It has been one cold week here and across the country. When it is extremely cold, it makes me realize just how we are not prepared for cold weather. So now that we will have a reprieve for a few days of the bitterly cold, or at least I hope so, it will be time to winterize our home.

First we will seal all drafts. Drafts are bad under the door and the floor vents. I’m crocheting something to keep the draft from coming under the door. We will most likely need a rug for the vents. The windows are a bit trickier. We do have some expanding foam for windows that we might as well give a try.

Right now I hear that we still have a mouse. He is in the walls as I can hear the little bugger scrambling around. Ugh. Guess it’s time to seal up any holes around the baseboards and put out several mouse traps. We also need to clear out gutters and debris from around our house. Hopefully we catch this rodent and keep others from coming in.

We use our ceiling fan in the winter to help spread the heat around. Just set it to turn the opposite direction. In fact, ours needs cleaning before we use it again. We want to spread heat, not dust!

Our floors are extremely cold. Rugs help but they can’t cover the whole house. My house shoes do help but my feet are still cold sometimes. I found a winter pair of clog-knockoffs that are fleece-lined. Those shoes are really warm and keep my feet from touching the cold floor. Best $5 I’ve spent in a while.

The cold days make me really appreciate my grandmother’s quilt and our small heater that keeps the feet warm while watching TV. I really can’t stand cold weather and will be glad to see Spring.