What are you enjoying?

After my most recent unicorns and rainbows post, I thought it best to temper the salt with some sweet, and say some things that I'm really loving these days:

being warm

I hate being cold (why it didn't make it onto my annoy list because being cold goes far beyond that).

Note proximity to space heater and fingerless gloves.  Absolutely necessary.

cooking soup

Hello, cold weather.  One of the (few) perks of you being here is that it's soup season!  And I'm making soup every.  single.  week.  So far this year I have made chili, lasagna soup (*don't use broken up lasagna noodles.  Just use noodles.  WAY easier), chicken tortilla soup, and later this week on the schedule is white bean chicken chili.  And I can pretty much promise that if you get a dinner invitation to my house, soup is on the menu.

*Side note, someone saw me meal planning and they went, "oh that's cute!"  She is in her early 20's.  At what line does meal planning cross from "cute" to "budget necessity?"

baking

Another cold weather staple (side-note, how do I NOT gain 20+ pounds during this time of year, good grief) is that it is BAKING time!  Wee!  I've done cupcakes, brownies, Halloween bark, cakes and brownies for a friend, and I'm just warming up.

Starlight yellow cupcakes with butter-cream frosting and candy corns for an event at work.

Pioneer Woman's Halloween Bark.

cold weather runs

I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite here, but I can run for longer with less pain in the cold.  It's just getting going that is HARD.  My running companion is used to a few minutes of me groaning and full body shivering, but then I'm good.  I do have a gym membership, but it's so hard to be inside running 5+ miles when it looks like this outside--

daylight savings time

Long runs in the pitch black are terrifying.  Long runs half in pitch black, half in sunrise are winsome.  I love sunshine and I love early mornings, there I love me some DST.

early mornings

Y'all.  On days when I get up at 4:30/5, it is AMAZING how much I get done--I exercise.  I clean.  I organize.  I cook.  I make sersies.  I get to work on time.  Early mornings for the win!
*Do note that early mornings require me to begin winding down at 9 p.m.  Hipster right here, ladies and gentlemen.

What are some things you're really enjoying these days?