Thank you, YMCA!

Thanks to my frequent visits to the fitness center of our local YMCA, I managed to shovel our front sidewalk, 2 private sidewalks, front steps and our driveway. I must give credit to our mystery neighbor who gave me a HUGE leg up by snowblowing most of those areas, giving me only about 1/3 as much snow as I might otherwise have had to shovel. The packed down areas on the driveway and the mounds of packed snow from the snowplows gave me some grief, but those back exercises I've been doing really paid off!

Did I mention I did this all during naptime and, miraculously, the kids are still sleeping. One cup of coffee later, I'm nearly thawed out (the temp is in the single digits). Oh yeah, and dinner is staying warm in the crockpot - butternut squash soup - easily made thanks to my new Cuisinart 11 cup food processor! (Thanks Mom, Dad and Mark) It was a birthday/Christmas present that I've wanted for over 4 years now, but was always scared off by the price tag.