7 degrees

7 degrees. Really? This Sunday morning in northern NJ it was 7 degrees. May I rant on this a little while? How do you go outside for some fresh air and exercise when it's 7 degrees when I'm used to the average temperature in January being at least 34 degrees during the day? It starts to get depressing after a while.

But the good news is, today is 1/16/22 and we are officially past the coldest days in January. There is great hope in this if you like to go jogging outside in the morning like I do.

The other wonderful thing is the days are getting longer again since Dec 21st, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which means the sunrise will be earlier and the sunset will be later by an average of 1-3 minutes each day.

Soon I won't have to jog with my iPhone flashlight in the morning. We will be getting more and more daylight going forward until we hit the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, on June 21st.

One way to look at this momentary troubling idea of lack of sunlight is that it gives us not only a break from the same routine but a challenge to undergo and something to look forward to at the same time.

Last night I thought I could sneak out for a 3-mile jog.  Normally I would go through the wooded trails but since they were still snow-covered, I wound up running through my neighborhood streets instead. On the last leg of my trek, I had to cover my nose with my glove because I felt frostbite was coming on.

How grateful I will be when those warmer temperatures finally arrive. Until I decide to invest in reflective tape, a headband flashlight, and a 3 holed face mask, I'm staying inside and powerwalking in my living room on my laptop with Leslie Sansone. 

In This Season of Life

My husband and I were on the phone with his sister, MaryJo, last night until 11:30 pm. It was great catching up with her since we didn't see her for Christmas and hadn't connected with her since last Christmas. MaryJo said some words of wisdom that stuck with me until I felt I had to write about them in my blog post this morning. 

My husband, MaryJo, and I are all in our fifties agewise and MaryJo was telling us about a friend of hers that she was concerned about, who was also in her fifties. Her friend just left her teaching career to start a new job in sales. Now there's nothing wrong with reinventing yourself in your 50's but she said that her friend was struggling to make ends meet and needed to sell her home. 

Considering her friend's situation and feeling sympathy for her, MaryJo stated, "I want to be taking life easier in my 50's; not having to strive so much."

I couldn't imagine the pressure her friend must be feeling to not only have to learn a new trade, produce for the company AND find a home she could afford while trying to make ends meet.

My husband and I have been working out our budget for years. For the last 10 years, we've had an emergency fund of no less than $18,000 put aside in case of, well, an emergency. We don't make a lot of money either, but we feel this is important for our stress levels. We also just fully funded our retirement accounts for the third year in a row; well, so we can retire someday.

In my golden years, I don't want to be striving in order to make ends meet. If I choose to strive, fine. But MaryJo is right. I think our golden years are meant for pursuing our work passions and hobbies, enjoying our relationships, laughing at the days ahead, and waiting in expectation to meet our Lord one day.

I do pray it works out for MaryJo's friend and that she finds her peace.

Snow Day!

Happy Snow Day!

I love, love, love snow days!

Maybe it's the interruption from the daily grind that makes them so special.

Or the time spent with my family shoveling snow and sitting by the fire in the living room.

And the extra-long talks I get to have with my husband, about whatever is on our hearts and minds.

It's an unplanned day off, usually well needed and just in time.

I'm a teacher and I found out about my school closing a day ahead at 4 pm yesterday afternoon. Right after I stress binged dark chocolate-covered almonds and espresso beans because it had been a difficult day at school.

So before I went to bed last night I shut off my alarm that is usually set for 5:15 am and awoke this morning at 8:30 am! I almost never get to sleep until 8:30 am. Of course when I sleep that long I usually have a headache because of my caffeine addiction. But the mild headache is well worth it for the extra sleep I got to enjoy. To remedy it, I simply popped an Advil and an Extra Strength Excedrin, one of each, and my headache was gone in 20 minutes.

My dog and I sat on the couch waiting for the rest of my family to wake up. Just the two of us. It

reminded me of Christmas morning. I told her how beautiful she was. How she was God's creation and how she was doing her purpose well. She is a companion dog and she rotates her time between all of her family members giving us warmth and love throughout the day.

Snow days are random and whimsical just like the way this blog post sounds. And God knew I

needed one. A day to do with as I liked.