Here are a few miscellaneous observations to begin the year.

First, the weather is crazy. Yesterday, temperatures dipped into the single digits, and this morning when I woke up, it was -8 degrees. As I’ve said before, I love a good snow day as much as the next person, but I don’t like these frigid temperatures at all. I’m very glad that I haven’t had to leave the house. On the flip side, though, Byron and Nicole have had to get out in this to go to work, and I don’t like that at all. Byron only has a five-minute drive, so that’s not so bad. It’ll take longer for his car to warm up than it will take for him to get to work; however, yesterday, his car doors wouldn’t even open. Fortunately, his boss came by and picked him up and took him to work. Nicole, on the other hand, has at least a half-hour drive to get to work. The good thing is that she only has to drive on Priority A roads (the first to get cleared). She has been late the last four days she has worked, though, because of me. I simply wouldn’t let her leave the house in the dark, with snow flying and ice on the roads. When conditions improved, and it was daylight, I let her leave. She wasn’t terribly late, and thankfully those at the bank are very understanding. Here’s the thing everybody needs to remember. No job is worth losing your life over. If conditions are not safe, either call in, or wait for conditions to improve, then go in. The bank can hire a new teller. I can’t replace my daughter, and that’s my primary concern.

For those who have to be out and about traveling, be sure to have some blankets in your car. With these frigid temperatures, it’s important to have more than one blanket. The more people in your car, the more you will need. If you are not wearing a good coat, boots, gloves, scarf, and hat, then be sure you have these in your car as well. No one plans to be in an accident or to have car trouble, but sometimes it happens, and for your own safety, especially in these frigid temperatures, you need to be prepared. Obviously, the best option is to stay indoors if you don’t have to be out.

With the weather, our break from school has obviously been extended. With school already canceled for tomorrow, that makes our fifth snow day of the year, and it’s just January 7. It’s looking like we’ll be going until the end of May or early June. There’s no use getting bent out of shape about that. It is what it is. It’s always interesting to listen to folks who are so excited to get snow days, then those same folks complain like crazy when we have to make those days up. It’s also interesting to see who goes stir crazy having to stay at home and who is just fine with it. I’m one of the ones who is just fine with it. There’s usually so much going on during a normal school week, that when I get a few days to stay home, I’m perfectly content not to leave. I have no problem finding things to do, even if it’s just sitting in the recliner with a blanket and a book.

Yesterday also started my renewed attempt at weight loss for the year. I like for my weeks to run Monday through Sunday, so even though I posted my plan last week at the beginning of the month, it didn’t actually kick in until yesterday. I hadn’t completely stopped exercising during the holiday season, but I was only doing the walking DVD periodically and sporadically. I didn’t do the toning DVDs at all. So today, after two days back into the actively-trying-to-lose-weight plan, my arms and legs hate me. I have followed the plan thus far (granted, it has only been a day and a half), but after doing 10 minutes of toning for my arms yesterday and today, I’m feeling it. I also did the one-mile morning walks yesterday and today, and yesterday, I did the second day of the Couch to 5K training. Later today, probably before bed, I will do the two-mile DVD walk. I’ve had to adjust my menu to reflect that I’m not working. On a normal day, I’ll have breakfast around 7:30, but not on a snow day. I have, thus far, managed to stick to the menu. Hopefully, this will continue. With no school again tomorrow, I do still plan to do the workouts I have planned, though my legs will probably hate me even more since the toning exercises move to the legs tomorrow, and I do still plan to keep following my menus. I am determined to lose this weight. I’ve even set a mini-goal that I will be able to buy two new dresses in May (one for Travis’s graduation from UK and the other for Brandon’s wedding) that will be a size smaller than the dresses I wore last summer for Cody’s and Byron’s weddings. It would be so easy to let snow days do me in. After all, when I’m here with the fridge all day, it’s tempting to just go get something to eat for no real reason, but I’m managing not to do that, so far.

Whatever you’re choosing to do with these snow days and these frigid temperatures, I hope you are managing to enjoy yourself, and I certainly hope that you are making safe, wise decisions if you are out and about in this ferocious weather. As for me, I still have a book to finish (need to try to reach that goal of 84, and right now, I’m still on the first book of the year), so I’m off to enjoy the rest of my snow day with my Kindle.