Almost 2 months

I heard on the news the other morning that winter is officially half over!  That's all they said, or at least all I heard, so I don't know* if they meant meteorological winter (which runs from December 1 through the end of February) or astronomical winter (which runs from around December 22 to around March 21).  I'm pretty sure they didn't mean Midwest winter, which runs from November, sometimes October, rarely as late as December, until at least the beginning of April but sometimes into May.  

*And I don't feel like doing the math to figure it out.  Since the meteorologist was the one talking about it, my money would be on meteorological winter, but I'm not in a betting mood today.

Nevertheless, it was nice to hear the words "winter" and "over" in the same sentence from voices other than the ones in my head, for a change.  😆

It's hard to believe that we've lived here almost two months already.  It definitely feels more like home every day.  I think we have all the light switches figured out (ha, ha), at least on the main floor!  I was keeping up with unpacking totes at first, but I finally conceded and now there are some totes out in the garage waiting to be unpacked.  Mostly because I haven't decided how to display the ashtray collection yet.  

Yes, we have an ashtray collection.  No, we don't smoke.  Well, we've been known to enjoy the occasional cigar or flavored cigarillo every now and then, although that hasn't even happened for a few years.  I used to smoke in my late teens/early 20's, but quit when I got pregnant with the boy.  No, the ashtray collection doesn't stem from a smoking habit, it stems from an interest in collecting odd, affordable things.  Hence why I want to find a way to display them, not just keep them in totes in the garage.  There are some really cool pieces in there!  I think one of my favorites is the ashtray that was *ahem* once in a pediatrician's office.  It actually has indentations of baby's feet at different ages.  I can just imagine new moms sitting around in the pediatrician's waiting room with their babies, smoking to pass the time, and comparing their baby's feet to the ones on the ashtray, right before ashing in it.

I know I suck at describing things, so I found a picture of a very similar ashtray on the Googles.  This is not the actual one we own, as far as I know, but it could be.  It's not my picture, though.  The ashtray in question looks just like this: 

See? Craziness!!  It was made (or at least distributed by) Similac.  That is NOT meant to be any kind of slam against formula-makers.  I'm not one of those moms.  My baby was a formula baby and a breastfed baby.  I just think it's funny.  Or brilliant.  Similac knew their target audience with this one.

So, yeah.  Two months.  And I'm tired of seeing everything covered in snow.  Although I do have to say, I have been kicking ass at keeping the house clean!  This is generally not one of my strong points.  I used to joke that I was born without the housekeeping gene.  Have I written about this here before? I feel like I have.  Either way, get this: we were out of laundry detergent for a couple of days last week, and the growing pile of dirty clothes spilling out of the hamper and on to the floor around it was actually disturbing me.  I could feel it in my bones, and grating on my last nerve, and I hated it!  I was so relieved when we finally got more detergent so I could catch up on laundry.  This is so unlike me, at least unlike the me I used to be.  If something like that bothered me before, I just ignored it.  WHO AM I!?!?!  I don't know either, but I like me a lot better now that I have in a really, really long time!

Trust me, I've been doing a lot of self-analysis into why that could be.  I have some theories, but nothing I want to share yet.  Especially not right now, considering my break is over and I have to get back to work. 

Toodles!