Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

Are ya scared?  You should be.  It’s Friday the 13th afterall.  Good morning sweet shoppers.  Laura here today, just to babble a lil’ bit in your ear (or on your eyes, whichever you feel more comfortable envisioning).

It’s no secret that I suffer from seasonal depression.  For years, I tried to deny it, but the older I get, the worse it gets.  I’m assuming that this has a lot to do with the fact that I have way more responsibilities than I ever have before and well, the more I have going on, the more I tend to stress and worry, and thus, the more time I dwell, which leads to the depression.  Are you still with me? LOL  I live in Illinois.  We tend to have pretty, rough, long winters here.  It starts to get cold (usually) in November and that’s when we start having gray days as well as snow.  This means lots of time spent indoors.  This is not good for us here in the Wilson household.  We are all outdoorsy folk and we need our vitamin D.    Over the years, I’ve tried everything.  I was on meds.  I tanned (I know, bad Laura).  I wrote in a journal.  I scrapped pages.  I even talked to a therapist.  I finally came to accept the fact that I’d have a bad couple of months.

This year, i decided to be proactive about this.  I started taking Vitamin D pills at the beginning of November.  I made sure I got in the habit of taking a multi-vitamin.  I planned some fun things to do with the girls every week (be it a small craft project, a game we’d never played, a movie, just something to do).  I started baking *gasp*.  I started taking a Vitamin B pill as well.  Here we are, mid-January and I’m still doing pretty good.  Sure, I have my off days, but I have those in the middle of August as well.  One thing that I’ve really focused on is faking it.  Yes, you read that right.  I’ve been faking it.  I read somewhere that  ‘going through the motions can trigger the emotions.’  That really struck a chord with me.  So, this year, I’m trying something new.  Instead of spiraling into the depression that I know so many of us fall into, I’m going to try to embrace the positive.  It’ll be a HUGE stretch from my norm, but there are so many things I should be grateful for, why not try to dwell on that?

One thing that I’ve always done to sort of ease the ickies, is a lil’ bit of scrap therapy, so, that’s what I leave you with today.  I made this page with Jenn’s Snow Bunny and it definitely sums up my feelings perfectly!

With that, I’m out.  I hope you all are bad luck free today.  As for me, I’m off to babysit a bunch of kiddos and try to make the most of this snowy, windy weather we’re having here!  Have a great weekend!!