Baby It's (finally) Cold Outside

All last winter I pined not being able to wear typical wintry clothes.  How I love fall and winter fashions, layers of expressions, the icing of eye-catching style.  I had shoved all of my heavier fabrics further and further to the corners of my closet, keeping summer styles up front and center.  It annoyed me.

My entire thirty-minute commute to the office, I'd seldom bother to even turn on the heat in the car, or if I did, it was only for the first five to seven minutes.  Sadly, my collection of winter scarves hung untouched in the closet.  Winter is depressing enough, but for a woman not be able to rock out the fun layers, and boots, and scarves, hats -- well, that's just a bummer.

As I pondered late fall on my Christmas wish list, a wool camel coat, in my mind was the stark reality that it too may hang in my closet, alone and unloved.  A wool coat?  What was I thinking?  Wishful.  I think that's what the holiday beckons within us, right?

But thankfully, since having gotten on HRT -- those letters still taunt me a little -- I can live normally again.  Just this week I wore one of my seasonal favorites, a "wooly" charcoal knit sweater with a huge draping neckline, three-quarter ruched sleeves, and a thin very thin black long-sleeved T under it.  I paired it with charcoal pants and some of my favorite fashion jewelry.   I HADN'T WORN IT IN OVER TWO YEARS.  I was thrilled.  Simple pleasures.  Just let me bundle, baby!  Let me cuddle into my fluffy layers already!  After all ... IT'S WINTER.  IT'S COLD OUTSIDE.

And that camel coat?  Well, let's just say it's feeling loved.  Dress it up, dress it down... rock it out with jeans and boots, glam it up with career clothes.  I wear it to work, to the grocery store, to church -- just about anywhere except to the gym.  Occasionally I'll switch back to my black pea coat, or my red wool pea coat.  But I'm definitely having a long-standing affair with my camel loveliness.

And I'm sleeping at night.

And I can cuddle up capriciously on any given evening in an inviting, overstuffed chair in my favorite charcoal flannel PJ bottoms with a huge beefy hoodie----cozy, carefree, contented.

I'm fighting the statistics.  They say one of HRT's side effects is weight gain.  The LAST thing I need.  And I am fighting harder than ever to keep that from happening.  Hormones are more volatile than ever at this time in my life, and their effects on appetite and metabolism can unleash a lot of havoc.  But I'll keep fighting it.  I'll fight harder.  Sometimes you just have to find the middle ground of balance in life.  And for now, sleeping through the night, making it through a work day in regular clothes without having meltdowns or having to run outside in the freezing temps just to be able to breathe, embracing cuddle weather on those long winter nights.  For now, I'm realizing that I've arrived at that time in my life when now, more than ever, I have learned to appreciate the simplest things in life.  One cold day at a time.