I am sure that for most of you who live in areas that had an unusually cold and snowy winter, that the passing of March 20th meant a little more than it usually does. Being the first day of Spring, all of our minds breathed a sigh of relief for surely warm weather and a brighter color palette would be ours in the not too distant future?

Since I do not think that anyone wants to truly remember the Winter of 2014, I thought I would look at things a in a different light and recap some of the things that I learned to do this Winter. These things would never have come to fruition should this winter not have been what it was. ( I provided pictures for some of these grand accomplishments. For others, I thought you would be better served by creating your own visuals)

1) Learned to walk on large swatches of ice without falling on my keister but without maintaining any sense of grace.

2) Learned how to effectively use a combination of kitty litter, straw and brute strength to dig a wide variety of cars out of our driveway.

3) Learned how to dodge both fallen tree branches and pot holes, sometimes simultaneously.

4) Learned how to drive on snow packed roads which frankly were a lot easier to maneuver on than ice covered surfaces.

5) Learned how to start a generator. (Sorry no visual…quite difficult to do whilst taking a photo)

6) Learned how to warm oneself up in our very old and cold drafty house by utilizing the heated floor in our bathroom as a way of warming one’s body thoroughly clothed, usually with a coat on. (Again no visual for I do have some pride!)

7) Learned to be very thankful to the ones who paved the way to institute a Spring Break into the school calendar. After this winter, one truly realizes that to take a break after the long drawn out cold winter is truly nirvana…IF one goes to a warmer place than one already lives in.

SPRING Break in Canada is quite an oxymoron. I don’t think that they have gotten the memo that the first day of the Spring Equinox has passed. Does this look like Spring skiing???

Low of -8 tomorrow.

Lesson learned…might want to examine heading any further North next year for Spring Break!