I feel like January and February can feel like the winter doldrums. But thankfully it's short lived. With family activities, skiing and Valentine's day there are some fun things to shake up the cold days!
Tacos are a favorite at our house and it's fun when the tortillas puff up!
I've been reading this book lately. I've listened to a lot of podcasts with her talking about the book, so nothing too new in it. It is a fun book and I enjoy the new stories. It's boring though when she shares repeat stories.
These "tendencies" were fun to think about.
After almost 6 years we went through our emergency kits again. The food ration bars were expired so I ordered new ones. We did a taste test on the old ones though. I prefer the Mainstay brand on the left compared to the S.O.S brand on the right. The Mainstay ones tasted more like sugar cookie dough...just a bit bland but with flavor.
The town dug up a part of our yard yet again. Though actually the town owns this as an easment. It's the third time within a year they've had to dig in our "yard". Thankfully the plumbing issues aren't happening at our house though!
Every now and then this winter Lee pulls out the motorcycle to drive to work. There are nicer, warmer days here and there.
I even got snow in my hair one morning when I went for a run. It was snowing and raining at the same time.
Elden had fun breaking these sheets of snow/ice off of the trampoline.
One afternoon Haley asked if she could make pizza for lunch and we turned it into everyone making their own. Though I made one for Clark.
Mmmm..... I think my favorite foods are pizza, french fries, ice cream and dark chocolate.
We decided to go up to PA to help my parents get a new dishwasher. They don't have one at all and Lee and I wanted to tear out a kitchen cabinet for them so one could be installed. We paid for the dishwasher, disposal and hookup components and my parents would pay for the installation. But to go to PA you have to have a negative COVID test. We found a Walgreens that did them about 40 minutes from us. The roads were pretty crummy but we went anyway. You just drive slow and take it easy. About 10 minutes from the Walgreens someone called to say that the pharmacist couldn't come in that day so we had to reschedule. UGH. Really?! We went back the next day to do the tests and were negative, which we figured. YAY!
Clark drove around to test out the roads.
Cal and Christian had fun going to a local card shop to buy a new box of cards.
Young Men on Zoom one night.
Back to the COVID test.
While we were getting our tests done a Red Bull truck was trying to exit the Walgreen's parking lot. There was a little hill to climb up to get out. The truck could not make it up the little hill and kept sliding backwards and spinning its tires. Crazy! He finally backed up enough to go left and head out the other exit. We did a rapid antigen test and found out we were negative that morning--yea! Off to PA that night!
More sledding on ice this time!
On our way to PA! This was cool.... And the roads were great. We spent the night at Darrell's and were able to see Joseph on his birthday!
Cal drove all the way up and all the way back. Sadly Clark couldn't come with us because of work.
Happy Birthday Joseph!
On Saturday we were off to check out some ovens with my mom and see if any 18" dishwashers were in stock. No dishwashers, but my mom found a new oven to buy. Her other was was really old and had shocked her recently. Doesn't sound good!
Darrell came along and helped ripe out the cabinet with Lee. Oh we also bought a new faucet for my mom. Darrell didn' like the anchors it came with so I took it back to Home Depot for a refund and to get a different one. When the lady looked over my receipt she said that it wasn't on there. We did self-checkout for all the items and I remember scanning it. I guess it didn't show up! I actually went back up front and told the lady I wanted to "buy" the facet. For the first time now. Haha. Crazy that we didn't pay for it the first time!
The old stove.
A space for the new dishwasher!
This is a week later but the stove and dishwasher were installed a lot sooner than I thought they would be!!!
PA still had snow so we did a little sledding.
Darrell got a huge shelf from a guy and started a bigger food storage area. The shelf is awesome!
Some of the girls made pipecleaner earrings and headbands. Shanna leaving in style!
More homemade pizza action at home!
Our own littler charcuterie board action.
One Sunday Cal was spotlight and showed us some of his drawings.
We went on a walk that same Sunday evening and we spotted these ice/snow formations on our friend's shed. As far as I know she doesn't live in the house as she's moved, but still owns it. The boys took the formations off and each brought one home.
