Getting Outside When it's Cold: Worth It!

I'm going to use this space as a place for me to be accountable to my self for getting outside even when it's cold.  When it's warm and even mild, I spend as much time as possible outside.  I pee outside, chop veggies for dinner outside, and we eat every meal outside.  Literally, I made Anjali eat a dinner outside with me when we could see our breath a couple weeks ago.  I said, "soon it will be so uncomfortably cold, AND dark, that we won't even consider eating dinner outside.  So let's suck it up for a few more meals."  haha.  Living outside keeps me sane.  And I have known this for years now.  However (or shall I say AND?), my body is averse to cold.  I have Reynaud's syndrome that makes my fingers and toes so sensitive and painful in cold.  And, I just don't like  the cold.  Well, that's not excuse enough.  (And obviously, since I work at home, I don't *have* to walk outside most days of the week, even to get in the car, let alone walk briskly across town or campus, etc. )  Even if I go out to get the mail on a cold day, when I come back in, I feel better.  I remember during the "polar vortex" last year, how much I actually really enjoyed taking care of the chickens, making sure they didn't freeze to death or die of dehydration by warming their water, making sure their spotlight was on to keep the coup warm, etc.  Even though my boogers froze the moment I stepped outside, I relished that shock of rejuvenating cold.  This year I want to go outside, every day, on purpose, even when it's cold.  OR Raining!!!  (did I write that?! panic!!!)

So I want to make this my accountability page.   I'll stay out there for at least 15 minutes, ideally more than 30.  And going from the house to the car doesn't count! :-)  I'll write down five observations.  And take a photo, for proof.  OK????

GO!!!

I noticed:
The moon is less than half, waning, and the fullness is on the LEFT side.
The most wild life I noticed were many cardinals flitting about and foraging in the trees and on the bushes. :-)
I ate wild onion and chickweed.
I noticed what I now know are skunk nosings and scrapings in the dirt.
In the shadow of the fence, there was thick frost, but where the sun had fell, it was melted and wet.

greg grey kitty in my coat.  *swoon!*

it's cold, and I'm not dead.