You know it's really cold when...

There's frost inside of your windows. This is what we woke up to this morning.  (Pay no attention to the dirt in that windowsill.)

I remember on Saturdays, we would gauge whether or not it was skiable weather by the presence of frost on the inside of our windows.  We knew it would be a no-go if there was frost inside that you could scrape with your fingernails.

I have a box of Coke on a shelf by the wall.  I went to get one and put it in the fridge this morning, and IT WAS ALREADY COLD.  Cold as if it had been in the fridge all along.

The butter in our kitchen was hard and cold.  As if it had been in the fridge all along.

The rolls I left to rise in the kitchen yesterday never rose.

School was canceled this morning, because with wind chill, it's -21 right now.

Did I ever tell you that our circa-1945 house isn't insulated??  The walls are plaster, and outside of that, brick.  And that is all.  So we really feel it when it's this cold outside.  I'm so grateful that our furnace works.  I remember the first winter we were in this house - the furnace and heating system weren't working, and it was a really, really cold winter.  We had space heaters all over the house, and we kept tripping the breaker with all the power those use up.  I was pregnant with Micah, and I kept having to pull on my boots and trudge outside to flip the breaker switch.  It was good, good times.  Our pipes in the basement froze and Ben had to tear out the ceiling to find the pipes and wrap that heating tape around them.

Our new house is insulated like crazy.  If the heat is turned on to 68, we're boiling.  I can't wait to get in there!!

I remember when I was up at Ricks.  My roommates and I were having a party, and all of our friends who came to our door couldn't get in, because it kept freezing shut.  Hahaha!  That was some crazy cold.

It's days like this that I think that, when Ben retires, we might have to move somewhere warm.  I've done winter.  Been there, done that, gotten the t-shirt.