The Countdown to Spring has Started

I know, it's only mid-January and I've already started counting down to spring. I start earlier every year, which I know only serves to make the winter weather even worse to deal with. Right now it's a toasty 13 degrees, but at least it's sunny? I say that with a question mark, because I realize that I'm grasping at straws to find the positives about January in Cleveland. And February. And most of March.

We are biding our time by finding things to do indoors without going completely bonkers. Some days this is successful, others not so much. This is about the time of year I've been known to wear a little bit of sunscreen--not for the sun protection (the clouds protect me from the sun I'm not exposed to anyway). No, I wear it for the smell. I LOVE the smell of sunscreen. It makes me think of beaches, and summer and cookouts and sunshine and a bunch of other things that are happy. No need to spend a lot of money on perfume in the winter; I wear Eau De Coppertone ;)

Thank goodness for friends!

I haven't taken my camera outdoors since before Christmas. Why? Mainly I'm worried that the extreme cold will break something and I've had enough close calls with that camera that I haven't wanted to risk it. But the bigger reason is because just about everything is dirty, covered in salt, dead, or gray. Or some combination of all of them. The camera does not love this weather either.

One of Charlotte's favorite indoor activities is taking all of the cushions off the couch and pretending the couch is a swimming pool and the cushions are her sandcastles. She also will prop them up and pretend they are slides and sometimes insists on jumping over everything on the floor to escape the crocodiles. Her other favorite way to pretend is camping--she gathers up all her camping gear and uses the fireplace as her campfire to roast imaginary s'mores. Last week, during a particularly involved camping session, I overheard her let out an exasperated sigh and proceed upstairs, muttering "I need my princess shoes for this." Sure enough, she reappeared a few minutes later wearing sparkly purple dress shoes over her pajamas. It might be my favorite quote of hers to date.

Happy Tuesday :)

~Stacy