When we moved to Southern California last August, the heat (my goodness the summer heat!) was a huge challenge we had to adapt to. We were pressed with finding a new ‘comfort’ level with the high temperatures and the never-ending sunshine! I know, tough work, but somebody had to do it. You’re welcome.

But I tell you what. Our first ‘winter’ season here in the south (can you really call it winter if the average daily temps have you wearing flip-flops and tee shirts and eyeing the pool in mid-January?!) has completely thrown us for a loop. Winter in Southern California is a little like being little seedlings living under grow lights. The sun is so warm and the days are so spring-like, it feels, well, it feels like spring! (yes, we have had a few rainy days, and the coastal fog does creep in now and then, but overall the wintery weather is nothing to write home about!) The smell of folks barbecuing, lazy afternoons at the park, long walks around the neighborhood, homemade smoothies, eating outside, oh, and the cleaning. Yes, these darn SoCal grow lights have sprouted the ‘spring cleaning’ seeds. In January. *sigh*

Thanks to an explosive taco from last night’s dinner, I got to deep clean the microwave and the counter tops this morning! (I hadn’t planned on doing that until at least November, so I got that going for me now.)

I threw open all the windows early this morning and let all that glorious January fresh air and sunshine in!  What a beautiful ‘winter’ day we are having!

I got the mattresses stripped and all. the. bedding. washed and dried. A grand total of seven loads! UGH. So glad that’s done. Now to find the energy to make the beds up before bedtime!  Ha!

Yes, that is a ginormous bag of plastic bags we got going there.  I bought a bunch of re-usable bags at Costco last summer and this is the last of our plastic bag collection! They are indeed handy for trash bags and for toting wet and sandy beach gear. What do you use them for?

In the last couple of weeks I have also deep cleaned both bathrooms, cleaned out the kitchen cabinets/pantry shelves, reorganized the bathroom cabinets, decluttered the little “office” nook we have, vacuumed, purged the master closet, tossed a huge garbage bag of clutter in the donation bin, taken out two trash bags of recycling, unpacked 3 moving boxes (yes, from our move last August – ahem. Just 4 more to go through!), and taken out countless bags of trash.

Starting to feel a little like the kid that does all of his ‘weekend’ homework Friday afternoon! 😉

What in the world, I say, what in the world am I going to do when spring does come?!  Oh, that’s right.  Beach, baby. Beach.