Winter Wondering...

 

Natasha answered some fun winter-themed questions on her blog a few days ago, and I liked them so much I decided to borrow them for this space today!

                What do you do to stay warm in the winter? As you know, I tend to be too warm-blooded for my own good. I actually had to bail out of a Bible study (that I was teaching!) a couple of weeks ago because I overheated and needed to get somewhere much cooler. Thankfully, Ryan and I are on similar thermostat wavelengths, so we keep our house pretty cool year-round.

                When it’s chilly at home, I wear sweaters, and that happens to be one of my favorite things. Because of the aforementioned overheating, I tend to layer up when I leave the house so I can go into short-sleeve mode if needed. I have some cute sweaters and love wearing them, so I get to do that when I’m in our chilly house! I also wear fuzzy slippers that I’ve owned for over a year and still love as much as the day I bought them. It amazes me how warm they keep my feet! When I sit on the couch, I am under a blanket – and on the coldest of the cold days, I pull out the electric blanket Ryan’s mom bought me back in the freezing-Marion-house days. And a few hours before we go to bed, we turn on our heated mattress pad to warm up the bed. We turn it off when we go to sleep, because if we don’t, it’s TOO warm. But it’s definitely nice to get into the toasty sheets!

                Favorite wintertime activity? Hurkle-durkling on the couch! Hurkle-durkle is reportedly a Scottish phrase that means to lounge in bed past the time you should be up. I read it on social media a few years ago, loved it, and we use it every single day in our conversation. Lexi even knows what hurkle-durkle means. On cold Sunday afternoons or cold evenings, we hit that couch (with our blankets and coffee) so fast and watch movies, read books, surf the internet, scrapbook, nap, you name it.

                Any different beauty routines in winter? Unfortunately, no. I should use lotion on my feet, which always get super dry, but I don’t. Why? Lotion is cold. My feet are warm. Maybe I need to get a warmer like they have for baby wipes! Ryan uses more lip balm in the winter, which I should also probably do, but I don’t.

                Skating, sledding, or skiing? How about some more hurkle-durkling? I actually don’t like skating, sledding, or skiing. I’ve tried skating and was terrible at it. I’ve been sledding a couple of times, and it was okay, but I don’t like going fast, so it’s not fun for me. Skiing? No thank you. Ryan likes them all, though! I think he’d pick skiing as his favorite from those three!

                Favorite winter recipes? I love a good soup in the winter. I love how it warms up the house and smells delicious as it simmers, and I love how it warms me up as I eat it. I would pick chili or white chicken chili as my favorite, I think.

                Favorite winter hot beverage? It looks remarkably like my favorite summer hot beverage: coffee! I drink it (hot) year-round. I can’t even say I drink more of it in the winter, because I think I stay pretty consistent with my consumption. Pre-weight-loss, I did drink a lot more chai and hot chocolate in the winter, but I’ve backed off from both of those. I will have an occasional cup of either one, but I don’t drink them daily like I used to.

                Best winter memories? Oh this is fun. I’m thinking back over our marriage and some of the winter fun we’ve had. These are the ones that come to the front of my mind:

·         Our staycation where we made snow angels, built a snowman, and made snow ice cream.

·        The owl hike on New Year’s Day – where we saw no owls but did get some good giggles out of learning the calls.

·         Standing in line for Pentantonix and forming actual icicles on my eyelashes while I waited.

·         Running through the streets of downtown Chicago to make our dinner reservations after our GPS lied to us and took us wayyyyyyyyyyy in the wrong direction.

·         Seeing the Biltmore in the snow.

·         Hiking in Pokagon State Park with baby Lexi Grae. (I think she’d lived with us about two weeks when we made this trip.)

Coldest day you remember? I don’t know if these really were the coldest days, but those Polar Vortex winters when we were first married were pretty stinkin’ cold. We often slept on the living room floor so we could be warm by the (electric) fireplace. Our pipes froze all the time, the cars hated starting…it was cold.

How are you practicing self-care this winter? I’m not sure I am…other than the hurkle-durkling. I’m not huge into what everyone thinks of when they hear the term self-care.

Flannel sheets – yes or no? No, but I think it’s because we changed bed sizes and never bought new ones. For the first several years of our marriage, we had a king bed and had a couple sets of flannel sheets. When we moved to WillowBridge, we downsized to a queen, and we only have one set of sheets. They’re not flannel. With our heated mattress pad, we don’t really need flannel sheets, but I do remember how cozy the material felt. That part was nice, for sure. Maybe we can find a set on clearance here at the season change!

This was fun! Hope you enjoyed reading...and the throwback pictures!