The most I remember about our new year, other than some fun food (I made tortilla wraps again), it was FREEZING!! That seems to be a trend around the country this year. Just today I read about the "polar vortex" that has been a major presence.
I remember my mom talking about an arctic wind that hit Chicago over some winter in the early 80s. The part that has most stuck in my mind is the ice they had on the INSIDE of their windows. Well, our first mid-western winter we got a great welcome!
I could hardly believe it.
On Saturday, 4 January, we got word that church was cancelled the next day because of a major snow coming. Wow! We got about a foot of snow dumped on us. To top that off, temperatures were dropping significantly Sunday night. The high was below zero (-13, maybe?) And with the wind chill it was unbelievable (I do remember at one point we got to "feeling like" -32)! I wish I could remember exact numbers. It was the coldest I have ever been in my life. You could not walk outside with any significant amount of skin showing – and by significant I mean your whole face. Needless to say, school was cancelled.
Spencer started some outpatient rotations in January, which is always enjoyable. I like clinic hours. Clinic was closed 6 and 7 January due to weather conditions. At one point it was actually illegal to drive in Indianapolis unless you were an emergency worker.
It was nice to have everyone home for a couple days more. What we weren't expecting was to have school cancelled the whole week!! It was actually really fun. We did all get stir crazy after a bit, but I kind-of like having to stay home sometimes. Especially if it is at all cold out (I am much more of a warm-weather kinda gal). We were able to do some fun things, though. And the best part was that I had planned my weekly shopping trip for the Friday/Saturday before the storm so we were fine the whole week and did not have to adjust our eating habits at all! I felt like we were really prepared for that one.
Thankfully we had power the whole time and did not have to worry about keeping warm. Our furnace was running non-stop for days in a row (possibly a week at one point), which we definitely paid for, but we are so grateful we have been able to stay warm at a time it really matters.
