I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

A friend on the west coast mentioned that she had been out bike riding with the kids yesterday.  Bike...riding?  Meanwhile, this was the view out my kitchen yesterday - and for the past week, now that I think of it:

A mini blizzard!  This time of year can be very trying, especially when the sky matches the ground and everything is greyish white and it feels, to be honest, like spring will never come.  It's not unlike the Ingalls family, enduring the Long Winter, thinking that hey, it's March, which means spring and the trains are finally going to get through and we all won't starve to death!  And then the trains don't get through until May.

Wait.  It's not like that at all.  I mean, we will probably still have snow until May, but the consequences are not so dire.  I'm not twisting hay to keep warm and eating one slice of bread a day, is what I'm saying.  The poor Ingalls family.  Can you imagine how deficient in Vitamin D they were?  As well as being deficient in every other nutrient. 

In my house, we all take Vitamin D supplements - sometimes more than one supplement a day, depending on the level of gloom outside.  It's well documented that Vitamin D helps with immunity and calcium absorption, but I think it also helps with moods and fighting the winter blues.  Yesterday I took an extra supplement, and guess what happened!  The sun came out.  Literally.  The sun started to shine immediately following my supplement ingestion; you're welcome, Calgary.

Another good way to fight the blues is to make cookies, and since there is a birthday coming up in our house - Mark will be NINE next week - I made everyone's favourite sugar cookies in the shape of stars, and that, along with some on-sale blackberries and strawberries, will comprise the school snacks for the week.

Goodbye, blues.  Hello, blue cookies!  You may notice that one of those things is not like the others; that was the scrag-end of the dough, which Jake poked a happy face into prior to baking.  It's a smiley face for the soon-to-be birthday boy!  Which is smile inducing for me, while I wait and wait for the snow to melt.

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I did a little reseach on food sources containing Vitamin D, wondering if we could up our intake that way.  The primary food sources are mainly fish - salmon contains the highest levels, by far - but since fish is not consumed in our house, the next-best thing is Vitamin D-enriched products.  The boys both like milk and yogurt, and so I often make thick smoothies, with a one-to-one ratio of milk to yogurt and a big handful of frozen blueberries or mixed berries.  It's a frosty, Vitamin D-full treat, and in a Thermos it would probably be a nice addition to a school lunch on a gloomy day.