It's been an unusually cold and snowy winter here (for this, I could have just stayed at the North Pole). For the most part, I deal with the cold by staying in as much as possible, reading, cooking, crafting, and working on various at-home projects. But another thing you can do is to start planning your spring and summer. These plans will make the warm weather seem closer.

So, what might this planning include:

• If you have kids, make arrangements for summer day care and camps.
• Begin researching your summer vacation. (It's amazing how warming looking at photos of the tropics can be!)
• If you garden, begin selecting seeds and plotting your planting.
• Check your outdoor furniture and repair or replace things that are damaged.
• Look at your outdoor space and decide how you want to arrange the furniture, update the landscaping, etc. If you want to make any changes, start making plans and researching contractors.
• Plan menus for some spring/summer dinner parties.

What else might you do to help prepare for warmer weather?