Journaling life: Share our Lives: Staying Warm in Winter

" Winter is the the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for talk beside the fire; it is the time for home"

 ~Edith Sitwell

As a hobby blogger, I love finding others that seem to have similar interests, tastes, and that you feel you just resonate with. Joanne from Slices of Life is one of those bloggers. I participate in her Share Your Shelf Link party and this morning I saw this one "Share Our Lives", with some other bloggers I enjoy following as well. I thought I'd participate. Each month there's a new theme of sharing a part of daily life. 

This month is about how we stay warm in the winter. Her link up is here. 

I live in the Southwest region of Washington State. Our climate is fairly mild with wet winters and warm, mostly dry summers. We are classified as a warm-summer Mediterranean Climate. Our Winter temps rarely get extremely cold, however, that doesn't mean it's not cold and we don't need to stay warm. We may get some snow, but it doesn't last long. With that said, I always run hot, so it's not uncommon for me to be in the house with shorts and a t-shirt or tank top on. I'm also hitting menopause and for a few years dealt with daily hot flashes or warm fuzzies as I call them...as much as I want to wear sweatshirts, sweats, or sweaters outside or inside, it doesn't happen often. So, how do I incorporate warmth during winter.

Our propane Fireplace: I love our propane fireplace. It looks real, and even if I'm in my shorts and tank top, or leggings and a short sleeve, the fireplace gives off a warm glow that creates not only warmth in the house, but a sense of peace and calm and beauty in the dark days of winter. If you come to our house bring slippers and a sweater, because we don't really keep our house "hot", we keep it in the upper 60's.

Slippers/cardigan: One of my go to things to wear are some homemade slippers made by an elderly friend, and a cardigan (that I need to replace)...if I get cold (after being hot), I can easily slip these on and off. 

Warm Drinks: Warm drinks make everything better. For me it's a cup of hot coffee, or maybe tea, but almost always coffee.

 

Soups/Comfort food: There is nothing better than soup or a good comfort food meal to warm you up. In fact I'll be putting one in the crockpot this morning since I work later on Monday's. 

Warm Baths/Sauna: I have always loved taking baths, so this is a daily thing before I go to bed. We also have an infared sauna that I will use in the winter (though not as often as I'd like)

Automatic car starter: We have never had a new car, but in 2023 we purchased one...one of my favorite features, the ability to start my car remotely. I can have it warmed up and ready when I leave the house (or in the summer cool it down). It also has seat warmers and a steering wheel warmer. 

Layers: If I know we are going to be out and about, I will definitely layer up. I want to be warm when outside, but be able to pull off layers if I get too warm. When we went to Colorado last September/October, this was needed. If we were at a little lower elevation it wasn't too bad, but if we climbed too high, it got windy and significantly colder. 

Create ambience: It's not all about feeling actual warmth, it's also about creating a warm atmosphere in the home...mood lighting, candles, books available. Winter can be dreary, especially when there's more rain and very little blue sky, snow, or sun. We do take advantage when the sun shows it's face by going outside to walk or just stand and let it hit our faces. 

I'm looking forward to this monthly link party. I've struggled with blogging the last several months because our home as been so busy with my oldest daughter and her family living here...it's been wonderful, but the time to sit and blog or even visit other blogs has been very hard, so I've taken a bit of a break, especially from link parties, because I love visiting other participants. But I'm going to try to get back into the groove of it. So hopefully I'll see you next month. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin