(whiner.)

There's no way to simply convey to you my hatred of the Very Cold Weather we get here, from about January through February, with not a lot of break.  (That thermometer is in the sun.)  We have all new nice storm windows, and Jeff's moved the thermostat off the warm chimney wall (let's just say the former owners were not engineers), so the house (interior) is actually quite nice.  Note the interior temp on the kitchen thermometer, in the kitchen that doesn't have its own heat;  though there was a crock-pot on all night.  The girls go around in shirtsleeves, I in wool, we're all pretty comfortable 'til we have to go outside.  I have to remind the girls to wear their mittens (wool), their hands get so chapped, but they're tough.  I am not.  I get that cold deep inside that doesn't go away unless I'm bundled up and drinking something hot.  Tea these days, lots of tea.  (And lots of wool.)

A comment must be made about the wonder and love I have for our brand new bed and bedframe.  The gorgeous frame is from the local Amish furniture store, a short walk from our house.  We ordered and waited 3 months for it.  The bed, bought without even our testing it, online (but free returns!).  It's a modern latex foam bed.  I love it all;  we've had the set a week and I'm so happy to go to bed now.  That, combined with changes we've made (with a little figurative kick-in-the-butt) to the girls' bedtime-routine leaves a good 1/2 hour for Jeff and I to lie and read before lights out.  Where have down comforters and duvet covers been all my life?  Why are people hiding them in Europe?  I'm never going back to quilts. Glorious.  Happily, a newly-married couple at church needed a new (to them) queen mattress, and we could supply them with one (with the warning it's been used 14.5 years!).  I guess it's a lot better than the one they had.  Glad we could help.

Don't have to leave the house today unless we feel like braving it to the library this afternoon.  Maybe by then we'll feel like it.  Isn't that sun wonderful?!