Monday, January 31, 2022

A Mildish Winter Weekend

 After some bitterly cold temps last week, the weather was mildish this weekend. By mild, that means highs in the low to mid-20s (Fahrenheit, of course). I figured I should specify because cold/hot are such relative terms and wow do they shift as we move through the year. 20 would be SO COLD in October or November. In Jan/Feb, it feels "pretty nice," especially when the sun is shining. An ideal winter temp for me is in the 30s or higher. Hopefully we are reaching a point of winter where we'll see those kind of temps more often! On Friday I mentioned "next, please" in reference to January ending. But I don't have high hopes for February, either. But at least we are one more closer to winter being behind us. 

I am feeling especially fatigued by winter this year - so much so that I was zillowing properties in Santa Barbara, CA on Friday! To be clear, we will never leave MN during our working years/while our boys are in school. But a girl can dream. I found a cool house in Santa Barbara for a cool $1.8 million. Oof property values are insane in CA!! But I think I feel extra fatigued because we are approaching the 2-year mark of the pandemic and our kids are not vaccine-eligible yet. So we don't really take them places. Paul isn't great at wearing a mask and the risk of getting/transmitting covid is not worth it for us. So in "normal times" we would take the boys to a museum or indoor playground, but that's not an option this winter. So we either are in our house, very occasionally at the house of a classmate for a playdate, or outdoors, but we can only spend so much time outdoors when it's cold out, especially at Will's age. But this weekend, we maximized that time and it helped.

On Saturday morning, I went for a 4.25 mile run with my neighbor. It was in the low single digits and I was a little bit underdressed. I was colder on this run than I was last weekend because I thought it would feel warmer than the previous Saturday when it was about -5. Lesson learned - I need to wear 2 layers of pants and 2 layers of tops plus a wind-proof jacket. 

That morning, we tested Paul using an at-home test and it was negative. But testing him required both of us holding him down! But we wanted to test him as Phil was taking him out to his mom's that afternoon and we want to protect her as much as possible, although she is vaccinated and boosted. That was definitely the low of the day and I dread the next time we need to test him. 

After lunch, Phil took Paul sledding but Will and I stayed back since it was pretty chilly out. Paul had a blast and ran off some energy! When they came back in, I was delighted to see Paul snuggled up on the couch with his newest Highlights magazine!

You may be able to see a bruise under Paul's eye in this photo. He had a collision with a classmate at the gym at school and he has quite the shiner.

I had high hopes for a long afternoon nap from Will, but that did not happen. In general, his naps were on the short end this weekend. I think he might be ready to drop down to 1 nap/day, but he'll take 2 at school until he transitions to the toddler room at 18 months so I don't know if it's worth it to have a different schedule at home... But if next weekend is like this weekend, I'll probably bite the bullet and start that transition. 

It had warmed up a bit and was sunny out, so I went for a long walk with him. We stopped by an open area of the creek where the ducks hang out in the winter!


Terrible photo of him, but here is his new hat! This style of hat is amazing for cold climates! He can not take it off and it gives great coverage. 

We filled the rest of the day with play and I prepped the lentil filling for the lentil enchiladas I made on Sunday. Will enjoyed playing with kitchen toys when I was busy in the kitchen. We both had leftovers for dinner and Will enjoyed some fruit for dessert. Paul refuses to eat most fruits - except apple but he will eat maybe 1/3 of a slice and say he's done. But Will seems to like fruit!


Sunday morning was a productive one for me. I found out on Friday that my company is re-opening our offices on March 7th and I think this re-opening will stick. We were supposed to go back January 11th, but that got delayed due to Omicron. With the March 7th re-opening, you are required to do a PCR test once a week and those tests will be provided by the company. And 94% of the staff is vaccinated. I appreciate how my company has handled covid. They've followed the science all along. I can't say I am looking forward to returning to the office. I'll be in Tuesday-Thursday as long as I'm healthy. You have to self-certify on a daily basis that you are healthy. I am so rarely healthy these days, so we'll see how often I am healthy enough to go in during cold and flu season! Once I'm back into the routine of going into the office, hopefully my mood/thoughts about it will change? I have really loved WFH for the last 2 years.

At any rate, my wardrobe of joggers, a running shirt and a sweatshirt is no longer going to work (I obviously wear a nice top when I have client meetings, though)! So I went through a HUGE bin of pre-pregnancy clothes that I've had stored since I got pregnant and started to show in April 2020. I was pleased to find that I fit into most of the clothes. Doing the WW program has worked really well for me and I'm down about 12 pounds. I kept most of what I fit into, but set aside some items that I no longer fit into and doubt I ever will, and things I know I will never wear again (like 2 of my 3 business suits!). 

I'll donate or give these clothes away

I still need to further cull what I have in my closet. I want to move towards a "capsule" wardrobe with fewer items, but more items that go together. Later this year, I want to hire a wardrobe consultant to go through my closet and help me figure out what to keep, what goes together, and what is missing. This will be a bit of an investment, but I know it will be worth it. And now that I will never have another child so should stay around this weight/size, I can invest in a wardrobe that works for me. I'm still nursing Will twice/day, though, so I want to wait until I'm done or just down to nursing once a day to tackle a capsule wardrobe, as my weight might shift a bit once he's weaned. But maybe/hopefully by summer, I can look into this. 

Going through all those clothes was pretty time consuming so that took up most of Sunday morning. After lunch, we met a friend of Phil's and his kids at a sledding hill by our house. The kids had a blast and we were out there for over an hour. I was hoping that would mean Will would take a long nap - but nope! 

We closed out our weekend with a dinner of lentil enchiladas and Spanish rice which is the most popular meal in our house! Will was cramming handfuls of it into his mouth! I'd never guess that recipe would be such a crowd pleaser, but there you have it!

How was your weekend? What is your definition of "cold" during this time of year?

10 comments:

NGS said...

I think our weather is mostly similar to yours. Anything single digits or below is cold (and I make the dog wear her coat!). But it was in the 20s on Friday and it seemed downright balmy! At least it's been sunny for the last week or two - that can make a huge difference in my energy levels. I despise February, though, because it makes you *think* spring will be here soon, but it's really a tease since the warm weather doesn't come until the end of March or sometime in April. Oh, well, time marches on and it will be warm(er) before we know it.

Jordan said...

I'm in Denver and we had some unseasonably warm days over the weekend - 55/60 degrees and sunny! I took my 5 year old daughter ice skating and the rink was turning to slush- I just don't think they were prepared for these temps and there's only so much they can do! We still had fun and it was nice to be outdoors as much as possible since it's supposed to snow and get down to single digits the next couple of days. I really love living in Colorado since it's more mild than Iowa, where I grew up. Good for you to embracing the winter though- my parents weren't very active growing up and we basically never went outside in the winter. We try to be outdoors as much as possible and just bundle up when it's really cold.

Elisabeth said...

-21 Celcius here last weekend + windchill. It has been a HARD winter. But I am actually really excited for the turn in the calendar for the psychological boost of a fresh start and getting closer to spring.

My wardrobe is so small; a bit pathetic, actually. But I just like to re-wear my favourite things and since I am front-facing with clients/project partners so infrequently, I don't really need to "dress" up (and when I do, the people I deal with - mostly academics - are VERY likely to be in jeans and a button-up shirt...there are NOT suits and ties/power dresses/heels ever)!

katielookingforward said...

This is probably wrong....but could you have tested Paul when he was asleep do you think? Tests are uncomfortable for anyone, never mind a little kiddo who doesn't quite understand the why's. And yes, I made the "not enough layers" mistake over Thanksgiving. It looked mild, so I dressed mild, and my lower half was frozen on the way home!

Jeanie said...

We had a quiet, no-sweat weekend. The highlight was having our safe friends for dinner on Saturday. All good. Sort of sorry you have to go back to work in the office. I'm sure the socialization might be nice but you're in a dress-nicely work zone. Maybe that'll be fun! I'll just be glad for nice weather, as you will be, so we can do more outside. Glad Paul was negative!

Grateful Kae said...

I feel like my wardrobe needs some revamping too. I have practically NO dress clothes- well, specifically dress pants- that would really be appropriate for an office. Thankfully I don't have to go in, but it still bugs me to not have available dress clothes, should I need them for something else, you know? So this has been in the back of my mind, to invest in a few pieces. I just really despise shopping. I feel like I have the worst time with pants in general, finding things that I like, look good and fit right. Ugh. Even my casual clothes I feel like are in a state of disarray. I don't love any of my jeans particularly right now, and though I have various pairs, I'm confused with the current styles too...and then some of my casual pants just have never been that comfy (jeans) and I feel like I should eventually just ditch them and find some that work better overall. But that's a headache. Especially now where you have to basically order everything online it seems, it's just such a process! AND if you look at any clothing sites, there are about 5,800 different styles of jeans these days -ankle, girlfriend, boyfriend, mom jeans, skinny, straight, cropped, ripped, etc etc...makes my head spin!!

San said...

Ha, definition of cold is definitely relative! 30's is very cold where we live, we usually only dip into the 30's a few times (over night) during winter months... I went for a run in the 40's last week and I thought it was cold, but bearable because of sunshine LOL (ok, I also just wore running tights and a long sleeve shirt).

Sounds like you'll also be transitioning back to office life soon. I have very much enjoyed WFH and have the option to apply for remote work or a max telework schedule (which would mean I go in once a week)... but I don't know what to do yet. On one hand, it would be nice to see people face-to-face again, but then most of the people I directly work with are not in my office, but elsewhere in CA, so what's the point of going in, if the colleagues I work with are not there?
I don't know, I have to think a bit more.

Stephany said...

I'm excited for you to do a wardrobe consultation - I hope you document the process for us! It sounds like it could be such a beneficial endeavor.

I am soooo glad I do not have to worry about going back into the office. It's great that you only have to go in Tues-Thurs and can bookend your weeks with WFH days, though!

Weather is so relative, haha. We were going crazy here in Florida last weekend when Sunday showed a low of 37! And now we're going through a warm-up (highs in the low 80s), but we should get back to some cooler weather over the weekend - yay!

Shoshanah said...

We’re supposed to start going back in March too. They’ve changed the requirements a bunch, but at this point it’s two days a week in the office. They’ve pushed our start date back so many times, but like you, I think this is finally it.

Anne said...

I love the randomly warm days, too, but it's also really worrisome how little snow we have here in WI. It seems like it will make our drought so much worse. :(
On the other hand, it will be sooo nice not to deal with -15 at the bus stop tomorrow morning! Brrr...