Just a reminder to those of you who need to supplement natural light-- it's that time again, so get your gear out and make sure it's ready for your blah-days, before they get you. If your computer screen and TV are looking WAY too attractive these days, you too may be seeking the blue light-- which indoor lighting usually doesn't include-- which newer research says is useful in smaller doeses than orignally thought.
For us it's gotten simpler-- at the start of hockey season it's easy to remember that it's time to rearrange the living room furniture, with the recliners closer to the heaters and TV screen and farther from the big, drafty window. That room arrangement also puts a comfy chair right in line with the fall/winter blazing AM sun, and last year's black recliner has been replaced by a velour, salmon-toned wing chair. When the light hits it, it's so pretty that it calls to me, and I have a magazine supply handy to keep me in that chair for the right amount of time. Across from that chair is the full-spectrum fluoro tower, for gray days.
Next to the puder is a desk lamp with full-spectrum bulbs, aimed at my face. There's about 600 watts of kitchen light reflecting off the white enamel island. The whole downstairs is BRIGHT.
Out in our picking/play/classroom that is seldom used in the colder months, this week we'll move our treadmill and Hardi's bike trainer (facing the west window), with another full-spectrum fluoro tower standing in that window sill. It will get enough heat to keep the parts from freezing, and be nice and cool for hard exercise.
I've also found a caffeine approach that works for me-- smooth-roast coffee iced in very small quantities into milk, so it's all-day sips adding up to one cup equivalent total spaced out over the whole day.
A home-designed spa down the hall from our bedroom is already loaded with soothing winter goodies and the thick, fluffy bathrobe. (I also replaced the white shower-curtain liner with a clear one, because the upstairs tub is not lit well.) Exercise that makes me happily tired and relaxed, plus a tiny dose of sleep-help at bedtime, completes the picture.
That's my plan. At least, those are the parts that are "mentionable." :~)