A Dusting of Snow

I’m doing a little better now. I made Christmas cookies round 2, hung up some indoor decorations, and hung multi-colored lights up around the porch. It’s all Xmas up in here now! I keep playing Christmas music and keeping the fire going. Starting to get over the stupid cold we’ve had, it is NOT Covid-19, test was negative. YAY! Annnnnnd… it’s snowing! ^_^

Those are some of the good things in my life. I have so much to be grateful for. I can only assume it is human nature to sort of focus on the bad, on what’s missing or inadequate or whatever. I think I just need to fight that and try to focus on the good while working on solutions to any issues that crop up. I was just reading that happiness is something you can have welling up from within. It was put forward as something you could keep going, I’m assuming to varying degrees, through all the trials that life brings.

Here are a few pics of things adding to my happiness right now:

Peppermint thumbprint & Chocolate crinkle cookies, one nearly perfect Moroccan pancake, and my goof advent calendar.

My wonderful husband also put lights on the tree so we can decorate it soon. They are new lights and weirdly bright. The camera in my phone had an interesting time trying to focus on the tree.

These pics are in order showing the struggle to focus. I kind of love all of them. It’s okay, Tree, you’re beautiful even when you’re blurry.

Today will be dedicated to cleaning, laundry, getting organized in general and specifically getting ready to launch myself into the new year with shiny good intentions to change my life for the better. I have my free-form bullet journal and a free wall calendar from the grocery store and I’m ready to start building some more structure into my life. I will also be working on an experimental craft today. It goes along with many crafts I’ve done in the past, and I have a pattern for the structure of the item, but I’m winging it on the design. I can’t tell you more because it’s a present for someone who has been known to read this blog but I will post pics as soon as I can. ^_^

I hope you will all have a good, stress-free day today, the kind of day that makes you feel a little happier.

Temporary Snow

We have a shower again, we can bathe and smell nice, and I am very happy about that. The water control in our shower/tub broke Monday and we could not turn the water on. Now showers, no baths, just your’s truly washing her hair in the kitchen sink. Our wonderful plumber came and fixed it all up for us and it didn’t even cost us too much! So, Yay! One thing going right after going wrong.

I am slowly working on projects for xmas/Yule and making slow but steady progress. It would help if all the flotsum and jetsum from my husband’s work could finally be gone, but I am doing the best I can. We have our first snow of the season and it’s lovely. There’s a fire in the woodstove, coffee cake in my belly, and tentative hope for the future that the U.S. won’t become some kind of hellscape.

Snow Day!

By happy surprise my kids and I have all been granted the day off due to the weather. We got up and shoveled, they will rake the porch roof and kitchen roof later and re-shovel the walkways for me. It’s been a fine day so far, the snow is beautiful, the wood stove is humming along, and we are warm and snug inside for now. My Sweet husband had to go into work because his bosses never see fit, even under perfect circumstances to do so, to call a snow day. If he was home life would be ideal today.

I am letting dough rise now for bread later on and I’m currently simmering simple syrup to reduce it by 1/2 so I can make dried, sweetened cranberries. My sourdough starter is still alive and yummy and I am shocked to my core over it. I haven’t had much luck with it in the past but this time seems to be going well. Tonight, since I’ll be home to cook, I’ll be making Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. Nice hearty fare for cold weather and the hard work of shoveling

So, it’s later now, I’ve been busy all day, been sticky and covered in flour, been out in the snow a little bit too. Dinner was yummy. Sourdough bread warm from the oven, Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and a bit of beer. ^_^

Possibly the nicest looking loaves I’ve ever made.

The cranberries have been in and out of the oven all day as I used it to cook other things. They spent some time atop the wood stove too, we’ll see how they come out, they have hours to go yet. The snow continues to fall and will until around 4 am. My eldest is at work and will have to drive home in it on roads that are cooling and freezing as I type. I worry so much. (Be safe my little dove.)

We’ve got over a foot of snow so far and it is still falling.

Be safe, Everyone!

Welcome, December!

We’re officially ready for whatever the storm brings, or, as ready as we can be. Wood box and wood rack are full, got tons of kindling, put away the outdoor umbrella and wicker chair, packed the house with groceries and bedded down the plants as best we could. We already had candles and full bird feeders, oh and we got some sand for the walkway. We’ve plenty of cocoa and beer. There’s a merry little fire going in the woodstove ahead of even the first flakes. I got a nice fat book from the library and a few movies too.

I love winter. I love the cold and the beautiful snow, I love the dark, and the hush that comes when the snow falls. I love watching the birds at the feeders and the acrobatics of the squirrels. I’m not a fan of icy walkways and all that, I like unbroken bones. I wish we could hole up at home for weeks at a time. We’d read and game and drink cocoa and glogg.

So I’ll be reading Labyrinth of the Spirits; by Carlos Ruiz Zafon while my hubby plays Red, Dead Redemption and my younger 2 kids play some weird mashup of Firefly, Fallout and Skyrim, and my eldest daughter heads to work. (Be safe, Honey!!!) I hope the roads will stay nice until after she gets home. I’m supposed to run a Harry Potter ornament making workshop Monday but I could do with a snow day. We probably won’t get anything like that, the kids will go to school, my hubby and I will go to work. Ah well, it can’t all be skittles and beer.