just like really therapeutically you're doing like one grout line at a time. You've got a paintbrush and like you know, music, podcasts, audiobooks. So see episodes two, 107, and 202 for some of my favorite books as of recent. Um, so yeah, just like good audiobooks to kind of help me through, help me through the process. Uh, number four is um food, right? Like part of the of the rhythm of survival is food, obviously. And so I've just been falling back on old staples that I can make with my eyes closed, staples that come together quickly, enjoyably. Um, I love finding new recipes and a new challenge and just trying something new. You know, sometimes I can get really stale having the same rotation of like 15 items over and over. This is not really the season for it. Um, I will totally branch out when I have a little bit of extra energy, but I just don't foresee that happening right now. So I am making my pasta bolognese, I am making chicken noodle soup, I am just slapping salmon and green beans and potatoes on a sheet pan. I am making meatloaf, like things that I can just make really easily, very simply. And that's that. Uh, number five is leaning heavily on my support system, whether that is sending a voice memo to my best friend when something funny happens that I only she would appreciate, um, or calling a family member, or I mean, yeah, just like my people, right? Like I have probably like five people that I talk to every single day. And that is something that I just lean really heavily on when I'm in this kind of like mindset, which by the way, so that ties into season or sorry, that tie that ties into point number six, is that like we just need to know what we're dealing with. Like, February is just not a productivity season, it is what they would call a contraction season. So, like in nature, seeds are underground, bears hibernate, bees cluster together to survive, right? Like, stillness doesn't have to necessarily equate to stagnation. Um, you could look at it as like preservation, right? So, I guess just like giving myself grace that this is just a really hard period of time. I I really am wondering if it is my age as I like creep closer and closer to 40, if I just cannot handle winters in the way that I did five, 10 years ago, where I was like, it's fine, like whatever. Or it could be just like the challenge and the difficulty of getting a full cart of groceries into the trunk while buckling car seats with just frigid fingers. I don't know what it is, you guys, but there is just something about winter that I like it I find unbearable. But knowing that, you know, I guess if we recently had Groundhog Day and he saw a shadow, so like six more weeks of winter, right? So, like in six weeks, like this will be such a different story. And sure, like spring and summer obviously come with their own unique set of challenges, but I feel like it's more bearable than this. So, okay. Um, number seven is just lowering the bar on stimulation on purpose because I feel like February can be loud enough in its own fun ways, and so I'm really just giving myself permission to like reduce input fewer podcasts some days, um, just you know, familiar music. Uh, maybe that's like re-watching uh a comfort show or maybe it's rereading a book that I love. Just just like choose instead of choosing something like I don't know, like there are some some days I walk to preschool with nothing in my ear. Like not, I'm not talking to anyone on the phone. I'm not listening to a podcast. I'm just there, like less stimulation, like less input. Like sometimes, I mean, I love listening to podcasts and books and you know, getting all this information, but sometimes it can just be too much, and I don't want to have to do anything with that information, and so I don't know, just raw dogging it on the way, like walking to the library with the kids. Like that's fine. I don't know, you guys. Um, okay, so point number eight, I want to say this, but at the same time, like knowing like what the last two weeks of my life looked like. I know that I don't always take my own advice. Number eight being like getting outside once a day, even if it's just briefly not necessarily a workout, not like a power walk, just just daylight, like a little stroller loop around the block. Um, maybe it's just like standing on the porch for like an extra minute when I get the mail. I don't know. Um, but just yeah, like like something, you know, something primal, like breathing fresh air, like feeling sun on your face, even though winter hours are just you know unbearably short, you know, five minutes counts. And I say that and I mean that, but then I know that the last two weeks I have barely taken that advice because it's just been so cold and the kids have been really sick. I mean, not thank God everyone's like recovered and fine, but like it can also be really hard to do that. And so going back to point number six is just giving myself grace on days where that doesn't happen. Um, and knowing that when the weather warms up a little bit, like this will no longer be like such a forced um priority. Okay. Uh number nine is one small thing to look forward to each week. Like maybe it's a soup I'm excited to make or Friday afternoons. Um, we we lately I've my kids get out of school early on Friday for the Sabbath, and so um, and we have a babysitter here for the little toddlers. So um I guess yeah, I guess I have two toddlers now. Isn't that so weird? Yeah, I have a 17-month-old and a three-year-old. So yeah, our two toddlers. Um, so she's here with them after I pick up my two big kids from school early. Um, we've been heading to the coffee shop and we've been sharing a cookie that they have, and it's been really nice. It's been like a good ritual. Kind of like sit and talk, and they are just like chatty, and it's it's great. I feel like it's so different than like when they come home from school and like on, you know, on a Wednesday afternoon, let's say, and they're having their like you know, snack in the car, and um, and they don't really want to tell me about their day, so I'll just tell them about my day. But it's like completely the opposite on Friday when we like go out for this like cookie um at the local coffee shop. It's really nice. Um, you know, maybe that could just be like a candle or a new library book that came in for you, like one of your holds, like nothing extravagant, just like proof that time is still moving forward. Um, February does need like some markers, and so for me, um, I'm just counting on like our little cookie ritual, and um yeah, I mean, obviously the big one for me is obviously the Sabbath. Like, I that that is my marker. I look forward to that every single week. Um, we have we found a couple of years ago we discovered this kosher wine that they sell at Trader Joe's, and it is it's actually really good. Um, a lot of kosher wine is not. Um, and so it's just I've been really looking forward to it. Homemade Hala, sitting down, and it's like the one meal a week where my husband and I don't jump up immediately after dinner and start cleaning. We kind of like sit there. The kids at some point will leave and go play near us, around us, um, and we just sit and talk, and oh, it's nice, it's nice. So, yeah, I've I've been leaning very heavily heavily into the Sabbath this winter, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what God intended. So, um, and then the last point um that I wanted to make is just again, like tied into the body, and that is um early nights and um the vitamin D supplements. I am just a huge believer that we should follow the rhythms of nature, and that is earlier beds, right? Like, I mean, the sun is thank thank God, like we're starting to get like a little bit more sunlight around five o'clock. But I mean, it's like it's pretty dark, it's six o'clock, and so I don't feel any guilt by going to bed at 8, 8:30, 9 o'clock, and I'm fine with that. And then also just really um popping vitamin D every single day, like uh like enough to offset the little natural sunlight that I'm getting. Um, and when I feel a scratchy throat coming on, or if the kids are sick and I don't want to catch whatever they have, I will pop. I'm gonna completely butcher the pronunciation of it. It's like curecent, curecetin. I oh god, I don't know if you guys, but it has um, it's like it's just natural, it has lots of I don't know, whatever, but it has it has kept me very healthy this winter, thank god. And between all the like bronchitis and flu and fevers, I have thank God not had any of it. Um, so I I am very grateful for that. Um, I should probably look into something for my kids because I feel like they could probably use a dose of vitamin D as well. Um, but yeah, that's kind of where we're at this winter. So again, the the the goal is not to thrive in February, it's just entering, you know, survival mode. Uh we just I just need to make it through with like my nervous system mostly intact, just knowing that spring will return, the light will return, the good energy will return. And until then, just like simplifying surviving and uh just knowing it's okay, it's the season. So I hope you guys aren't like, oh my gosh, this woman is so fragile. Like, what is wrong with her? Um, I don't know. I don't know. I I feel like I know that I'm not alone here. So I hope this episode was helpful. I hope you took away something, and I will catch you guys back here next week.