Weekly update - January 19, 2024

It's still cold. Just not quite as horribly cold as last weekend. 
  • My house looks like Farm and Fleet threw up in it. The muck boots are inside because they freeze so much outside that you can't get them on. Water buckets, either empty or with thawing ice are littered through the kitchen and utility room. Boots and hats and gloves and scarves are draped over everything to dry between uses. And coats are draped on every doorknob because why go to the bother of hanging them up when you will just be putting it on again in an hour or two. Oh, and my back porch is filled with hay because there was too much snow for my hay guy to drive to the barn. 
  • I'm paying the children who are saving for a PS5 to carry the hay up to the barn. I think this is money well spent.
  • No change in Vienna yet, but it can take a while to get the swelling down. 
  • A. is in the middle of changing living situations and decided she didn't want to keep her couch so offered it to us. Here is the final switch to the new and improved family room. (This is the room we repainted on the spur of the moment right before Thanksgiving. The rug is also new because it needed something.

  • This picture is from last weekend when it was so, so cold. It was sunny and the sun warmed the south facing overhang on the barn causing the snow to slip a bit. Do you see what it did with the icicles? At least they won't impale anyone if they fall. 
  • I have a lovely bruise on the top of my foot where Major accidentally stomped on it.
  • H.'s young adult group went back to meeting today. She was very happy about that.
  • The very nice thing about this house is that all the water pipes run up through the center. The only way our pipes could freeze is if the whole house was without power for a long time. One of the things neither J. nor I miss about the Big Ugly House is that all of it's water pipes ran up exterior walls which were not insulated. Pipes would freeze every year and we had pipes burst on two different occasions. Nope, we don't miss that at all. 
  • I'm seeing messages about planning for my high school class's 40th reunion. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
  • D. went back to school last Sunday. It was so nice to have him home for a month. We miss having him here.
  • I somehow missed the bulk order last fall and am a little annoyed. We are now out of bulk dried milk and cocoa powder which means it's difficult to make our bulk hot cocoa mix. I can order some, but shipping is high. I have to decide does it make more sense to order those things with high shipping or buy cheap Aldi premade hot cocoa mix. If everyone wants hot cocoa every day, that's six packets a day which seems as though it will add up quickly even if it's relatively inexpensive. 
  • Tomorrow is supposed to be our last really cold day for the next couple of weeks. I hope they're correct, but I will admit to not being excited about the mud which will follow the thaw. 

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