Beware the angry pilgrim

I realize this weekend was beautiful - bright sunshine, warm temperatures, soft breezes. Just a couple of picture perfect indian summer days. I also realize that, this being November, many people took advantage of the great weather and put up their outdoor Christmas lights. I can understand the motivation - this is northern Illinois, after all. This kind of weather cannot last and we are more likely to have snow this coming weekend and all subsequent weekends than to have a repeat of this past weekend. I get it. However, just because you have your Christmas lights up already does not mean you need to turn them on.

You have been warned.

Winter is nearly here

It's been colder this week, below freezing some mornings, and I'm faced with the harsh reality that winter is almost here. Granted, we've been kind of lucky temperature-wise. Must be all that global warming. But I think it's that much harder because it is only now getting cold. I got complacent.

Today was icky - gray, slightly rainy, cold. But BJ got productive and (with Zoe in toe) headed outside to winterize the roses and bring in the hoses. (Such rhyming!) He had our little girl toddle into the house bearing this:



The last rose of the season. They really stayed in bloom forever and this one is a beauty. All yellow and sunny, it just reminds me of warmer, brighter days. They will come again. Besides, now I can gear up for the holidays! While I was at the mall today I tried to point out Santa to Zoe. She was a bit oblivious - distracted by the mall milieu. I will have to bring her out to meet him before long. She can get freaked out like every other 2 year old.

What am I thinking?

Over the weekend, as summer weather has finally arrived, I decided it was time to actually don a bathing suit. To go outside (obviously, I’ve been wearing a suit for swim lessons). I pulled out my bikinis from last year to find that – quite depressingly – the tops were too big (nursing!) and the bottoms a skosh too small. To make matters worse, the clasp was broken on one of them. Time for a new suit! Now, I am not a one-piece person, unless I’m swimming laps. So, I returned once more to my favorite, Target, to peruse the racks. I’m all about green this year and this one caught my eye. I didn’t try it on, pretty confident in my size given the ones I have at home. But, as I drove home, I began to get a little twitchy. Can I really pull this off? A string bikini top? Am I too old for this nonsense? On top of it, I’m a less-than-perfectly-toned mommy. Can I tote around a 30-lb-er on my hip without scaring small children with my midsection?



I’m going to go for it.

Pop!

It’s one of my favorite things about spring. You wake up one morning to find the trees and shrubs simply exploded. It is almost as if, if you stayed up really late the night before, the world would sound like a giant popcorn popper as everything bursts to blossom.

Beautiful.

Get out!

The glorious outdoors! The weather has finally started making a turn for the better (although, for the most part, this winter hasn’t been too bad) and we are breaking out. I commented to a co-worker the other day that I don’t think Zoë even knows what “outside” is anymore. I mean, seriously, the last time she was outside for any length of time must have been back in August or September. She certainly doesn’t remember that. And, shopping at the mall doesn’t count. I’m talking toes in the grass, warm sun on your nose outside.

I got BJ convinced to spend some time out-of-doors with us this past weekend. Nothing special, just out in the yard. Of course, Zoë fell down within 5 minutes. She was walking along our cobblestone path out back, stumbled, and fell forward into the dirt. I had to stifle my giggles, at the same time covering my worry, because she did a complete face-plant on the edge of walk. I think that when her hand hit the soft dirt/mud, it startled her (“This is not what I expected!”), she lifted her hand, and smacked her nose. She was covered – dirt in her nose, her mouth, on her clothes. Ah, a glimpse of things to come! A few crocodile tears and she was right as rain.

Today, though – wow! 70 degrees! It’s awesome. It actually makes me miss Missouri. Back in college, you’d hit mid-March and suddenly the weather is perfect. There really wasn’t the cool transition between early spring and summer like we have here. You’d wake up one day, and the temps are all in the 60s and 70s and it would just stay that way until June. When it got hot. And humid. Anyway, I tried to take the afternoon off to take Zoë to the park. She thought it would be better to sleep. That kid just doesn’t know what she’s missing. One ride on the swings, and she’ll never nap through a park visit again.

Spring has sprung!

At least for a couple of days. The weather here has been warmer – funny how balmy 45 degrees feels after sub-freezing temps – and the sun shining. I even opened my sunroof yesterday! Couple that with the fact that the sun is up before I leave for work, and I’m feeling like a refreshed woman. Ready to take on the world.

Then, I heard they’re bumping daylight savings time up three weeks. Three weeks! So, we’re going to start having longer hours of sunlight the second week of March. Why did they have to go and mess with DST?

You may be wondering why this bothers me. Isn’t this supposed to be a good thing? Energy savings, more light in the evenings, more time to get outside and do things. Well, people, how about this? The sun will not rise on that first day until 7:10 am. A full two hours after I get up for work. Ten minutes after I usually arrive at work.

There is one thing that makes me seasonally depressed more than anything, and that is waking and driving to work in the dark. I don’t get that energy boost I need to start my day. For about a week now, the sun has been up when I leave. It’s awesome! In a couple of weeks, it will be dark again. So, it’s not that I’ll just be experiencing a drawn out winter of dark mornings. I’m being teased only to be plunged into darkness again. At least until the Earth swings over a little more. Grr.

Snow Day!

That makes 2 in one school year! I don't think that's happened (at least to me) in about 20 years.