Warm Up! // How to Do Winter Without Freezing

It's been getting miiiighty chilly around here lately.  I won't use cold yet, because I know better than to pull that word out while it's still consistently 30 degrees or warmer.  It's not really cold, but very chilly? You bet. 

In past winters, I've let winter take me by surprise.  I generally spend a few weeks wearing skirts over just my bear, naked legs and neglecting to start the car a few minutes early to warm it up and promote global warming before I wise up and start fighting winter back.  Not this year!  Last year's especially wintery winter has instilled an intense fear of being cold in me, and I'm determined to spend almost all, if not the entire winter in relative warmth.  Spending 5 months feeling like this will do that to you.

I live in Southern Michigan, so we definitely don't see the worst of it.  It probably gets colder and more snowy in the North Pole and Alaska and maybe some parts of Siberia, so if anybody from there writes a blog post about how to stay warm, they're probably righter than me.  However, as someone who has spent a lot of life trying to be warm, I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of it, and I'd love to save you from a fate of sixteen cold years by just giving you the answers now.  Ladies and gentlemen, my expert guide on how to stay warm when it's -7 with relentless wind and snow, or any other version of cold.  

|  Buy a space heater. Make it your best friend.  My mom bought a space heater for her office last year, and I've gotten in the habit of keeping it about three feet from wherever I am at all times, plugged in and set to the highest setting.  Sometimes it smells like it's burning something, but then I remember that burning = heat and stop complaining.  (We bought ours from Costco - it's this one and I'm convinced that it's saved my life more than once!) 

| Drink hot water all day long.  Credit for this one goes to my mom, as well.  During winters when I was younger, she'd always drink a cup of hot water after dinner while the rest of us ate heaping bowls of ice cream.  We thought she was crazy, but I've since decided that she was definitely on to something.  Now, whenever I drink water, I heat it in the microwave for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes, and it is so much better.  You can feel it warming you from the inside out, and it's the best. Bonus:  drink your heart water in a cute mug like one of these.

| Learn how to best utilize your blanket.  And by that, I mean wrap yourself up like a burrito or baby Jesus.  No more half-hearted draping of blankets across your lap.  You deserve better.  Stand up, throw that thing over your shoulders, and wrap it around your whole entire body, feet included.  If your blanket isn't big enough, I highly recommend you buying a blanket that's man enough for the job.  (I'm so in love with sweater blankets lately - one of these should do the trick!)  Step two is to stay wrapped in the blanket as long as possible to generate body heat and keep it trapped inside.  This can double as reading time, Netflix time, or nap time, which is great because it won't interfere with your busy schedule. 

| Wear (ridiculously thick) socks. Feet + cold floors, especially ones without carpet on them, is a recipe for disaster.  You lose most of your heat through your feet and head, so you can take care of one problem area by getting some socks on you!  I personally really like long socks for this; the longer they are, the warmer I feel.  My mom swears by these - she wears them all the time, including when she goes running in the dead of winter and before the sun has even thought about getting up.  Even better?  Wear socks and slippers, or socks and boots.  I wear my boots in the house.  It's totally okay, because my feet are never cold.  

| Stop showering, or never stop showering.  Okay, it's probably best not to completely cut showers out of your routine.  All I know is that showers leave my hair wet for 3+ hours, which makes me a lot colder.  If you can avoid showering (which, in colder, drier months, you can probably do more than usual), do it.  Either that or get in the shower and never, ever get out.  I think that I'm probably the happiest I ever am all winter long when I'm in the shower because it is just so dang warm in there.  For maximum results, you're going to either have to be really unhygienic or drown and blow up your water bill . . . is this starting to sound like a cult? 

| Exercise.  It gets that blood flowing, and flowing blood is hot blood.  I usually do something active for about an hour a day, so there's an hour of warmth right there, but doing a couple push ups or squats when you start to feel your extremities freezing can save the day.  Just make sure you don't sweat too much in order to avoid the necessity of a never-ending shower. 

| Get a pet and make it cuddle with you all. the. time.  So, no, a fish or lizard or snake probably isn't the best option.  In this case, bigger is better, or you can substitute size with quantity.  (For example ten puppies can probably keep you about as warm as one very large dog.)  Once you have your warm-blooded pet of choice, you're going to have to make it love you or purchase some form of bribery.  I generally opt to grab my dog or cat and hug them until they stop resisting, but if you're lucky, your pet might actually want to keep you company.  

I hope you're feeling warmer already!  With these easy steps, we can defy nature and beat winter coldness together.  That's the goal, anyway, and as I sit here in my knee socks, drinking hot water and wrapped in a blanket, I think things are going pretty well.  If only my hair wasn't wet . . . 

Allie

P.S. Do you live somewhere cold?  If so, what do you do to stay warm? Or do you just -shudder- embrace the way-too-low temperatures? 

God First in Time Management // Big Rocks First

Hey, everyone!  Thanks for coming back!  If you're new to the party, what your eyeballs are observing right now is the third installment in a monthish-long series that Itunu from Beyoutiful Beauties and I have been working on together.  Each week, we've been writing posts on each of our blogs about how to keep God first in an area of our lives, writing on the same general topic but with different focuses.  It's been pretty cool so far, if it's okay for me to like my own Instagram here for a second.

This week's about putting God first in the way we spend our time, and I'm going to go all pastor on you and start this thing off with an illustration.  My mom has used it to explain time management to me a lot, and she's basically a management guru, so you're welcome.

Pretend that I gave you a mason jar, a bunch of sand, a few big rocks (but small enough to fit inside of the mason jar, duh) and some bouncy balls.  Let's say that the jar represents how much time you have and the objects represent the ways you use your time.  The rocks are the most important things;  for me, that would be God, the people in my life, and school.  The bouncy balls are the slightly less important things: my blog, my pets, sports, baking, reading - hobby-type things.  The sand is the little stuff that's kind of fun but doesn't have much redeeming value and isn't that important - it's the social media, the TV, the coloring of princess pictures.  There's nothing wrong with it, but it's definitely not necessary. 

I ask you to put everything into the jar.  You pour the sand in first, then add the bouncy balls.  By the time you start to add the big rocks to the jar, they don't fit!  You beg me for another try, and I graciously grant it.  This time, the big rocks go in first.  Next, you add the bouncy balls.  They fall into the gaps between the rocks, like they were always meant to fit there.  Finally, the sand fills in the cracks and runs out just before spilling over the brin. 

This, my mom says, is how life works.  When we put the big stuff first, everything else just falls into its intended place.  I would venture to guess that adding God to the "big rocks" category helps things to fall into place even better, because he's God and he's really good at that kind of stuff. 

I'm guessing that, if you've been walking with God for a while, a lot of what I've said so far isn't news to you.   You know that God needs to come first, and that he should be one of the big rocks in your life.  You might have even tried your hand at actually fitting the objects into the mason jar at some Jesus-related event or something.  For the most part, we know that God should be the first priority in our lives, but we don't know how. 

Be All Business

Besides the mason jar illustration, my mom/time management guru has lots of other brilliant stuff to say about how to use my time most efficiently.  One practice that she recommends time and again is to make appointments for everything you do, especially the hard stuff and especially the important stuff.  Well, spending time with God is both important and difficult.  I mean, on the one hand, we need and desire to our very core to be in a relationship with him; that much is a given because of how we're created.  On the other hand, though, being with God rubs against the grain of our sinful nature.  Time spent in the Bible and prayer often shows us that we're doing stuff wrong, and no one likes to be told that we're doing stuff wrong.  It's hard!

Therefore, add it to your schedule.  Plan our a specific block of time to spend with God and write it in your planner or type it into your phone or tell it to your personal assistant and then actually do it.  Hold your appointment to God like you would any other engagement - that means not planning other events for the same time or showing up late or leaving early.  A great relationship with God takes commitment, and this is a really good place to start! 

Expect to Be Uncomfortable

Our little illustration shows that everything we enjoy about life can fit into it if we put God first, but that doesn't mean that those activities won't have to fit in a different way.  For instance, you might have to give up prime working / running / TV watching hours in order to devote that time to being with God. (But, I mean, treadmills and Netflix, so nice try.)  Shifting how all the little pieces of your life fit together will surely cause discomfort - the bouncy balls aren't used to having to squeeze in between the rocks, and the sand won't like having to wait its turn to get involved.  They'll demand their old places back, in the bottom of the jar where your full attention is.  Ignore them!  You know what you're doing!  The big rocks stay at the bottom of the jar, without question. 

God has to be first, because he's what we as his followers build our lives on.  We know that, but knowing isn't enough - creating a strong relationship with him takes real commitment.  Get started strong by saying a quick prayer asking God to help you to put him first.  And after that, you best be whipping out your planner and scheduling the heck out of it with God-time. //

Next week will (most likely) be the last post in our God First series, so show up then and read some more about God being first!  Also, head over to Itunu's blog and check out what she had to say about keeping God first in the way we use our time, because she's smart and writes good words.  I hope this was helpful to you!

Have a great day!

Allie

Sometimes I Run // I Should Really Be a Fitness Blogger

One time, I tried to be fitness blogger for like a day.  As in, I created a whole new blog and dedicated it to all things health/fitness and NO I AM NOT GIVING YOU THE URL ITS EMBARASSING.  Actually, I'm pretty sure that it was literally a one-day stint.  I had this thought that if I was constantly blogging about kale chips and pilates and stuff, I would naturally want to eat kale chips, do pilates,  and otherwise lead an obsessively healthy lifestyle.  Well, just for the record, it doesn't work that way, nor is living a lifestyle that is obsessively anything in any way a good thing. The more you know.

A year or so later, I'm trying to make some healthy changes in a less drastic way ... but it's making me think that I may have missed my calling when I gave up that fitness blog in the first place.  I mean, I'm pretty good at this!  Example:

Exercise plan: 

 Run (almost) every day.  Except if they're showing iCarly reruns on TV that are only showing during the perfect window of time when temperature, humidity, and wind speed are ideal for running.  Or if you just ate a fudge chocolate chip brownie or few or a big meal.  Time your run only when you're feeling really confident or planning on running less than a mile so you can go fast the whole time.  That being said, if you've misjudged how fast you're feeling on a particular day, you can always blame your Map My Run app for not GPS tracking you correctly.  Like that time that you headed out for a fast mile run and ended up taking over eight minutes to do it?  Chalk that up to Map My Run.  You don't need that kind of negativity in your life - it'll only slow you down.

Also, don't forget to take LOTS of recovery time.  You're working really hard.

Nutrition plan: 

First of all, peanut butter.  Oh my gosh you guys, THE PEANUT BUTTER.  In copius amounts that would seem excessive if they hadn't been recommended to you by a healthcare proffessional (me) (jk please don't sue me).  I like to pair mine with a nice big spoon, because, hello, protein.

Speaking of which, make sure to drink a lot of "protein" shakes that actually taste like chocolate ice cream.   Peanut butter works well with these, too, incidentally.  Those things will power you through then intense cardio training that we alread talked about, plus they taste like ice cream. That's a win-win. 

So, fitness blogger, right?  Maybe I'll give it another shot.  Until then, enjoy your Friday and your whole entire weekend! 

Allie

Grown Up // It's Harder Than It Sounds

I am a senior.  I AM a senior.  IIIIIIII amasemior.  I. Am. A. Senior.

No matter which words I emphasize or how often I roll it around in my brain, I cannot get a grip on the fact that I'm in my last year of high school.  Maybe it's the fact that my planner is still decorated with princess stickers? Or it could possibly be the fact that my dad still drops me off there every morning, just like he's been doing since I was five and pretended that his truck was an airplane.  (He teaches at my high school!  I am a responsible driver and have my liscense.  Shame on you for doubting me.).  It's also possible that I'm young at heart and completely not ready to take on the world alone, which is 100% true.  Whether I can stomach it or not, my last nine months of completely not being an adult are here and going quickly, and I feel like I should use them wisely.  You know?  I'm usually a horrible procrastinator, (ie, finishing my summer homework on the way to my first day of school.  Uhhhh. ) but I suddenly have this sense of urgency, like I need to do some stuff like right now.  I rarely, rarely have that feeling.  I've been known to make cupcakes rather than do something that was supposed to be done yesterday or head to Cedar Point the day before school starts with exactly zero of my 7384 pages of summer reading complete. For whatever reason, though, my version of senioritis is causing me to want to get stuff done, before this year over.  I'm really intent on learning adult skills, and so that's what I'll be doing senior year!  Besides, you know, the usual partying hardy every weekend and stuff.  My senior year to do list:

| Consistently use my planner,(yeah, that thing they've been giving me for the last 8 years)  and, as a result, get assignments done before they're due. 

|. Take better care of myself. Including, but not limited to, washing my face right after practice, getting enough sleep (four hours per night is not enough),  and eating healthy food most of the time! 

| Research college and research opportunities.  I'm aware that God knows exactly what I'm going to do, so now it's my turn to look around and see where He's at! 

| Be nice.  As in, learning how to function around people when I'm tired, stressed, hungry, or worse.  As in, I actually have to talk to them and be civil. Practice makes perfect, as they say, so that's what I'm doing this year! 

|. Looking presentable most of the time.  I feel like this will be a good skill to have once I have a job where they care if I do things like show up and school with my hair wet or wear shoes that, while being the best shoes EVER, have holes in them. 

| Take on more responsibilities.  Whether it's putting my own money in the bank or buying myself new clothes or speaking in front of the school,   I'm going to start doing things on my own.  Like, putting gas in the car might be a good one to figure out.  Or maybe not.  //

Okay, so this is a really tall order!  Basically making over my life in five ish broad, all inclusive, complicated steps. Okay.  I'm excited about it, though; growing up kind of marks the pre beginning of a new, exciting part of my life! I'm going to do my best, and, most importantly, enjoy every day before I have to start cooking for myself and doing laundry all the time, because, no thanks.

Allie

P.S.  Any tips on how to be an adult?  Um, and does anyone love doing laundry and want to do mine fo freeee? 

Free Stuff Isn't Free // Trying To Use Birthday Coupons

So, if you follow me on Twitter, this little life update may have shown up in your feed yesterday:

This was me trying to set myself up to live tweet about the 340845 places that I would get free food from because it was my birthday.  I Googled up a list of over one hundred places that would give me free stuff for officially being a year older and then chose five or six that are pretty close to my house, figuring that I'd be gone and back in about an hour with the car overflowing with free coffee, ice cream, subs, and stir-fry meals.

After convincing my little sister that, yes, she did want to ride around with my while I got free birthday food and ate it in front of her, I headed for my first destination:  Baskin Robbins.  BR promised me a free 2.5 ounce scoop of ice cream on my birthday and I had the coupon to prove it, so I was pretty confident as we waded through the parking lot as fast as we could to avoid the rain.  I walked in and smelled the smell of ice cream shop, which, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of smelling it, is pretty delicious.  When I walked in, the ice cream lady was helping another customer, so I scouted out my options and laid my eyes on the most delicious, chocolatey ice cream I have ever seen.  And then the other customers left and it was time for me to get 2.5 ounces of it for free.  I was so excited, so full of hope, so completely sure that free ice cream was headed my way. . . (foreshadowing)

"Hi! Do you do the whole free ice cream on your birthday thing?"

"No."

Oh.  OH.  I don't thing I said any words; I just kind of walked out of there, secretly steaming at the ice cream lady.  How DARE her Basking Robbin's not participate in the free birthday ice cream promotion? Why was she so mean?  She was trying to ruin my birthday!

As disappointing as that was,  I'm not one to give up on free food that easily.  I had my dad's word that Biggby gives you free coffee on your birthday, even if you show up with no coupon and no legal ID.   We drove a little further away from home, country radio blasting and wind shield wipers in a frenzy.  We sloshed through another parking lot and I approached another cashier with slightly less confidence.

"Um, hi.  I heard that you get free ice cream here if it's your birthday?"

"You do if you're registered! Is it your birthday?"

"Yeah . . . I'm not registered.  That's disappointing.  It's okay."

The two Biggby cashiers proceeded to feel appropriately sorry for me as I hung my head and walked out the door.  It was so sad.  I thought I was going to cry, true story.   I guess once I get set on something, it's really hard to give it up.

Brooke and I sat down in the car to regroup.  I checked my email, desperately searching for birthday freebie offers, and WHAT DID I SEE but five free dollars from Menchie's!  Which is froyo.  Which I love.  Brooke transformed into my copilot and informed me that the nearest Menchie's was twenty minutes away, which was obviously a small distance to travel for five glorious dollars worth of free froyo.  So we drove, and it was still rainy.  And at one point we were stopped at a red light because that's the law and I was dancing to the song on the radio because I was so overjoyed about my free froyo.  And then I looked up and apparently the guy in the truck next to us thought that show was for him, because he was just staring away and laughing.  The nerve.  Of course, that light proceeded to be red for about the next five years, giving me a change to act really sophisticated and erase all memories of the dancing that had just been going on.

Anyway, when the light turned green we got to go to Menchie's.  I grabbed myself a cup and eyeballed five dollars worth of mint - iced coffee swirl, which I easily paid for with my five free birthday dollars.  Except my eyeballs were a little off, because I had only spent $2.50.  After demolishing my froyo, I decided that, it being my birthday and all, I'd shell out the other $2.50 for Brooke to get a cup of her own.  She was super happy and concocted herself a mix of lemon yogurt and gummi bears and lots of other fruity stuff and we went to pay.  By pay I mean, not pay.  But then there was a birthday surprise, which was that apparently you have to use all five of your birthday dollars in the same transaction.  I mean, obviously.  So I had to give the lady some actual money and then we left.

At that point, I was slightly discouraged.  We'd been out for quite a while with only some BOGO froyo to show for it, and that was unacceptable.  Naturally, I told Brooke that we were going home and that the only way we could get something else was if we saw one of the free birthday stuff stops on the way.

We saw it on the way. "It" being Firehouse Subs.  I didn't really want a sub, but by that point I was numb to the pain of rejection, so it was worth a shot.  WE DIDN'T EVEN GET REJECTED!  The really nice cashier glanced at my drivers license to make sure I wasn't making the whole birthday thing up, helped me choose a sub, and gave it to me for free without any trouble.  It was a really good sub, and I can not tell you how much that helped my mood.  Suddenly, I felt like we had had a super productive day and that it had all been worth it.  I probably should have told the manager of Firehouse Subs some of that.  My cashier might be able to get a promotion or something.

So, yeah.  Two + hours of driving for BOGO Menchie's and one Turkey Bacon Ranch Firehouse Sub. A word to the wise:  on your birthday, don't go to Basking Robbins expecting a free scoop OR try and step food in Biggby without registering first OR use your five Menchie's dollars in two transactions.  These people are ready and willing to play hardball with you, birthday or not.  You're better off signing up for the birthday coupons now and hitting up Firehouse Subs for a TBR on wheat.  Trust me.

Allie

But, seriously.  Where do you guys go for free birthday food?