Blessings in Disguise...

It's easy to get caught up in all the frustrations of life. But boy is it great if you can try and see the bright side to things.

Someone asked me recently if coming from several years in Florida, was I affected by the winter here in KS. A lot of people get the blahs or blues or seasonal affective disorder in the winter.

I told them, well, I might have, but I kept having to figure out ways to cheer Brady up about the winter. Oh that kid can moan and groan about something like nobody's business. Maybe that's human nature in its purest form in a child. We have to be "taught" to think positive, LOL.

So I say, wow, isn't it great we can go anywhere we want and not worry about poison ivy or ticks or mosquitoes or wasps? Isn't wonderful we aren't finding brown recluses in the house? Hey, I love sledding!

And finally, it stuck. When he told me on that 28-degree day he wished I'd have walked to pick him up from school, I knew we'd succeeded in him finding the positives in winter. Nowadays, I say, wow, this cold has sure made us ready for spring, hasn't it! We'll really appreciate it when it gets here!

And I find this positive thinking on his behalf has stuck with me too. I really believe it! I'm seeing the good side of winter too.

But here's something I hadn't expected. I pretty much have a stuffy nose from the first cold day until end of allergy season. Ugh. About half the year. Doesn't seem like something you can find a positive in, right? Well it wasn't until I read recently (can't remember in which magazine though) that people who have a runny nose in the winter are less likely to get colds and flu because the mucus traps the germs and flushes them out.

Yay! Guess I won't complain because (knock on wood) I haven't had a cold or flu this winter when everyone around me seemed to.