Imagine yourself on a gently floating boat in a tunnel, à la Splash Mountain (but without the racist undertones). The sign above the ride seems benign enough, (perhaps also à la Splash Mountain), but as you enter the tunnel and turn the first corner, you suddenly realize you’re stuck in a whirlpool in the dark, slowly swirling in circles and going nowhere.

Congratulations, we are now entering The Doldrums. That spot in the year after the major winter holidays, before spring. Here in RVA it’s like Narnia but without the snow. “Always winter, never Christmas.” Too cold (and windy, omg) to enjoy large amounts of time outside. Colds, flus, other sicknesses rampage through daycare and every other week something unwanted visits us.

It’s this time of year when cabin fever begins its annual trek through my house, and I begin feeling the walls close in on me. I need change, but with holidays (and a kid’s birthday) so recently behind me, I have to go easy with my choices and not replace all the furniture in my house with beanbag chairs and throws (which would be sooooo cozy.. hand me a book).

This is the time of year I start looking at the photos on my walls and notice how different the kids look now. It’s when I start looking through more recent photos, deciding which ones I want to replace, and then making the effort (this is the hard part) to replace them. Getting them printed isn’t hard (I get my family photos printed here). It’s remembering to get them printed that is hard. Or maybe the hard part for you is going through your photos and realizing you don’t have any more current photos that you want to see up on your walls. I have a solution for that as well.

If you get lost in The Doldrums ever year, this is a great time to do your planning. Book a trip, print your photos, plan a family photography session for spring. It won’t be winter forever. This is me, standing in the watery Doldrums tunnel like a log flume employee with a whistle, pushing you out of that whirlpool and toward the current that will carry you into the light.