Old Man Winter, I Don't Mind You!

There is a lot of excitement in the North East = Warm weather has come - at least for the weekend! Winter tends to be LONGGGG especially around here. At school the months leading up to winter are fun - 1st day of school, Jewish Holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas - oops I mean "winter holiday". But then after the break comes January, February, March....

Here are a few things that have helped me enjoy this season:

The Happy Lite - yes that is what it's called - it's put out by a company called Verilux. A couple of years ago when I was telling a friend how blah I felt in the winter she "turned me on" hahaha to this light. It simulate daylight - now it's not cheap - mine was $160 but to have bottled sunshine in my kitchen all winter long - priceless. I sit there in the morning while reading and drinking my coffee, the kids turn it on when doing their homework, we eat dinner by it (when it is getting dark at 4:30pm it's nice to have some "sunlight") and the dog even snuggles in front of it - which tells me it really works - dogs don't know how to read the word "simulator", so it must have her fooled.

Walking every day - this is the first year I have ever been this consistent in the winter and I really like it. I don't even mind the cold which is a first for me. But if I don't go first thing in the morning, I defiantly can find an excuse not to do it when I get home from school.

Countdown - someone told me that on the first day of winter - Dec. 21 (yes, we keep track of things like that at school -we just celebrated the 100th day of school - I don't think Cam is doing that at his job!) anyway - on Dec. 21 the days actually begin to get longer -I never knew that- it felt like the opposite, but she assured me it is true. So now I keep track of what the sun is doing -
Rising at 6:42 am   Setting at 5:38 pm - we are almost there!!

Day Light Savings - Yes they have shorten this period so the short days don't feel quite as short -  the clocks change again in 3 weeks.

Snow Days - any teacher will tell you that they enjoy the day off from school probably more than the kids do - why do you think we tell them to wear their pajamas inside out and sleep with a spoon under their pillow - just don't talk to us in June!

Blogging - secret confession -I don't like to write! I was never one of those people that kept a journal - now don't get me wrong, I have journals -lots of them, all with ONE page written in. When I mentioned to Cam this "blog idea" I was horrified when 15 minutes later he slipped the laptop to me and said "write, I'll make dinner" YIKES!! He had created a whole blog site for me and I had no excuse not to do it - why did he choose this idea to listen to. But I am so glad he did - because I am loving it!! I really like to type so I think that has helped me and apparently I have A LOT of opinions on how to save money - who knew!!

So enjoy this weather - while it lasts - and let me know what you are doing that is making you and your family a lot of cents!