Sparkly Snow and sunshine and triggers

Pic from Friday night

Saturday was a wonderful, remarkable day for us up here Northern WI.  Remarkable because it was sunny (which is indeed amazing in itself) and NOT -20 and NOT windy.  This resulted in a day that felt warm!  You can tell we are all delusional here because the warmth was  grand total of maybe 18 degrees, but wow this year it is all relative!! Fred actually left the door of the cabin OPEN while he was doing his little project outside, because it was colder in the cabin.  Now to me whether the cabin was 7 degrees or 17 didn't seem to make much of a difference when he was working outside, but hey, whatever floats your boat, honey.

I was struck by the sparkles.  This doesn't give what I saw justice.

The cool thing is that TODAY is supposed to be about the same, only a touch warmer!!  I am  hoping for sun, too, but that might be a bit much to expect.  We shall see what comes.  Today is Sunday and it is the day that I try to shove all the things in that I didn't get done Saturday.  Fortunately the house is clean (YAY) and the groceries and food are dealt with too, but I do want to work on one more thing to eat this week.  I also want to get in a walk on the road, get to the gym and try and work upstairs for a while.The upstairs is an ongoing project of clearing out 25 plus years of accumulated kid stuff and well, some of our old stuff as well.  I have already taken several boxes to the library, thrift and transfer station and I know I have at least 2 more boxes of books and who knows what else to the thrift and dump.  It is cathartic and it also has brought back a lot of good memories looking at some of those things I have come across.

I recently read an article about how to make something a habit.  It was one of those things that seem innocuous, but turned out to be something that I have thought and thought about!  One of the steps is to have a trigger.  A trigger is an event or place or time or object that will trigger your memory to do that process that you want to have made into a habit.   In other words- finding something that will make that action automatic.  I'm trying to do a "Lola a Day" picture on Instagram, and I'm trying to establish getting outside about 7 am (before I have an armload of school bags) to take a shot of Lola. I put it on Instagram later- So my trigger is when I am putting my boots on, before I put my coat on.  This isn't working perfectly yet, as I have had to go back to the porch to take a pic with an armload....  The other thing is that I want to add a little meditation to my morning routine, but that definitely needs work.  My schedule is very lazy in the morning. BUT I do like the results of my attitude for the day when I remember it, so I want to establish that routine.

Why do I talk about this today?? Good question, I just found it an interesting way to think about a habit.  Conditioned response in psychology class!  My conditioned response to leaving school is to drive directly to the gym!  I am a random sort of person with occasional gusts of linear thought, but today is not one of those gusty days.

So what to do, what to do....  I want to have about 4 extra hours this afternoon to be able to do what I want- but that won't happen so I need to prioritize.  Since I have a 5 mile Snowshoe coming up here in 3 or 4 weeks, I need to get some distance under my feet, I will also go clean upstairs later and def. get to the gym by noon.  Then I have time to snow shoe after that if I want or do some other things- what those are will appear to me later.  I definitely will be hoping for a good photo day, though.

I hope you enjoy these pix from yesterday, I wish I could reproduce the amazing, blinding sun and the sparkle of the puffy snow and the really nice day it was to be outside.

On a side note- this has been a really WINTERY winter.  Cold and a lot of snow.  I mean, you can't believe how much snow we have out there when  you walk where no one has.  I've been breaking new snow shoe trails for myself and when I get going the snow is higher than my knees.  I tried to take a pic to show how deep it is, but it just doesn't work very well.  Holy smokes. This will be good for the trees and the water table, so I won't complain. (Oh yeah, yes I will- but you will forgive me, right??)

See?  These do not show how deep the crazy snow is.

Anyway, on to a new day and a new week.  I feel like there are new possibilities coming to me.  I am trying to hold this great attitude, in spite of a very stressful week coming up with appointments and the end of the quarter and new things I have to do at school and such. But for some reason I am willing to take them on and make them mine - whatever the outcome.  I'm going to search for a few triggers to add 2 new habits to my day/week and always ALWAYS be a joy giver.