Winter update

This is my fifth full winter of living in Michigan. And I can proudly say that it is my best winter here. Why? I credit my attitude 100%.

I decided last fall that I would work as hard as I could to embrace and accept the winter here as part of life -- instead of fighting it, cursing it and dreading it. (Actually, now that I'm looking back at that fall entry, I realize I have used the word "resolve," which puts me in a contrary position to another recent entry. Ahh, well. You can't win 'em all.)

So back to my "win" on the winter front. I have sailed through this winter, taking in stride even the coldest, most miserable days (more on that in a second). The girls and I have played outside in the snow and ice as much as possible. They have loved every minute. And I have loved them loving it. See, they're Michigan girls, unlike me. But I'm working on it.

And, I actually have found it funny -- in a "ha ha" way, not in a cynical torture way, for once -- that the winter I have chosen to embrace and accept is on track to be the coldest winter on record since 1880 and so far has the most snowfall ever for the period ending January 31. We have more snow on the ground than I've ever seen in my life. And I'm not bitching! I'm smiling.

Don't get me wrong, I won't be sad when spring arrives. But I also won't start my winter dread for NEXT winter on the first warm day -- yes, this has been my MO in the past, no wonder I couldn't stand it!

Our evenings just got hotter

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we made the final (for now) improvement to our previously outdated kitchen. We replaced our dishwasher and refrigerator this summer, and my plan was to have a new oven by Thanksgiving. That happened -- barely!

Our old oven was very old and it was the cursed drop-in kind that are very hard to find now, and when you do find them, they're ugly. (A funny aside: our first house had a drop-in oven too and we also had to replace it.) We wanted to really make the kitchen look updated, so we did a bunch of legwork to find the right way to do it. Regular ovens are 30" wide; ours was 27", so that would have meant cutting cabinets and losing the use of drawers just to put in a "normal" oven. One handyman made a great suggestion of replacing the current drop-in oven with a wall oven and a separate cooktop. Because of that brilliant idea, we rewarded him with the job of making it work.

And, he did! He finished up on Wednesday, a couple hours before I had to bake my pies (and I tried a new crust recipe with vodka that was fabulous, by the way). Now we have an oven that doesn't burn everything you put in and burners that take much less than 20 minutes to boil water.

Cheating winter

I haven't blogged in a while -- sorry if you missed me (as if...). We have been busy playing outside. Yes, outside in late October/early November. Not only outside but outside without jackets and sometimes even in short sleeves! It is completely WRONG for there to be weather this warm in Michigan at this time of year, but we have been loving it.

I can't help but think -- with my typical Michigan weather cynicism -- that we will pay dearly for these warm days. It won't come in the form of a humongous winter snowstorm. No, the worst way we could pay (are you listening, Mother Nature?) would be to have freezing weather and snow in May. The springtime winter weather makes me particularly crazy, having grown up where winters were only three months long.

I have tried to put those negative thoughts out of my head, though, as the girls and I have enjoyed our last hurrah of swinging in the backyard, blowing bubbles, coloring with chalk and leisurely walking around the block. I list those things specifically so I can look back and read this in February, when I have completely forgotten what it's like to play outside in warm weather.

I am resolving right here not to dread the length of winter this year. I will let it happen as it may. You see these words. If you feel I violate my resolution anytime in the months to come, please call me out on it.

Summer lovin'

I spent all day yesterday depressed because summer was over. I'm much more cheerful today, but that's because I worked hard to focus on all the good times we had this summer.

I was trying to figure out why this summer was so significant for me, and I realized that it was my first real summer in about 4 years: 2005 -- Jellybean was born; 2006 -- we moved our butts to Michigan; 2007 -- Peanut was born. I wasn't awake all night feeding a baby, and I wasn't unpacking everything we owned. A nice break!

Here are some of my favorite times this summer.