The Bright Side

You all know how effective I am at the practice of positive thinking. I practically ooze optimism; positive energy and glad tidings of joy seep from my pores. I'm a modern day Pollyanna.

Weeell, maybe not.

And still, I thought I'd focus on some of the positive aspects of being stuck at home during Snowpacoplyse I and II.

But first, let me show you a picture of the snow that goes half way up our deck.

The back side of our townhouse doesn't get much in the way of sun, so I imagine we'll have snow out there for quite some time.

And now, on to the main event: the bright side of being stuck at home.

1. On snow days, I lift my no-tv-during-the-day ban. The Gilmore Girls on ABC Family at 11 am became a bright spot in my day all this week.

2. When I don't leave the house, I don't feel the need to blow dry my hair. Just think of all the electricity I've saved by not spending 10 minutes each day drying my hair. Sure it's not as shiny and sleek as usual, but it ends up in a pony tail by mid morning either way.

3. Not being able to go to the gym is a definite downer, BUT having a shower before 10:45 am is certainly enjoyable. Sure I can feel my butt spreading my the minute, BUT being ready for the day early is kind of nice.

4. Since I haven't run in over a week, my hip isn't hurting anymore.

5. Shoveling snow is an excellent upper body workout.

6. We've donned our philanthropic hat and opened a home for wayward Webkinz in need of a warm place to sleep.

7. I've managed to add several items to the donation pile.
This is not a good picture....



I'm willing to bet that this penguin container will find it's way out of the pile and back into the possession of Caroline. Perhaps I should hide it under the pile?

8. PLENTY of time to organize closets. What, that isn't a good thing? Well, obviously you aren't a crazy neat freak like me.

My side of the closet:




And Craig's:

Me thinks the boy doth like stripes.

Yep, even Caroline's closet.

Now, don't be judging.

It's a good thing I did organize her closet because I would have forgotten that I bought this Valentine's shirt on clearance last year and shoved it in the closet. Too bad it's 20 degrees outside. Why doesn't Target make long sleeved VDay shirts?
Oh well, she'll wear it anyway.

No closet overhaul would be complete without a tidying of the linen closet.
I'm sorry about the poor photo quality; the natural light is non existent and with the over head light on, I had a bunch of shadows.

Neatly folded pool towels.



Gym towels.


Towels for my bathroom that I don't use. But that's a whole different post for another day.




The kitchen cabinets didn't need much help in the organizing department, but I did clean up the spice/tea/miscellaneous kitchen items/serving dishes that I don't use cupboard.



9. Puzzles!

Hmm, I seem to be missing a piece.

The vacuum probably ate it the last time I did this puzzle. Not that I ever accidentally vacuum up strange things (cough, chapstick, cough).

10. We're eating through our stash of food, leaving our refrigerator and pantry much easier to navigate.

If you're wondering what our refrigerator/freezer/pantry usually look like, click here.

Clearly, I shop for a family of 7, not our small family of 3. Either that or I have an irrational fear of running out of food.

11. "Quality" reading material.

12. Dolla bills, y'all. The fact that we haven't gone anywhere has done miracles for our bank account. Not that we were in dire straights, or anything, but staying home is most definitely frugal. I did spend $33 on grocery "essentials" between Snowpacolypse I and II, but otherwise, nada. And not even online! Even Craig was impressed, and he's hard to impress when it comes to financial matters. He's the type that wouldn't mind if we spent all the extra money; I'm, um, much more conservative.

13. For the last item on my list, I have two words: yoga pants.

I triple puffy heart love yoga pants.