Mid-Forevuary

My hubby long ago dubbed February ‘Forevuary’ and it stuck. This January-Forevuary is so far proving to be the longest-seeming one so far on record, and I’m frankly getting a bit tired of it.

There are reasons for the neverending winter this year: one, I am pregnant. I am thrilled to bits about this and really enjoying it, feeling great, etc. but I have to say, the only things that get me through winter are skiing and other pursuits like toboganning, drinking, etc., and I can’t do any of them. I can’t do anything that involves speed and I have to watch myself on the ice. Something about my increased rate of oxygen exchange added to my perennial asthma yadda yadda makes breathing kind of an issue these days, so even walking the dog is an effort. Also, winter = a nice fire + red wine and that last one’s off the table, so I’ve tackled this Forevuary stone sober and breathless.

Secondly, it’s been pretty darn cold. This week’s not so bad but a couple of weekends ago when it was minus 30 and windy, I felt like the winter might never end. Poor hubby went on a ski vacation that weekend and his skin is still peeling off of his face. Change is in the air, however – something about the light this past few days has indicated that spring might be on its way, the temperatures have gone a bit more moderate, and no new snow has fallen, which makes me hopeful that winter will go out with a whimper.

Thirdly, I’m pregnant. And early-type pregnant, like I’m now 13 ½ weeks, and every day is being counted. As prisoners and kids waiting for Christmas know, counting the days makes them go more slowly, like watching the proverbial pot of water come to a boil. So today I am 13weeks 4days pregnant, tomorrow I will be 13weeks 5days pregnant, etc. etc and man, February is only 28 days but that is long. I hope that time will go more quickly once I start to grow, and start feeling kicks and stuff. Once I allow myself to start shopping for this baby (furniture, stroller, car seat etc.) it will go a bit faster, make it seem a bit more real.

Fourthly, I love to knit, but I’m working on a never-ending knitting project that’s got the whole system slowed down. There are three or four projects on deck, but I can’t start them until this one’s completed. It’s the second half of a Christmas gift, so it’s already tardy (sorry Kelly!), and it’s just taking me ages to get through it. Once I move on to baby stuff (a hat for a newborn, little sweaters for fall, perhaps a cheery blanket) things will click along again and I’ll get my mojo back. Just no cables for awhile, ’kay? I’m all cabled out.

Fifthly, I am officially sick of my winter clothes. I bought some new maternity clothes to get me over this little hump (in reality, I don’t really need them, but dayum maternity pants are COMFY. Why didn’t I know this before?) but in general the wardrobe is pretty limited and drab. I look forward to wearing lots of dresses (with no pantyhose), sandals, nice t-shirts, and not having to top it all with an unflattering puffy coat that’s getting tight in the belly. I look forward to walking the dog in my hiking shoes that lace up and fit me correctly, instead of my giant clompy boots that are a size too large and make my socks shuffle down into the arches of my feet.

Sixthly, my skin is suffering. This may also be a symptom of pregnancy, but I’m kind of dry and itchy in patches, and my face has taken on a ghostly cast. Deathly white is my normal winter skin tone, but I really look forward to lazing around at the lake, tanning my big oiled-up belly, getting some rays on my face and looking healthy once again. I also look forward to floating around on my air mattress and being pulled up the hill by some kind of elaborate harness-and-pulley system that I haven’t yet dreamed up, but may require. Our land is kind of steep. Anyway, once the sun hits my skin I will come alive once again and I will stop scratching at my hips and the sides of my tummy.

Seventhly, winter food is dull, man. I went to the grocery store the other day and was trying to pick out fruits and veggies and was totally uninspired. Everything comes from Mexico or Peru or other warm and distant climes. I was handling a mango and realized that only one side is red, the rest is green, likely because that’s how they were packed when picked under-ripe and only the exposed side went red. That’s depressing. Also, I keep checking out the strawberries but they’re $5 a box and probably anemic looking/tasting. I kind of wish I was eating ice cream a lot of the time but who eats ice cream in the cold? In early winter I was all into squash and heavy pastas and carby deliciousness but lately I find it hard to get all the veggies into my system that it requires. I’ve been drinking lots of natural-type fruit juices to make up for it. I saw a picture of BBQ-grilled vegetables the other day in a magazine and it very nearly made me drool.

Eighthly, my house is cold. Enough said. I’m tired of wearing layers indoors. The other day found me all confused, wearing olive-green fleece leggings, a black-and grey striped long-sleeved t-shirt, a bright fuchsia fleece sweater, and those Ugg-type slipper boots. I was a vision. My kingdom to be able to wander around in a tank top. My next house is definitely going to have radiant floor heating, because all of the houses I’ve visited with that system are over-warm, and that sounds pretty good in Forevuary.

So boo-hoo hoo eh? I thought I might stop complaining, since life’s been pretty good these days, but it seems I can always find something to whine about. It’s not all doom and gloom though: pretty soon I will get the grow-op up and running once again, and start all the plants that will go in with good intentions in May and June and be completely wild and ignored by August, when my mind will be elsewhere. I promise to keep the veggie garden to a dull roar this year. The aforementioned outdoor light change will start to warm up the air, so that come March, I’ll hopefully be able to drag out some lawn chairs and sit in the wind-free area of my deck in the sun on a Saturday afternoon, reading a book or something, NOT drinking a glass of wine. Pretty soon my belly will pop out a bit, and I look forward to an ultrasound in late March which will show us our little one and turn up some fetal genitals of one sort or the other. Our new pick-up truck is up and running, having gone through the safety check process and come out the other side, (with us $1,700 poorer). I look forward to driving that sweet truck up to the land some weekend in late March and checking out my brother-in-law’s cottage, which has been worked-on steadily throughout this winter, and seeing if our trailer’s still standing under the snow. Several of my loved ones are expecting babies, so to Leslie, Peggy, Kris and all you other growing bellies, I can’t wait to meet your new little ones in the coming weeks and months. I will start shopping in March or April, getting my ducklings in line so that I won’t be waddling around the malls in August all large and resentful. All in all, life is good.

If only I could just put Forevuary behind me!