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?