Winter in Wisconsin.

winter in wisconsin

I’m joining Mama Kat’s Pretty Much World Famous Writer’s Workshop again this week, answering the prompt:

5.) Show us what winter looks like in your neck of the woods!

Here in Wisconsin we are just barely escaping the clutches of the dreaded Polar Vortex that came around just in time to stretch out our winter vacation, causing weary mothers everywhere to collectively freak out at the prospect of being trapped indoors with the kids for another day of Chutes and Ladders and “Mommy, I’m bored” marathons. Well, I’m sure there are some Type A Wisconsin moms out there who were thrilled, but confession time? I wasn’t one of them.

When you are a kid, snow days are awesome because you get to play outside and make snow men and drink hot cocoa and watch movies, but this my friends, was not a snow day. School was not cancelled because we were drowning in eleventy feet of snow, but because it was too cold out. Too cold for school, guys. Cause that’s a thing. Here’s what the Weather Geniuses have had to say for themselves lately:

winter weather in wisconsin

In Wisconsin Winters, you get really used to hearing the word “frigid” a lot and eventually you stop wanting to slap everyone for saying it, because frankly it’s the only word that can possibly describe a wind chill that makes -9 degrees feel like -19 degrees. That makes seeing 6 degrees as the high in a few days seem like reason for celebration!!!!! Woohoo!!!!! We don’t get out much in Wisconsin winters…

So what does frigid ole Wisconsin winter LOOK like?

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Watching your kids sled in the backyard with your very brave, crazy husband while you hide inside drinking hot cocoa, tea, coffee and every other warm beverage you can think of.

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Hot toddy, anyone?

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It looks like temperatures so low that ice is slowly crawling up your windows and sliding doors in a long, desperate attempt to take over the planet by frost power alone.

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It looks like a lot of long hours spent inside, trying to come up with new ways to entertain ourselves and our small children. Here you can see my son has built a Lego diagram of grandpa’s house in Florida. Think warm thoughts, son!

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Winter in Wisconsin looks like my four year old developing a drinking problem. They start younger and younger these days…

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On a cold Wisconsin Winter morning, this is called “ready to go to the bus stop”.

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Wisconsin winters make you wonder why you bother buying Christmas lawn ornaments at all. I swear every year the second I put out poor snoopy, we get a foot of snow the next day. Poor Snoopy.

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But if you can get past the bitter cold, frigid temperatures and severe wind chill advisories and occasional massive snow storms and extended winter vacations trapped at home with the children, sometimes you get a glimpse of the beautiful things about winter, too – like tiny icicles on the branches, puffy white clouds and brilliant blue skies – and coffee. There’s always coffee.

What does Winter look like where you live?

Mama’s Losin’ It


13 responses to “Winter in Wisconsin.”

  1. Lisa @ The Meaning of Me Avatar

    Yup, we had the same kind of cold and school cancellations here. Can’t say I’m sad…it’s just SO cold. But that photo of the icicles on the tree? Stunning!

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  2. mamaslosinit Avatar
    mamaslosinit

    Snow is pretty, but frigid is not my friend. Cannot imagine school be canceled because it’s too cold. That sounds SO miserable!

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  3. MJ Avatar

    Ah, we had the whole “school cancelled due to extreme cold” thing here in Kentucky too. First time for everything, I guess. I think I could have handled it better if there had been snow on the ground, but no. It was sunny and -4. Spring can’t come soon enough. Stay warm!

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  4. Meg Avatar

    School was canceled in KY, too, because it was cold! The kids around here have had 2 days of school in the year 2014. They aren’t going to have much of a summer!

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    1. Jen E @ mommablogsalot Avatar

      Yeah our kids have had three days of school so far this year but that’s only two extra days of vacation.

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  5. kaybee Avatar

    Those pictures are beautiful, but the temperatures are crazy. We had cold (single digits), but it wasn’t anywhere near that bad. I hope that you warm up a little bit!

    Love your Tardis mug 🙂

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  6. Elastamom Avatar

    Looks familiar!!! Great pictures!

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  7. Nish Avatar

    Winter pretty much looks like summer where I live :), the temperatures dip, and there is a lot more rain (occasionally hail), but otherwise nothing different.

    I know winter is inconvenient, and I would hate to shovel snow every morning, but your Wisconsin winter looks so pretty

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  8. madamdreamweaver Avatar

    I like your snow pictures. I grew up with snow in Indiana. As for the weather people, I think they have a conspiracy going on to make us all afraid of weather. I lived in Nebraska where windchill got to be minus 75 and no one said a word about it. The Air Force didn’t let us off work. Times have changed.

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  9. Mimi B Avatar

    Sigh…I miss this so much! Trust me, you leave for a week in January for a FL vacation is one thing. Being gone for a year and not seeing a “normal” midwest winter, you miss it. Ok, –> I <– miss it. lol I love seeing pictures of all your snow. I'm sending you my mailing address right now so you can send me some. =)

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  10. Lisa Avatar

    We’ve had a similar situation to you. Our daughter was supposed to return to school on Monday this week but had snow days on Monday and Tuesday due to windchill. It was -40 with the wind chill. Brrr! She went back to school yesterday though. Luckily we’re done with that frigid weather for the moment. 🙂

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    1. Jen E @ mommablogsalot Avatar

      I think our wind chill got pretty close to yours – the weather report I shared was actually at the tail end of our cold snap and of course now my mom brain cannot remember exactly how frigid it got! My kiddos went back to school yesterday also – and mothers everywhere rejoiced!

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  11. jamie@southmainmuse Avatar

    We had a lot of burst pipes around here this last “frigid” snap. We aren’t used to the teens and windchills of “0.” Loved those photos of the snow. So beautiful.

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