1. Hang out with some really old trees. Rent snowshoes from the Saint Charles Park District and take a walk in the Tekawitha Woods. Tekawitha Forest Preserve has the oldest trees in the area due to its location just east of Fox River (protected from the winds of forest fires.) They have dated one of the oak trees back to 1864.
More information on the snowshoe rental here.
More information on Tekawitha Forest Preserve here.
I would love to do this! But logistics are difficult for me with a 20 month old and a 4 year old. Would love to hear some feedback from anyone who has gone snowshoeing.
2. Improve your relationships by listening to a Solfeggio 639 Hz Meditational Ap on your Smart Device. I keep reading on the internet about these ‘solfeggio frequencies’.
This is a term coined by Leonard Horowitz, DMD and Joseph Puleo in 1999. It is a system of musical tuning for pitched instruments, referring to a belief that a set of nine frequencies derived from numerology were used centuries ago in Gregorian and Sanskrit chants. These frequencies are believed to create positive shifts to those in proximity to them.
A bunch of hooey or ahead of their time? Who knows, but I have been listening to this lovely app on my Iphone and enjoying it.
In the app store, do a search for 639 hz and pull up this meditation by Glenn Harrold and Ali Calderwood – two English blokes.
639 Hz is for Connecting and Relationships. This meditation is to encourage your perceptions of love, bring more harmony and balance, develop more self love and acceptance and handle issues around loneliness and emotional stability. It will also clean your oven and vacuum your living room. Kidding. Those are some pretty tall claims, aren’t they. But I do like the meditation, especially the part where he says: ‘allow yourself to completely let go’, and then this phrase reverberates. I feel as if I am in this octagonal room with the sound bouncing off each window pane. All my cares float away.
And then those cares wake up from their nap and scream from downstairs that Doc McStuffins is over. Ahhh.
Well, we can all use a bit of help getting along with each other this time of year, and it certainly can’t hurt. Here is the direct link to the app.
3. Ice Skating and Ice Fishing* On the same Saint Charles Park District page, it talks about the local ice skating rinks, but gee whiz, especially this year, ice skating rinks abound. You need 4 inches of ice for it to be okay to stand on. At my neighborhood boat basin, the ice fishers said there is about 15 inches currently, but be sure to check this!
Pick up inexpensive skates at Play It Again Sports on Randall, shovel off the ice on a nearby pond and what winter fun! The older boys love to play hockey, but even my four year old loves to go sliding in her snowboots.
If you have found a local pond, chances are there may be some ice fishing holes already available. (There are at my boat basin.) My girls loved looking at the fish that some the ice fishers caught – what a great reminder of life underneath and upcoming spring!
* Do this at your own risk! I tell my kids over and over they are NOT allowed on any water without an adult. When I go ice skating, I make sure there is another adult nearby to pull me out or call for help and that we have a rope. Okay, I see all of the snowmobilers on the river, but I’m not taking any needless chances!
4. And for those 20 below windchill days when getting out just is not an option, hold the Indoor Sochi Winter Olympics in your house.
Keep the little ones busy by making their own personal team flags and then participating in the opening parade. Put the real Olympics on in the background so they can see some of the competition and people from all over the world.
Depending on age levels, come up with some simple races such as pillow case, egg spoon races and three-legged. My older son has an indoor hockey set and of course, we added basketball with one of our indoor basketball over the door hoops.
Invite some Mom friends over so their kids can play. I admit we were not competitive with this, but rather let the kids play and have fun. I dug out my champagne from New Year’s that we had not drank yet, some orange juice and had mimosas. It was a great day.
Would love to hear some more ideas for February activites and other feedback.
the divine feminine app: Find a Women's Circle 