Mystic Monday

Cleaning, Injuries and Cabin Fever

Okay, so it's not officially "winter" yet, but that's just a technicality as far as I'm concerned. It's bad enough that I've been taken out of circulation due to migraines - which are finally getting better, even though loud annoying sounds and voices can still trigger them - but now that I'm finally on the mend, it snows!

That's right, not only are we cold up here in the north, but we've got snow too! It doesn't matter that I've lived here all my life, I'm just never ready when that dreaded snow finally arrives!

All that aside, it's time to switch gears from my "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" approach for the summer to my "write-it-down-on-a-list" approach for the winter.

Why?

Well, if I don't I won't get anything done and find all kinds of excuses to play games on the computer. Okay, mainly just one game, Farm Town. I still like that game, but have no idea why.

Lists help me turn house work, home repairs, and other stuff into a game...sort of. I put everything I need to do in a day on a list - meals, showering, getting dressed, etc - and I add other things that I need to make sure get done within the week on that list too. I may not get everything done on any given day, so I make sure to add it to the list for the next day. The overall goal is to not have too many things getting passed from day to day or from week to week, especially with the holidays approaching.

I had been doing a decent job keeping up with the cleaning and even tackling some long overdue projects. However, my ankle sprain really sidelined things good. For two months I was hobbling around and in too much pain to even have a mindset to focus on anything but resting and getting better.

Okay, did that. Then, we went away and I had the bright idea I'd give up caffeine. It wasn't too much later that I got sidelined with migraines caused by a nasty sinus infection.

The migraines took me out for over a month. It wasn't until I started taking this amoxicillin that I began to feel any better. While I'm getting better, I'm not there yet.

However, there's one problem - cabin fever has already begun to set in. It doesn't matter how much we do around here - go to Bucks games, hang out with friends, etc - I always have this need to go south. I feel inexorably pulled to warmer weather. I want to go to Florida or Arizona for the winter. Plus, I just want to "get outta Dodge" for awhile.

Usually, we get away enough during the summer to feed that need through at least January. However, the economy being what it is, we didn't do as much traveling as we would otherwise. My gypsy blood is getting restless very early this year, and cleaning isn't going to cut it. I can get this entire place clean and organized and it won't kill the need to actually get in the car and drive south. I would just get in the car and go, except I don't like traveling alone. It's much more fun with my husband, and he has ties.

What about you? Do you feel pulled to the south and warmer weather when it gets cold, or do you not mind the cold and the snow?

Do the holiday activities keep you busy enough to ignore that pull? Is reading a book enough to quell that need for escape? What happens when a book doesn't work? What do you do?

If not, how do you handle it?