We Survived Blizzard February 1 & 2, 2011

Yumi was not happy she couldn't watch her birdie friends, but at least the drifting kept stray Tom away from her window.

DH and I both stayed home from work. We actually had no choice. Local roads were closed due to drifting.

I don't know what our official inch total was, but it was the sustained 35 mph winds with gusts up to 70 that made it a brutal blizzard. All night long it was very noisy out there. We lost power a few times, but thankfully it went back on before we got too chilled without heat. We found pieces of the house being constructed next door in our yard, but thankfully our house appears to be intact.

Due to the storm, I ended up with two nights off. I don't want to think about the lower number on my future paycheck. It was nice to have the time off to heal up my thrown out shoulder. It still hurts when I take a deep breath, but at least I can find a comfortable position to sit or lay in now. I've been trying to stretch it out and drink more fluids to help with the inflammation. 

The boys enjoyed having friends over due to schools being closed. It seems hard to believe its also time to see the homeschool posse, but tomorrow is Thursday already. These past two days seem to have flow by despite us being snowed in.

When I was feeling up to it, I studied more of the Gabriel Method. I'm having trouble visualizing my ideal body. I can't think of a time in my life when I didn't feel fat.

I know in high school I had a regular woman's body, but compared to my not yet "developed" friends, I always felt fat. DH says I should use a photograph of myself during that time, but mentally my high school body wasn't something I was comfortable with then, so why would it work for me now? I've thought about using magazine photos and plastering my face on them, but I don't like that idea. I'm just going to have to dig deeper and find out why I can't see myself as a thin, healthy person. 

I think it does have something to do with not wanting to be a sex object. If you're laughing, that's okay. :) It makes me laugh too, but I know on another level, there's truth to this.  Last night I had a dream where I was groped by some jerk. I think on a subconscious level I see thin as sexy and sexy as not safe.

There's a creepy dad at the pool who constantly stares at my chest making me feel uncomfortable. I think I need to empower myself to not feel so threatened by the attention of men. I think it goes way back to age 12. Those bra snapping middle school boys traumatized me! LOL!

I certainly want to feel sexy for DH, but how do I accomplish this without the concern I'm soliciting unwanted attention from other men? I'll have to work on this while practicing my visualization sessions.

Well, that's probably TMI for all of you, but my blog is my journal and how I work stuff out in my head. Read at your own risk. :) 

Ready For The Blizzard & Organizing

I hit up the Pig to round out the fridge and pantry supplies, and I grabbed every available copy of Mother Earth News our small library had on hand. I'm now officially ready to ride out this 3 day snow event. I can plan my garden while watching the white out.

It sounds like the pool will close, but even if it doesn't my wonderful boss said she'd cover for me so I don't have to worry about driving through the blizzard conditions. That's such a huge relief to me. I can actually tolerate winter pretty well, its the driving in it that stresses me out.

We spent this past weekend in the nest, purging and fixing up the larger storage area of our basement. I would have taken a before photo, but I feared we'd be contacted by the producer of Hoarders.

We bought two steel wire shelf racks from Target and with each paycheck, I'm going back for another one until our basement storage area is wall to wall racks. These units came together very quickly without tools and each shelf holds 350 pounds.

The first rack we built is holding appliances and other kitchen items that don't get used on a regular basis. It looks like something you'd see in a professional kitchen! The second rack is being used for DH's old stereo and computer equipment until he figures out what he wants to do with it.

Our future plans include a unit for seasonal decorations, and old toys the boys don't want to part with just yet. We also have a cookie jar collection from our B.C.,(before children), days that we'd like to organize. We're hoping we can rotate out the jars for displaying, rather than always keeping them in their storage boxes like we're doing now.

We still have quite a bit of purging and organizing to do, but it feels great to be started on it. We may even have room to set up a table on which I could work on projects.

We've made two runs to Goodwill with trunk fulls of cast offs. I'm sure they'll be plenty more in the next several weeks. Its getting easier to pitch rather than keep as we begin to see everything organized on the shelving units.

The only downside to all this cleaning has been I've tweaked something with my shoulder and back. I'm not sure what I lifted that did it, but I've got this strange pain the front of my chest and in the back on my shoulder blade. I'm thinking it all has to do with my shoulder being strained somehow. It feels like something a chiropractor could "pop" back in, but I don't have chiropractor funds right now. I'll keep hugging my rice pack and hope it gets better quickly.