It's been kinda cold outside.

This is what weather.com told me it was like outside on Monday morning.  Now, I realize I live in Northern Minnesota, but this is really, really cold.

When I posted this photo on Facebook, my friend Beth who lives in Florida asked me how we survive this kind of weather.  She wanted to know if everyone just walks around in those ski masks all day.  My response to her was that no, I don't wear a ski mask (because I don't want to be accused of robbing a gas station, and it would wrek havoc on this mop of hair I have on my head).  We just spend as little time outside as humanly possible.  When you do go outside, you don't want to take too big of a breath in through your nose, because boogers freeze.  If it helps any, I absolutely couldn't imagine living in Florida in the summer.  I'd have heat stroke for sure!

I heard someone say on the news on Monday that with this wind chill temperature of -43, if the average house keeps their thermostats set at 72, it feels 115 degrees warmer inside your house than outside.  Cool.

I was happy to see the huge raise in temperature by 4:05 PM!  Yay!  Feels like -32 now?  Practically balmy!

The kids had school off on Monday to observe Martin Luther King Jr day, and were all crabby because school most likely would have been closed for those kinds of temperatures.  Kind of like when it always snows on Saturday.  My kids would pay $100 for a "snow" day.  Also, Andy came down with a bout of the flu Monday morning, so spent most of the day sleeping.  Another Murphy's Law situation - getting sick when you already have a day off of school.  THE WORST!

And then on Monday evening, we got the message that they had decided to close school on Tuesday due to the cold temperatures.  You would think my children would have won the lottery.  Even Andy with his sick feverish self was doing a happy dance.

Of course last night they were glued to the TV, and every now and then I'd hear an, "Oh come on.  Call school for tomorrow.  COME ON!"  Sorry kids.  No luck.

So this morning I headed outside 15 minutes before the old Honda had to leave the driveway and said a little prayer that she would start.  She groaned at me a little, but did start up.  When we came outside 15 minutes later to leave, the defroster had left angel wings in the frost on the windshield!  Or a mustache?  Or eyebrows?  You decide.  Anyways, it looked picture-worthy to me.

When I checked weather.com a little while ago, I was happily surprised to find an actual temperature ABOVE zero!  Woo hoo!  (Still feels like -15, but who's counting, right?)

One of my very favorite bloggers, Sharon at Three Irish Girls wrote one of the funniest blog posts EVER yesterday about a parka that she only digs out in dire emergencies.  Go check this out for a funny read:  The Parka of Ridiculousness  Sharon is so funny, takes super awesome pictures of my daughter, and also hand dyes her own yarn to sell.  I want to be Sharon when I grow up!  :)

There are people left and right posting cool pictures of Duluth in this cold snap, and I was going to try and steal some of their photos (and give them full credit, of course) to post here, since there was no way my cold butt was heading outside with my camera, but apparently people don't want to make that easy for me, so you'll have to go look for some on Google or something.

I hope it's warmer wherever you are.  If not, grab some hot chocolate and spike it with something yummy, and go sit by a roaring fireplace.  Or go back to bed.  Either or.

Stay warm!

XOXOX

NH