winter song

A sweet image that is about 70 years old. The colors in these old illustrations are just different somehow and they warm my soul. Hope it warms yours too, and maybe ignites a spark for a great craft idea in which to use it. Have fun.

Are you going to be ready for the happy Christmas holiday or are you going to say enough is good enough? Don't be too hard on yourself.

Life takes me along

I have been so very busy that I find I have been away from the blog for almost a complete month. I needed to stop in and type up some words.

Some days I feel like this....
A stick in a stream being pulled along and trying desperately to avoid the rapids and rocks.

I thought of this example in the car one day when I was being the usual family taxi service, a responsibility I seem to be sentenced to for now. Don't get me wrong, I want to transport my children to the places they need to be and also want them to do some fun things too. I just feel like I am always last on the list of priorities.

I am my (now adult) special needs daughter's transportation when she cannot utilize the county's para-transport system bus. I hope to someday find a reliable person to take my place in this, if not all the time at least some of the time. It is a real tie down to my schedule and life. Please don't think I do not absolutely love her. Any parent of a special needs child knows what I mean.
Transportation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to responsibilities of managing her day to day life. It all takes dedication of a lot of time to run an organized life of a special needs child, no matter their age or stage of life.

Lots of my so called friends have proved to be "fair weather friends" and have decided they just can't understand what it is like to be in my shoes. I don't ask that. I just ask for them to listen, as I listen to their joys as well as challenges and sorrows with their own children and their own lives too.


Lots has been going on in my own life and in our house too.
I have gone on strike (again) with some household duties--I am only one person, after all-- but most of them seem to be un-noticed anyway.
We have had to do a major home improvement project- not by voluntary choice, I may add, and the timing is pretty bad.
I have been without my job since July 31st, since my boss suddenly died.
I have been without my uncle since he died. He was my boss.
I cared for him 5-7 days per week in his home for 5 years, also including being his driver and companion for all his transportation needs, and doing all his shopping runs by myself, alone.
I will tell you this: It is hard to have a relative as an employer too.
My only other uncle died just 5 weeks after my boss uncle.
I spent some treasured quality time with him in his last few weeks.
I miss them both so much more than I had ever expected.

Now that the frost is covering the neighborhood each morning, I realize that I did not even have time to use my clothesline this summer. Now it's time to stack the firewood closer to the house. The clothesline will be there next summer, waiting.

I find I am not such a fun person these days. I think of all the creative thoughts I had and things I did.
I will get back to all that some day soon.
Just not now.
Life is taking me for a ride down that stream, at a very fast clip.

thoughts of my day revealed

It is snowing again today in northern-most Ohio. I love it. I am happy when it snows. I love winter. As long as it is cold there might as well be snow. Snow makes everything look bright and clean. I can do without the melting dirty slushy snowy left-over part of winter, though. Give me everlasting white pretty snow!! Please.

My favorite weather spans from any month it starts to snow {which around here can be anytime after late October} until any month it stops snowing {which around here is usually around late March but has been known to happen as late as early May!} I know I am in the minority in my love of cold and snowy days.
I don't ever get cabin fever...although I don't stay inside "the cabin" ever...I go out in the snow! 'Cuz I love snow!
I don't get cold outside. It has to be below 20 degrees for me to wear a coat. People who know me and see me wear a coat say, "It must officially be cold, Amy's finally wearing a coat."
I never wear a coat/hat/gloves unless A) I am going sledding or building a snowman or B) if it is below 20 degrees. Honest. To just go away anywhere in the car or run errands I don't wear a coat, just a sweatshirt or a couple layers of long sleeve shirts.
It would be heaven to me if I lived somewhere that never went above 70 degrees.

Here's my definition of hot weather, at least here in Ohio: 1. humidity, 2. gross soggy clothes, 3. mosquito bites. YUK. YUK. Super YUK!

I was hoping to drive to my favorite recycling scrap art store today. Ran short on time after all my other tasks. To drive there in the snow would have taken longer than the usual 20 minutes or so and they would have been ready to close up shop 10 minutes after my estimated time of arrival. That's no fun! I need to lose all track of time when I am in there digging around, not keep track of time. Hello!, that's the whole point of getting lost in there, thinking up things to make with unusual stuff, while escaping the outside world.
They have more arts/crafts/sewing stuff there than I could ever list. You can fill a plastic bag slightly smaller than a grocery sack for $5. Yipee! I limit the purchase to just 1 bag and I try to stick with a rule that I take at least 1 bag of stuff to donate to help the cause, the "only bring home same/less than you take out" philosophy.
PS- my mom mobile is just slightly newer than these in the above illustration.

When I did finally arrive home, deciding the rest of my running around out on the snow/ice covered streets would wait until another day, I was met with something that I hate when it goes on and on and on. Barking dogs. My barking dogs. I hate barking dogs, especially when they are mine. Barking for a purpose is ok I guess. Barking just to bark is so annoying to my ears I find I want to crawl out of my skin!! UGH! The dogs were put in their kennels. Ahhh. No more barking! I can stay calmly inside my skin. *deep breath*

PS- don't call anyone to report me. They had shelter and water and food. They bark endlessly year round despite the weather and temperature, just to try to "separate me from my skin"...and sanity!

A night ahead will look almost like this when my dear husband comes home from a long day of working way too hard for his adoring family. He doesn't usually have a suit and dress shoes on to lounge in the chair, though. He is more likely found in a pair of sweats and flannel shirt and socks. Oh, and we only get the Sunday paper. He finds lots of other things to read during the week. He is a sitcom junkie too. He says laughing at silly shows helps him wind down from a day of work.

I, myself, hate sitcoms that have laugh tracks (or canned laughter, as some people call it). Have you ever really listened to a laugh track? It is crazy dumb sounding. Remember when shows like I love Lucy were filmed in front of a LIVE audience? The people in the TV studio inserted the REAL laughter at the right times. After live audiences were a thing of the past they decided they needed to have laugh tracks since the home viewing audience might not be suave enough to know where to insert their own laughter without prompting. UGH! Go ahead and close your eyes while watching a sitcom sometime and see what I mean about it sounding crazy dumb. Almost as bad a barking dogs making you want to climb out of your skin, but not quite as bad. *insert laughter here*

Oh, and the toys scattered on the floor are true to our home scene. Always.

I do enjoy sitting by the fire which burns at our house from about October through April (see above reference to snow-month-spans in northern-most Ohio). I however do not wear a dress and high heels to lounge. My jammies would be more like it. Any chance I get. Usually right after dinner. N. would not be wearing shorts in front of the fire either. But he would be found among a pile of Legos on a regular basis. Have you ever stepped on a small stray Lego with shoeless feet? Go borrow some Legos if you have to and try that one for a treat. *insert sarcasm laugh track here*

PS- don't you love to look at old illustrations and compare your present day life to the life-style that once was?

January thaw

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a winter kind of gal. I am happiest when it is snowy. I love the cold weather too. Yet, when it dips below the 20 degree mark on the old Fahrenheit thermometer, and decides to stay there, it is too cold for even this northern-most Ohio girl!! Last week we had some snow, which I loved, and some really cold temps that followed, which I didn't love. We had some days of single digit temps. Brrrrrrr.

I went to the movie theater with my friend to see, IT'S COMPLICATED. It was a fun movie. I love Meryl Streep in just about anything! Have you watched THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY lately? I had watched my neighbor's dvd of MOMMA MIA (I love that one!!)a few days before going to the theater--here's something kinda weird but funny... during IT'S COMPLICATED, almost at the end, someone's cell phone rang in the theater and before they frantically turned it off we could hear the ring tone was the song Dancing Queen from Abba's Momma Mia!!!!

I go to the movie theater only once or twice a year. Here's the part where the cold weather ties in with my going to the movie theater:
I left my coat in my friend's car so I wouldn't have to deal with it in the theater. I didn't put it back on once back in the car either- her car heater warms up quicker than mine! I just don't like coats, I guess you have caught on to that fact. I ended up accidentally leaving my coat in her car. I knew almost immediately after she dropped me off at home. I wasn't worried because I knew a January thaw was coming, and besides, I had other things I could wear that are somewhat the same idea as a coat. I hate coats!!

She emailed me today and said, "OMG, I have your coat!"
I didn't need it back because I only feel forced to wear an actual coat when it is colder than 20 degrees...and I knew we had a January thaw on the way. We had a heat wave the last few days. It has even gone up to 38 degrees!!!
And besides, I knew I would be seeing her again, so my coat was not lost.


For those of you that are wondering, YES! I do wear an actual coat if I am out for a winter walk or sledding with the kids. I am silly, not stupid!!! I just prefer not to wear one if I am just going from the house to the car to the store to the car.....you get the idea. I have a coat in the car in case I would ever get stranded. I'm not a total imbecile.

These are some photos I took last week when it was still single digit temps. I adore the white snow against the red building and the weathered wood of the garden fence.

Now with the January thaw, these same areas still have snow but it is that squishy, gray, yukky stuff.

I much prefer the beauty of the fluffy bright white stuff!!

Especially when it creates surprise sights, like this snow covered heart in the garden, to discover.

party

(vintage milk glass dishes and aromatic White Pine cuttings from the yard -there are more pine cones but they didn't show in this pic )

The teenagers were here again the other evening, and so the snacks were set out. Snacks never last long with 6 hungry kids- they're always hungry. This was just the center piece and small sweets- white chocolate covered pretzel balls, Snowcaps, inside out Junior Mints, and Tootsie Rolls-, thank goodness for the dollar store! There were bigger bowls of other salty goodies too. Minutes before the party started, 2 huge trays of homemade cookies were sent over from the neighbors..."We heard you were having the teenagers over again!"
Remember when you could eat anything you wanted and never worry about calories?

Karaoke and Rock Band and of all things....they all curled up on the furniture under warm quilts near the crackling fire for a showing of Mary Poppins on video until about 1:30 am !! There was a loud sing along for each and every song. This is a very musical group.

Food and music and they are set!

snow in nature and paper

I love snowman comics!!

We had our first fluffy snow flakes come down out of the gray Northernmost Ohio sky yesterday. The kind that seem to be in super slooooow motion. It makes me happy. Winter is my favorite season! I do love Autumn for the colors on the trees and spring for the burst of lush green. I am not much of a summer girl- the horrible humidity and mosquitoes we have. Our last summer wasn't too bad though. Most people around here who love the hot humid summers hated it, not me! I think we only had a few days over 95 degrees instead of weeks on end of over 98 degrees with suffocating humidity added in, like usual.



Now the northern Ohio temps are hovering around 20-30 degrees after staying in the 50's until only a couple of weeks ago. We still had vegetables (peppers and celery) stubbornly holding out in the garden, and the grass is still greener than I ever remember seeing it in December!!

These are pictures of my yard from last winter and soon it will look like this again as we are to have more snow today and tomorrow with some sleet thrown in the mix.


But, enough of the weather report.

The fire place is warm and toasty and I have been sitting nearby cutting my famous paper snowflakes like mad.



This is a batch- or shovel full, as I like to call them, from last year that sold through my Etsy shop. Hundreds of my hand cut one of a kind snowflakes have been sent all over the world. They have been seen in museums, universities, store display props in New York City, and advertising photo shoots for a famous hospital! I am so proud of their flaky achievements!!

Take a peek here for fresh paper flakes!
Look for new shovels full to be listed as the wintry days tick by.

milk glass

The green beads are a necklace that was my Mom's from the 1950's at one time there was a set of clip-on earrings to match which she often wore for card club night with her friends. Vintage red and white linen towels like my grandma had in her kitchen, folded among the milk glass. I love anything red and white.

Green apple candles (that look nicer in person than in this photo) and red berry springs add pops of color.

Vintage string of wooden beads in green, red, and golden shades.

Snowflake shaped candle that is actually a floating-type candle (which I have used in a shallow milk glass bowl filled with water and then floated cranberries in along with the candle), paper hand made quilled snowflakes made by me tucked into a pile, and Paper Posie flowers made by me scattered along a pedestal cake plate.

A vintage porcelain carnival prize doll with the "cold paint" all worn and chippy.

Many of the things in these photos will be let go in the circle of collections...some come in and many go out to new homes.

These are actually in another area other than my hutch. Stacked compotes in graduated sizes and some ratty old books: Peyton Place and Art Linkletter The Secret World Of Kids. The angle of the photo makes it look somewhat like a leaning tower. It is straight, I assure you.

All of my milk glass was either my Mom's or was thrifted. I have found a great fun place where they always have milk glass. I have never been there that they did not have at least 1 or 2 pieces. One day I was there they had the craziest price point too....55 cents.... too bad they only had 3 that day!!! Have you seen what this stuff sells for on the _bay site??

I grew up being surrounded by all my Mom's milk glass. She collected it over about 50 yr's time. It is adaptable to any decor or time of year or holiday! See what I did here with candles!!!

You can see all old milk glass posts here.

non melting snowmen, snowflakes and vintage Valentines

I usually have my snowmen packed away by February 1st. They always stay up after the truly Christmas items have been packed but I usually don't mix them with Valentine's decor.
This year I must admit I have had a harder time letting go of them. They are finally going to be retired tomorrow to return next year.

We have had one of the snowiest Winters in a long long time. I love the snow and I love Winter. I just don't love the bitter cold that seems to be still hanging on. I am tired of the single digit temperatures and below zero wind chills that are commonplace on the daily news report.

Tomorrow it is supposed to raise above the freezing mark on the thermometer. I almost forgot what that feels like, to be able to walk outside without your eyelashes feeling like they will freeze and snap off and not needing to have every bit of skin covered that you possibly can cover.

I must admit I am going to be slower about taking down my paper snowflakes from all the windows. They just look so pretty with the world outside every window all draped in white.

Even when I do start taking them down it will still take about 2 days to carefully remove the tiny pieces of tape rolls on the backs and store them safely away for the 17th year. And OF COURSE I have added more this year, as I always do.

So, snowflakes and Valentines are living side by side in my Ohio house this year!

Snowflakes go with Valentine's like Milk Glass goes with Valentines.

Two of my favorite things: snowflakes and vintage Valentines!!

fire and ice

Here are some pictures of the icy, snowy world at my red house.
You may remember this post? I live in those red and white images!

We have had lots of snow and lots of cold!! Somewhere under the drifts of knee deep snow is the ice rink with the torn plastic!!! *frown*

The kids have been working on their annual igloo.

This is actually a 4 rail high stacked pioneer fence. You can see in the photo above that in different places you can see 3 rails, 2 rails, or in some spots only the top rail, depending on how the winds made it all settle to then be frozen.

Step inside for a warm night by the hearth! Our fireplace has been burning 24/7 since late October. We do also use the furnace but the fireplace keeps the house pretty cozy. We spend all our time in this part of the house in the winter. When in bed, we are under plenty of warm quilts.

The quest all spring, summer and fall is to seek out, gather, split and stack firewood!! We burn a LOT of wood.

The fireplace is rather unusual because it is open on two sides like an L shape, front (living room) and side (dining room). The fireplace and brick wall is central in the house with an open planning type room arrangement. The main hearth is raised to just above knee height and the fireplace is even higher yet (about 28 inches from the floor). The kitchen is on the back side of the fireplace. The brick wall in the kitchen has nothing against it and it stays very hot and the bricks radiate the heat. My cat sleeps near the brick wall in the kitchen in a brass doll bed with comfy little mattress. She is so spoiled!

The fire plays neat tricks with reflections at night and fools you into thinking there are fires in a couple of different places to keep you warm. This is the reflection in the mirror on my wallpapered wall. I painted the mirror to mimic the wallpaper.

This is how the fire looks as reflected in the big windowed wall across from the fireplace.
The kids often will sit with a cuddly quilt and just watch the flames reflect in the glass at night. It is a mesmerizing setting. The crackling noises of the burning logs are very soothing, too.
I love Winter!
Some memorable ice day time and fire night time photos.

Happy New Year

 I would love to dress up and do this, like the jazzy couple above and paint the town. It was a quiet night at home that actually included almost every member of the family alternating taking cat naps under cozy warm quilts and blankets near the roaring fireplace.

Although we had a very unusual weather day last Saturday that rose to 62 degrees, our Ohio Decembers are usually a safe bet to stay between ten below zero and about 30 degrees. The day before the heat wave we had ice covering everything, the next day grass and sun. But alas, the winds blew in (about 50mph gusts) and brought back the cold. I enjoy winter but more for the snow than the cold. If it is going to be cold you may as well have flakes, right. It makes everything seem less frigid with a nice white blanket across the neighborhood. My ideal favorite weather temperatures are between 20 and 60. Any time the thermometer stays below 20 for a period of time I even admit it is too cold. I would never do well living in a climate that is always warm. I enjoy the extreme change of seasons that northern Ohio has always provided me.

Needless to say, due to the one warm day our ice rink I had built for the kids is a bust. We often had a rink when I was growing up. I have always wanted the kids to have one. I knew the gauge of plastic we used for the lining was not correct and sure enough it became brittle and split when stepped on when the first of many thin layers of ice was frozen. We only came to discover this when it was 60 degrees and the melting ice all went bye-bye through the splits. Back to the drawing board and to better construction from scratch and then to add more water and refreeze again. That, and the hope that we will not have many more freak 60 degree days this winter.

So here's to a happy new year for us all... With health and happiness and friends and family and a frozen ice rink, too! I dreamed that some second hand skates (enough pairs for friends who stop by too!), some ice and plenty of hot chocolate would equal a very economical way for the kids and their friends to have fun at home and make lots of memories!!!
Happy New Year!

take time to color

I have a million things to do before tomorrow night's dinner.

I am ready for as few as 8 and as many as 13. No one seems to be able to pin down an RSVP to me this year. That's ok. I will still cook the same amount of food- a lot- because that's the only way I know to cook. I love to cook. Hate to bake. Know what? That's alright too. There are always plenty of bakers among our gang of friends and neighbors. Everyone has their own interests and talents to share.

The million things on the to-do list I have yet to do includes striving to create the magic of the Christmases I remember fondly from my youth. Oh yeah!...and cleaning the house. My favorite saying is "Trying to keep a house clean while the kids are still living at home is like trying to staple Jell-O to a tree!" I wholeheartedly agree. As I often say...my house is clean but rarely tidy. This week it looks like a winter tornado has gone through, what with the boots dripping melting snow and ice in big puddles, the wet mittens hats and scarves strewn along the hearth drying before the fire (FYI N., for the umpteenth time, gloves do not dry when you pull them off inside out with the fingers all bunched up!! Ugh!), coats that no one seems to know how to hang up...and do not even get me started on the toys everywhere. Wanna know a secret? I am actually giving N. a box of toys he hasn't seen for months since I packed them away and put them in "Time OUT" for not picking them up. I have wrapped the box up in Christmas paper. He keeps asking what is in that big box. "Must be something really cool" , he keeps saying!

{ my art}

Then there is all the stuff that came out of A's room months ago so we could repaint and redo her bedroom. The goal was to have it done and back together before Thanksgiving. I told her I would help her if she helped me. Well, when you are a few breaths away from 13 and active in EVERYTHING at school you just do not have time for silly things like doing something you promised your Mother!! So, here it is, past Thanksgiving and a breath away from Christmas and the things are still sitting (all over) in the family room, and on the glassed porch...

Honestly I am tempted to just leave the mess and let the guests (family and friends) see how we really live every day and not just how the house looks when Mom shoves everything in her bedroom at the last minute and declares that room off limits to guests! I told the kids my idea today and they just looked blankly at me and their brain gears were thinking, "Mom wouldn't really do THAT!"- I know because I am good at reading their minds, it's one of those instinctive Mom skills you acquire when they are each born.

{N's art -which I think is much better than mine!}

So what does all this have to do with my title to this post?

Well, in the midst of all my mental preparing to stage the house and make it look right for impending guests, N. asked me if I would color with colored pencils with him. I can not resist the call of my colored pencils

no matter how untidy the house may be.

So what did I do? What could I do?

I colored!

{The inside of N's card. Don't you love his "font"?}

We scanned N's art and made it into a card for my Uncle. This was what he did inside the card. I am Uncle's weekly and year 'round personal shopper. N. tagged along this time since he was off school for winter break. So, added to everything else, which was tugging at my time and hovering deadline, was doing Uncle's regular household shopping. Driving in the holiday traffic on icy roads in single digit temperatures and waiting in check out lines so long you wonder if you've aged while standing still for so long.

Hey wait!, that reminds me. I still have my own shopping to finish for tomorrow night's dinner!

Well, the coloring was fun, anyway!!

We have to seize these opportunities to make magical Christmas memories when ever we can.

adorable

One of my many old children's books. I love them when they were very obviously read over and over and handled by little fingers that maybe weren't so careful. The more tattered the better, to me anyway! This one is from 1945. I could look at the tones of those color combinations all day long. They're my kind of colors. And those faces. Too adorable.

I am teaching a story time lesson one day each week again this year at the Elementary school. I enjoy it immensely! I am teaching two second grade classes one after the other. The second of the two classes is the one my boy N. is in. It is my 5th year doing this. I have taught 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students. I have to say 2nd and 3rd are my favorite. Probably 2nd grade more so because they still have a lot of innocence still at that age. They are so happy to see me and are anxious to learn. I bring a book and a lesson with a fun activity for them. I tell the kids I like to sneak in some learning while we're having lots of fun. We learn new words, geography, math and sometimes some science too. It gives the teacher a chance to grade some papers or such while I am in charge for awhile for each class.

This year I told the two classes that I love books a lot and have a big library of my own at home. I love picture books and have some of the books I read from the time that I was their age. I told them I collect old dictionaries. They thought that was super silly. When I told them that some of the books in my library were over 100 years old, their eyes got really big!! I said that some of the books I have are stories they have heard before-- but not the way I read them. I like to change the words and names in well known stories when I read them, to make them unpredictable and personalized. One of the best loved things I do is to read a rhyming story (like Dr. Seuss) at a normal rhythm first time through and then as fast as I possibly can the second time. I take a big breath and off I go reading so quickly they just giggle until their sides hurt.

Sometimes I run into students that were in my story time classrooms 5 years ago and now they are in 8th grade. They always say "Hello!" and often tell me their favorite story that I read to them or tell me that they always think of me when they use a word they learned through me or hear about a place on the globe that I took them to- in our imagination. I smile. That makes it all worth more than I can say!!

This is a page from the book I've shown you today. It is appropriate for our Ohio weather. Yesterday our temps were in the teens and the wind chill was below zero. We had to add more straw to the rabbit hutches so the bunnies could generate more body heat and be protected from the wind. They have thick warm coats. Gone are the days of putting frozen water bottles in their hutches to keep them from overheating in the almost 100 degree and high humidity Ohio summer.

Last Snow?

Just look at that brilliant sky! How can you be unhappy with a sky this beautiful above you?
Last week we had a big snow. Not like the feet of snow that we had when I was growing up, but snow enough to cover the surroundings like so much rich yummy frosting. Is this the last snow of the season in Ohio until the end of 2008 when the snow will return?
I love snow.
There. I've said it. My family and friends are sick to death of hearing me say it. Everyone around my town seems to hate snow. I love it. Could live with it 12 months out of the year.
I am in the extreme minority, it seems, with this seemed craziness.

If I could have all my favorite flowers in a humongous greenhouse so as not to go without that love, all would be perfect beyond my dreams. It would have to be a greenhouse with lots of planting beds so I could dig in the dirt. I love digging in the dirt. I love the smell of the dirt. I love getting dirt under my nails (I clean it out as soon as the digging is all finished, let me assure you). I would have my snow, glorious snow and my greenhouse- surrounded by snow.

I love the anticipation of a snow storm. The not knowing how much God has decided to let fall upon the Earth. The weathermen all think they know. They don't.

These are photos I took around my neighborhood last week. A spring snow. I love Springtime snow. It is always heavy and wet. I know. I'm crazy. I've been told that --at least once, or a hundred times. I like to stand outside after a snow storm and just listen the quiet.

Maybe I need to try to explain away my craziness.

It's not that I don't enjoy April showers and jumping into puddles wearing my "puddle ducks" and laughing at the raindrops, sheltered under my umbrella.

I do enjoy sitting with family and friends on a warm July 4th evening watching the fireworks explode over our heads in the summer sky.

I especially enjoy the crisp colored leaves crunching under my feet as I embrace an almost painted-like October Ohio day.

It's just that I do not fare well with the HOT, sticky, humid, Ohio, long, drawn out months. There are actually only 3 horrible weather months (in my own opinion). Everyone else would say,"Yes, the months it snows."

Nope. Not my response. I feel... well- just yucky when it is above 95 for days on end and high humidity. I actually spend more time in the house in the summer (air conditioning turned to "Arctic") than I do in the winter.

No cabin fever here!!!

My Dad is the opposite. He says it is not hot enough unless he can work outside with his shirt off. And he loves it when it is 90 or above.

He is 81 years young and still VERY active. He thinks he is still 50 and I'm glad of that. I want to be like that when I am 81.

He lives each winter in Florida along with just about half the population of the senior citizens of Ohio, it seems. He has a house on the ocean water on the gulf side. Summertime he lives here in Ohio. He is threatening to stay much longer in Florida this year because of the snow not wanting to just go away. My snow!!

And don't even get me started on the mosquitoes in Ohio!!

My whole life I have always swelled up like a balloon from those hideous bites. I have to take cover in the house when everyone else is outside enjoying the cooler summer night air, cuz that's when the mosquitoes come out to feast on Amy. 

And poison ivy/poison oak too! If it is blowing in the wind- somehow, I will get it. I get it with a secondary infection and a trip to the doctor and sometimes even the emergency room. So summer means I end up- sweaty clothes, itchy skin and cloistered-- safely inside the air conditioning. But snow. SNOW. Safe... cool, non-itchy.

I always say, "you can always put more clothes on if you are cold~~but if you are naked and still hot...THEN WHAT?

Oh. By the way...

Unless you didn't think I was crazy enough.

I rarely wear a coat unless it is colder than 20 degrees outside.

Come visit me any time at the loony bin. My name is permanently carved into the door.