January

Here's what I've got right now.  

January was a blur of snow and sickness and morning (all day) sickness. 

#3 is on the way! 

How was your January??

Around Here

I've astonished myself today with the most amazing feat: I've managed to wear jeans instead of yoga pants for most of the day! (Which is more than I can say for the better part of the last week when we've been stuck at home wither sick or because of snow and cold!) So that's my big accomplishment for the week. Here are some more of the current happenings...

Reading:  

• Tsh Oxenreider's Notes From a Blue Bike - Can't wait to share more thoughts on this one soon!
• Kristen Kalp's Go Your Own Way - If you have your own business or have any inkling of owning a business, you NEED to check this out.  The "price" is a donation to Flying Kites Global, an orphanage in Kenya and Kristen is on a 10-Day quest to raise $10,000 for them! 
• Katy and the Big Snow - over and over and over...
• Fix, Freeze, Feast - Freezer meals are saving my sanity right now. Big time! 
• A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel - National Geographic's Annie Griffiths Belt's story of the past 30 years of her work and personal life and how the lines have blurred for her. 
• All-of-a-Kind Family - Mia totally wants to be a part of this family with all of those sisters! 

Listening:  The Frozen Soundtrack. Over and over and over. 

Loving: Christine Chitnis's photos from her recent  family trip to India, What Should a 4-Year-Old Know,  Quick Breads to eat with dinner, this Black Bean and Sweet Potato that is AMAZING and surprising, quilts all piled up, hot chocolate or tea,  this week's episode of The Mindy Project, lemon curd in the microwave, our rainbow of blue green and pink eggs, getting rid of more stuff (toys are next on the chopping block again!), her excitement over dance class, his excitement over Pajama Day at school, the thought of a weekend with free time to get some stuff done without kids after a week of constant togetherness!   

Foggy

Sickness has been our biggest theme for the past week.  It's slowly just spreading to each of us and I feel like I'm walking around in a fog of germs and sadness over the unfathomably tragic death of a 3 year old little girl.  I just can't shake it.  Combining that with the recent slump I've told you about might make it sound like I'm hiding in a hole of darkness, but I'm not at all.  Instead I made myself get out today while the kids are with my in-laws (blessed, blessed Grandparents on both sides who still want to take our kids and be with them even when they're grumpy, snotty, coughing messes, to give us a break!) even though all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep off the sickness.  I brought crackers and Gatorade and soup to a friend  who has that awful flu that's going around and I put grocery carts away for an old lady in the parking lot with her hair all freshly done and red lipstick on while her fleece robe flapped out from under her coat.  I told her that I loved the fleece (it was a fun rainbow pattern!) and she laughed and said, "I wondered what people would think of me going out like this, but it's just so cold and it keeps me so warm!"  It was AWESOME, and I told her so, I wished that I had one on, too! 

I've been so stuck inside myself and my own head lately that I just needed a reason to do something for someone else.  I forget sometimes that the easiest way to pull myself out of it is to think more about others.  As parents, we have that built in because we don't have a choice but to put little one's needs to get to school and eat three meals a day and have clean clothes and read books and snuggle under the covers together before just about everything else.  I'm good at that, but not as good at doing things beyond that in ways that I want to in my life.  Not big, huge things, just little things everyday that matter.  

It's supposed to snow more tomorrow, which means more hunkering down.  I've never wanted to rush winter away, I love the cold air and the slowness and the quiet, but I'll be the first to admit that we just need one warm day right now.  Some sunshine and air warm enough to open windows and let the air in while they run outside and feel free for a while.  But, snow is what we've got, so we'll take a little more while we can get it.  If we weren't all coughing all over everything, I'd make some cookies to take to neighbors while we read my winter favorite, You Can Do It, Sam,  but I'll spare them the germ spreading and do it when we're all healthy again instead.  

What are you up to this week?  How's winter in your neck of the woods? 

Snow Day + Snow Ice Cream

Snow days and after-the-holidays days are serving to enable my hermit-like tendencies lately.  Admittedly, it's also related to some depression that I've been trying to kick in the face for a solid two months, but I still love an excuse to stay home and be quiet and watch movies and play games and bake and make things. 

Pumpkin Muffins via Smitten Kitchen

Snow Ice Cream

You'll need:

1/2 cup half and half or cream

(I've also heard of people using sweetened, condensed milk if you have it)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

A big old bowl of (clean) snow

Whisk or mix the half and half, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl like crazy until the sugar dissolves, then stick it in the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes to get cold again.  You don't have to stick it in the freezer, but I think it helps to keep the snow from melting quite as much when you start to mix it all.  While the cream and sugar mixture are getting colder again and right when you're ready to make the snow ice cream, go out and fill up a large bowl with snow.  Get more than you think you'll need, it melts quickly and dissolves in the cream and sugar mixture.  Pour half of  the cream and sugar mixture over the snow and gently mix.  Add more of the mixture slowly until it's a texture you like, you might need a bit more cream if you got a ton of snow.  

You could easily make it a little more exciting by adding some cocoa powder or cinnamon to the cream mixture (with that, you might want to heat the mixture to get it all to really dissolve, then make sure you give it a longer time to get cold.)  Other ideas: Chocolate chips or chunks, brown sugar or honey instead of white sugar, frozen berries, chopped nuts....the list is endless!

::Linking up with Imparting Grace's Grace at Home Series!::