Cabin Fever

Winter is really getting old here. After powering through the coldest January possibly in my lifetime, February has been a welcome relief in some ways and yet a cruel trick in others. It was warming up so nicely and now suddenly we are back in the frozen tundra. I think in some ways it is easier to just stick with really cold and then move forward to warm rather than warm up for a week and then have the rug pulled from under you. My emotions can't handle the back and forth motion of warm, cold, warm, cold. Should I start planning my spring outdoor activities or should I continue to hibernate?

Either way spring will come so I am starting to think about being outside again. Here are a few things I would like to do this year:

I am seriously considering planting a small garden. Nothing fancy just some cucumbers, tomatoes and maybe basil and squash. Our house came with a fairly large garden which has gone completely to weed over the past 6 years and we just mow it down with the grass. I am going to try to find the dirt in one small patch and see what happens.

I really, really, really want to paint our house. Of course I dream of this every year. Even if we do it ourselves we are talking $500-$1000 in supplies and equipment which could go toward our Africa trip so it is likely our house will be an eye sore in the neighborhood for one more year. I guess that just gives me another year to come up with the perfect color combinations for our house and possibly come up with the best way to wrap our wrought iron columns in something a little more modern.

Organizing my garage is an ongoing dream of mine. Someday we will have a fabulous finished garage worthy of a story in Martha Stewart magazine but until then I will have to settle with simply keeping the clutter at bay. Every year I do a little more organizing out there. Admittedly we did our biggest improvements last summer when I managed to sell quite a few large items in our garage sale so I am feeling pretty good about it right now. Our church is having a sale this spring so maybe I can finally get rid of that big Coke clock on the wall John got when he worked at a Bowling Alley.

I cannot wait to run outside again. I miss the movement of actually going somewhere, the feel of the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. I know that the die hard Minnesotans have been running all winter and yes I have run in the cold a few times in the past but it takes special mental energy I just don't want to muster most days. I ran on the track yesterday at the club and it was glorious compared to watching the seconds tick off on the treadmill. This one might be the first outdoor activity for me of the year. I think once it reaches 40 consistently in the mornings I will be out there.

I am going to get a new hammock for our frame. Last year we developed a few holes in the hammock and it never really came together after that. My joy in life is complete to lay in the hammock on a warm day and look up at the blue skies and the leaves in the trees. I can imagine I am far from the world instead of in the middle of the city (OK suburbs). I tell myself the street noise I hear is actually boats and jet skies going by on the lake behind my house. I also tell myself that the water running into the sewers in the spring is a gentle bubbling brook running by my house. I have a rich imagination.

I am also imagining how great I will look in my summer clothes this year since I am running so much this winter and have lost a few pounds with this special diet. The shorts and pants won't be pulling on my butt but will hang nicely like they are supposed to. I will still be followed around by my friend cellulite but I figure I can live with skinny cellulite.

In the mean time I will continue with my indoor homemaking projects, closets, drawers, blog writing, blog reading, facebooking and dreaming of the warmer days which eventually WILL come.