Waiting out Winter
Hi Everybody!
Snow and unbelievable cold has the entire Midwest and most of the country in its clutches this week. But most of you probably know that:)
Myself, I haven't left the house since Friday or Saturday, when I made my own "walker path" through the ice and snow on the side walk to get some leafy greens at the market. Sometimes, in this weather especially, you just need that.
And I've kept the heat steadily up in the house. My energy and electricity bills will surely suffer a little blow this season, but I'm thankful I have the option of turning up the heat. I can not fathom what it must be like for everybody without a home, or without heat, this year. It's been absolutely insane.But the dogs and I are coping. Gone are the days of being able to turn off my heat entirely when I went to bed, certainly!
I turn it down, but often leave the electric fireplace going in my room for several hours. I love a good shower, or soak in the tub, and I am mainlining hot tea! I drink it all day long, conscious all the time of how important it is in this very dry weather to stay on top of hydration, and I'm careful not to get too thirsty. A lot of people don't like drinking water, and I am definitely one of them:( I always feel just a little bit like I'm drowning when I swallow water. But it can do wonders!
Water perks me up, and helps me sleep. It solves digestive issues that are all-too-common as I've "grown up," and it helps soothe a headache. I've read recently that a few dabs of peppermint oil in strategic places all over the body will do the same thing, but I don't have peppermint oil. I have water.
Meanwhile my little puppies love going out in this snow. I can hardly force them to stay inside for more than a few hours before they're whining to be let out. They run around sniffing everything; they've beaten a path around the backyard along the fence and the house. Yoshi has to take leaps to get over the snow so he can bound around in it, but he looks adorable, and so happy to get the exercise! Of course I feel bad not being able to give him more....but I know he'd just drag me down and all over the neighborhood on his leash:( Plus he hates the leash; so the backyard is the compromise.
Several times this winter, particularly during the raging ice storm we in Grand Rapids endured for several days with many losing power for almost a week, I have been terrified I was going to lose power. I've been stockpiling candles and lighters, checking my emergency radios (two--thanks to Michael), and washing blankets and doing laundry constantly just in case I don't have the luxury of a machine to do it for me! But so far, so good. Even with the mounds and mounds of snow outside practically burying the country, my little fortress has stood strong.
Although there was about a 24 hour period when just the light in my upstairs bathroom went out, which was utterly bizarre. But I dealt with that without much hassle, and now everything is back to normal. Honestly, I just thought the bulbs had all decided to burn out at the same time, which seemed odd, but I didn't question.
The holidays were a joyous month and a half of celebration after celebration; I even went to my first candlelight service on one of the nights when most of my neighborhood was "in the dark." Church services had been cancelled that morning, and it was the Sunday before Christmas so everyone was pretty disappointed! Lucky for me, I have the best friends in the world, who took me through the ice and snow (I thought it was bad then) to participate in a little carol singing and Bible reading to get in the spirit. I went home floating on a Christmasy cloud:)
New Year's Eve was definitely more low key this year than last year! No surprises sparkled through the spontaneous night for me this time:) But that was okay. I still managed to make it through the snow to get a bottle of red champagne and a bottle of rose to toast 2014's arrival. I guess the existence of red champagne was my surprise! So was going on an impromptu thrift store shopping spree the day before that yielded the perfect pewter glasses to toast with.
That was six days ago, and now you're up to speed! I leave you with the link to a modern "Christmas carol" of sorts I was obsessed with watching on YouTube this year, arguably the best modern Irish Christmas song ever, "The Fairytale of New York" by the mysteriously attractive Shane MacGowan (because he isn't) of the Pogues and the adorable Kristy Macoll. The recording is even more special because, as I found out recently, poor Kristy died in a boating accident shortly after it was filmed. RIP sweetie; what a lovely gift to give the world!
http://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8
Snow and unbelievable cold has the entire Midwest and most of the country in its clutches this week. But most of you probably know that:)
Myself, I haven't left the house since Friday or Saturday, when I made my own "walker path" through the ice and snow on the side walk to get some leafy greens at the market. Sometimes, in this weather especially, you just need that.
And I've kept the heat steadily up in the house. My energy and electricity bills will surely suffer a little blow this season, but I'm thankful I have the option of turning up the heat. I can not fathom what it must be like for everybody without a home, or without heat, this year. It's been absolutely insane.But the dogs and I are coping. Gone are the days of being able to turn off my heat entirely when I went to bed, certainly!
I turn it down, but often leave the electric fireplace going in my room for several hours. I love a good shower, or soak in the tub, and I am mainlining hot tea! I drink it all day long, conscious all the time of how important it is in this very dry weather to stay on top of hydration, and I'm careful not to get too thirsty. A lot of people don't like drinking water, and I am definitely one of them:( I always feel just a little bit like I'm drowning when I swallow water. But it can do wonders!
Water perks me up, and helps me sleep. It solves digestive issues that are all-too-common as I've "grown up," and it helps soothe a headache. I've read recently that a few dabs of peppermint oil in strategic places all over the body will do the same thing, but I don't have peppermint oil. I have water.
Meanwhile my little puppies love going out in this snow. I can hardly force them to stay inside for more than a few hours before they're whining to be let out. They run around sniffing everything; they've beaten a path around the backyard along the fence and the house. Yoshi has to take leaps to get over the snow so he can bound around in it, but he looks adorable, and so happy to get the exercise! Of course I feel bad not being able to give him more....but I know he'd just drag me down and all over the neighborhood on his leash:( Plus he hates the leash; so the backyard is the compromise.
Several times this winter, particularly during the raging ice storm we in Grand Rapids endured for several days with many losing power for almost a week, I have been terrified I was going to lose power. I've been stockpiling candles and lighters, checking my emergency radios (two--thanks to Michael), and washing blankets and doing laundry constantly just in case I don't have the luxury of a machine to do it for me! But so far, so good. Even with the mounds and mounds of snow outside practically burying the country, my little fortress has stood strong.
Although there was about a 24 hour period when just the light in my upstairs bathroom went out, which was utterly bizarre. But I dealt with that without much hassle, and now everything is back to normal. Honestly, I just thought the bulbs had all decided to burn out at the same time, which seemed odd, but I didn't question.
The holidays were a joyous month and a half of celebration after celebration; I even went to my first candlelight service on one of the nights when most of my neighborhood was "in the dark." Church services had been cancelled that morning, and it was the Sunday before Christmas so everyone was pretty disappointed! Lucky for me, I have the best friends in the world, who took me through the ice and snow (I thought it was bad then) to participate in a little carol singing and Bible reading to get in the spirit. I went home floating on a Christmasy cloud:)
New Year's Eve was definitely more low key this year than last year! No surprises sparkled through the spontaneous night for me this time:) But that was okay. I still managed to make it through the snow to get a bottle of red champagne and a bottle of rose to toast 2014's arrival. I guess the existence of red champagne was my surprise! So was going on an impromptu thrift store shopping spree the day before that yielded the perfect pewter glasses to toast with.
That was six days ago, and now you're up to speed! I leave you with the link to a modern "Christmas carol" of sorts I was obsessed with watching on YouTube this year, arguably the best modern Irish Christmas song ever, "The Fairytale of New York" by the mysteriously attractive Shane MacGowan (because he isn't) of the Pogues and the adorable Kristy Macoll. The recording is even more special because, as I found out recently, poor Kristy died in a boating accident shortly after it was filmed. RIP sweetie; what a lovely gift to give the world!
http://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8
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