Thankful Thursday #4

 This week I'm thankful for...

1. Central heat! Temps plummeted on Sunday and we only went back up to freezing today. While I still think this is much better weather than multiple 100 degrees days with humidity, I am very glad for heat and layers. It's been harder to explain this to Luna why we aren't walking as long. I don't want her outside when its 10 degrees for very long, but Luna is grumpy about less walk time lol.

2. Really good books. In the sometimes seemingly eternal month of January, I like to jumpstart my reading for the year, and I've read some great books in the last few weeks. 

- I read the first 2 books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, which are delightful. Will probably read the last two before the month ends.

- I finished the Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman, and book 8, The Untold Story, was a very satisfying ending to the series. 

- I also finished 'Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon' by Melissa Sevigny. I have a collection of books about the Grand Canyon, and this is another great one about the first non-indigenous women to raft the entire Grand Canyon in the 1930s.

- Finally, I read Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini, about the women in the Army in WW1 operating the switchboards in France. This author does a really good job of telling a story and really detailing historical setting, in this case 1917-1918 USA and France.

3. My church bell choir and their creativity. So we were about 15 minutes into our bell choir rehearsal when the power went out. A brief investigation revealed a transformer was out so it was going to be a few hours before we got power back. Our choir was resourceful and between minimal emergency lights and cell phones, managed to rehearse an hour in the dark :) First a tornado warning during rehearsal last year, and now a power outage. Apparently we still are -that church-. 

Thankful Thursday #3

 This week I'm thankful for:

• Luna! This is Luna's 3-year adoptaversary. She's got a little gray fur on her snoot and toes, but she's still the same loving goofball she was 3 years ago. She is still the best decision I ever made.

• Board games and friends- Last Saturday I was at my friends Sandy and Stephen's place all day learning how to play Scythe. It was really fun, and also funny how epically I lost. Yay for brunch and friends.

• Good books and warm blankets. It is freaking cold this week and it's only going to be colder next week. I'm glad for central heat, blankets, Luna my bed-warmer, and my current read- Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini. I'm learning about the 'Hello Girls' in WWI, and coincidentally that's where my US history podcast is as well. :) 

• Learning how to back up online files- This is something I've been meaning to do for YEARS, and I finally figured out how to back up this blog and my fb posts without having to copy and paste every individual entry. Woo!

Thankful Thursday #2

 This week I'm thankful for: 

• Snow! We got about 7 inches of snow on Monday, the most we've had in 3 years. It's the most we've had since I've had Luna, and she got to bounce around in it in the yard a bit. She doesn't seem to mind it, but it's also not her favorite thing. I mean, cold, wet feet would also not be my favorite thing, not to mention sticking your bum in the snow to go potty. The snow is very pretty though, and MoCo kids got 3 days off of school. :)

• A week to ease back into work. I still have some colleagues on PTO, so not a lot of meetings this first week back. After 2 full weeks off, it's nice to have the luxury of organizing my brain and my files for the coming year.

• Some mid-week online board gaming with friends Monday night due to snow canceling things. 7 Wonders anyone?

• Being able to pay my respects to President Jimmy Carter at the US Capitol. I took a few hours off yesterday and went downtown with Elisa (we went separately and were about 30 minutes apart in the line) to view his casket lying in state. We waited a little over 2 hours. He has always been one of my public health heroes so I was really glad I was able to go.

Snowy Memories

 

Snowy Memories

A good snow reminds me of snow days as a kid. (Also some shenanigans and adventures as a young adult, but that’s a separate post ha) Growing up in Maryland, we usually got a couple of snows every winter. They were usually only a few inches, but that was enough for sledding.

The house I grew up in until I was 12 was on a hill from the front to back, so the side yard sloped down into the backyard. Excellent sledding on the side without the neighbor’s fence, except for 2 things.

1. There was a tree right in the middle of the bottom of the hill (!)
2. If you DIDN'T hit the tree, you kept going down a much bigger hill and would wind up on a highway (!!)

So we put a canoe pillow on tree and you actually aimed for it when sledding (it was a small hill). When I was little, I didn’t weigh enough to ever make it to the tree, but when one of my parents sat behind me on the sled, we very much did. Cue much excitement and giggling :D

When I was older my parents drove me to the ENORMOUS hill at the middle school, and my friends and I would go FLYING. Especially the time I hit a very well-constructed snow ramp 2/3 of the way down that was invisible from the top of the hill. I was 8, I lived.

When we moved into another house when I was 12, I went sledding in my friend’s yard 2 houses away, and she and her siblings had constructed an elaborate sledding track that we whooshed along. It was kind of like a luge track; I think they even poured water on it to freeze it. It had a big curve so you wouldn’t sled directly into the basement of the house, but I remember they banked the curve well. The level of difficulty increased when her dogs were outside, because while the lab and German Shepherd just ran around in the snow, the Rottweiler wanted to help you sled and would grab your foot and try and fling you down the sledding track backwards. I wish I had photos/videos of this, but alas I was born in the dinosaur ages before cell phones, so you’ll just have to imagine. A lot of screaming and laughing and ‘Butchie, stop it! Ouch! Quit it! Mooooooom!’

I think the coolest snow memory I have is from 1993, when we had ‘The Blizzard of ‘93’. We got a good 2 feet of snow and were out of school for the entire week. That’s like an extra Christmas when you’re a kid. My friend Liz and I walked in the woods behind her street for what seemed like hours and miles. Looking it up on a map as an adult, I think we walked ½ mile, but in deep snow. We were completely in the snowy woods, and we found a stream we didn’t know was there. We also found a deer antler. (Which as I was holding it and Liz was like, that’s an antler, I dropped it in horror thinking that meant there was a dead deer around. She laughed at me and informed me that deer shed their antlers yearly.) Walking in the woods like that, an 8- and 9-year-old by ourselves, was just the coolest thing. We knew we weren’t lost because we just had to follow our snow trail back. For some reason we never tried to go back in warmer weather, so that place lives in my mind as our epic snow adventure.

I haven’t sledded in a while as an adult, but I will always enjoy a good snow, and even better when I hear kids squealing with laughter playing in it. 

Thankful Thursday #1

 A blogger that I love, Kristen at The Frugal Girl, The Frugal Girl - cheerfully living on less , does a weekly post of things she is thankful for, and I want to start this practice this year.

So, for the first few days of 2025, I'm thankful for:

• PTO. I had a great week seeing family last week, and this week I'm staycationing- seeing local friends and generally resting.

• New friends- my friend has invited me into her board game group this past year, and I got to hang out with them for new years eve playing games.

• Old friends- I had lunch with a high school friend today and am seeing another one tomorrow. 

New Year, More Writing?

 I have two goals for 2025. Write more, and finish some things.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a lingering list of things I need/should do that sometimes keeps me from trying new things. 

• I should finish those 5 books I'm in the middle of before picking up a 6th
• It would be a good idea if I actually finished painting the walls in my house 
• I need to get those financial things done
• Why do I have 5 unfinished scrapbooks?
• I need to make those phone calls
• I really should freecycle that pile of things I've labeled freecycle...
• I'd like to clean out my freezer by eating the random things in there and starting fresh

So if you are interested, join me this year in finishing your side quests that have lingered in your mind or on a to-do list for too long. I'm going to try and post #FinishFriday each week to keep myself accountable. 

I'm also going to try to write more in general, so we'll see how that goes. Happy New Year!