It's C-c-c-c-cold!

I got up the other morning to check the thermostat.

I'd adjusted the timer program to change the thermostat during the hours of the day according to our need. Since we were in bed at night, I turned it down to conserve energy/money. The temperatures had started to drop below 30 at night, so the heater was necessary. We also put plastic over the windows upstairs to "help" conserve the heat, but this house is as leaky as a sieve, and there is NO insulation. Keep in mind that our furnace is in the basement, making the upstairs MUCH colder than where the thermostat is located on the main floor. Our gas bill is inversely proportional to the temperature outside. We do what we can to keep it down.

So, this other morning, I got up at about 4am (Miranda woke me up, again) and I came downstairs to see if it was maybe the temperature that was getting her up so early. I looked at the thermostat, which happens to be the second warmest room in the house.

It said 64 degrees F.

Now, some of you know a few things about me. For those of you who don't, let me tell you:

#1 I am nearly always cold.
#2 I am allergic to the cold. True story. I have a medical condition where I break out in an itchy rash when my skin gets cold.
#3 I hate being cold.

When I saw the inside temperature I realized a few things. Yes, Miranda was waking up because she was COLD. My wool comforter (I'm allergic to down, too) works really well. Saving money wasn't worth my losing sleep.

When I saw Travis eating breakfast with the girls later that morning, I immediately changed the programming. It now gets down to 66 on the main floor. I imagine it gets about 60 upstairs now, instead of what was probably close to 56 before.


The girls no longer don their winter coats to break their fast. Miranda is sleeping through the night again. Life is good.