January update

Hello! I'm still here! 

I have been a bit of a busy girl since the start of the New Year. If I'm honest, I've been a busy girl since November, but working on house stuff since Christmas week.

My husband had Christmas week off. We decided to replace the kitchen floor that week.  A nice shiny new oak floor which took us just over two days to take out the old floor and install the new one. 

It was my first time using a floor nailer. I think I did a pretty decent job of it, too.

Here is a photo with a bit of a side-by-side comparison of our old floor (the dark brown) and the new flooring.  The new flooring is a beautiful light oak.  The linoleum is from when we first moved into the house. 

The kitchen is a lot lighter and brighter. I really enjoy spending time in there, and puttering around. 

After that, it was painting time. You know how sometimes something starts small.  Like, "I'm just going to touch up this little bit." Then you see how obvious it is that you touched up a wall?  Yeah, it was like that.  Pretty soon I was painting the entire house.  I kept the same color, so it only took one fresh coat of paint. 

Except my son's room.  He has been asking for his room to be painting white for a very long time.  My husband and I decided to paint the room white for my son's birthday. 

Yuck.  

Painting that room took two coats of paint. But, it is done, and he's a happy little man. 

To pat myself on the back: At no time did I cry about painting. I have done this in the past.  Ask my husband. He will verify. 

When I wasn't painting I was snow blowing or plowing.  Oh-em-gee! Our area is past 70 inches of snow for the year. 

Everyone I have spoken with is tired of all the snow. As soon as you think you are done cleaning it up and/or shoving it out of the way - Boom - more snow. 

What else have I been doing?  I've sort of gone nuts about cooking and baking. I've been watching classes on Bluprint and making my guys my guinea pigs. 

What brought this on?  I got new enameled cast iron dutch ovens and an air fryer for Christmas. I know, I'm spoiled. 

I was too lazy to take a photo of the pot, so here's a photo from Sam's Club. 

This beauty my husband found on eBay. I was showing it off to one of my Facebook groups, so I have a photo of it.

A week ago we shipped Shadow's last baby off to his new home. 

He was the last of a surprise litter.  We had taken precautions with Shadow. She was in her own space, and Thor was in his own space.  Somehow they made magic happen and she had a litter of four babies. 

Don't you love those ears of his? I was forever playing with them when I was holding him. 

All the other rabbits are doing well.  The females are getting quite thick, err, I mean "fluffy." The males are holding their own, I guess. 

The chickens are doing well. This past weekend my son and I cleaned out the coop. A clean out was very much needed *and* very much appreciated.  The chickens aren't too keen on going outside right now, but they want that snow!  We bring snow into the coop by the bowlful for them. 

Earlier this month I recorded a podcast episode.  It was right when I started coming down with my cold and I had no energy.  I watched it and decided to not load it.  You could tell I wasn't feeling well. I still have a cold but it's getting close to the end. In the meantime, no one wants to see me struggle, trying to be upbeat, when it's so obvious I should be in bed resting. 

Otherwise, it's been fairly quiet around the homestead.  I'm officially thinking of spring and when we can start doing all the things that involve being outside.  We've been watching a lot of Homestead Rescue.  Some of it is ridiculous but it's also giving my ideas and jump starting the spring fever. 

Welcome 2020!

The day started off with a gun shot.  

Did that get your attention? I figured I'd be dramatic, after being quiet for a few weeks.  I did hear a gun shot when I was waking up.  It was far off in the distance.  No where near my house.  My guess is a hunter spotted a deer and took the shot. 

The last few weeks have been pretty busy.  Between the holidays and some house projects, I haven't had much time to sit down and play on the computer, much less write. I'm not sure if things are going to slow down anytime soon.  I've still got a mental list of things I want to do. 

Last night we stayed in for New Year's Eve.  We made a surf and turf dinner, then settled in to watch some movies.  The first one was "Predator." 

Baby bun was only slightly worried about it being a scary movie. 

I made it to 10:30 p.m. and decided it was time to go to bed.  I know my son was up past midnight.  Remember when you were young and how exciting and fun it was to stay up late and see the new year in? The last couple of years I haven't had much enthusiasm for staying up late. I told someone if New Year's Day was on a Friday every year, I probably would stay up late.  I've reached an age where I suffer the consequences of staying up late and need some time to recover. 

Today was a fairly quiet day.  Ran to town and bought some new bulbs for the living room overhead lights. I decided I wanted lights that were more in the daytime spectrum, rather than the warmer yellow ones.  It makes a huge difference and I felt instantly cheered. 

Otherwise I was puttering in the kitchen or sitting in the living room, watching movies and knitting or cross stitching. 

My hubby's big project was installing some tape lights in my son's room. (I think that's what they are called) We gave him an early birthday present and painting his room. If you know me, then you know I hate painting, so this was a pretty big deal for me to do this. My son is pretty stoked to have a new color (or lack thereof) on his walls, and the lights up in his room. 

Speaking of lights, when we were at Menards I saw all sorts of fancy light bulbs.  The ones that really caught my eye were these "fairy light" bulbs.  If I was a teenager I'd be all over having those lights. They were so pretty. 

The downer of the day was when we took our truck through a car wash and the antenna broke.  Sheared right off.  We weren't too happy.  Went in to the store and explained what happened.  The manager was really great about it. 

I've sort of had my eye on social media and blogs the last few days.  Everyone is talking about goals for 2020 and their "Word for the Year." I kind of gave up on both of those things a few years ago. Why? It seemed every time I made something known, my desire to accomplish those goals, or to try and live up to the Word, I lost my motivation. Becuase it was then a job, if that makes sense. 

So, you will probably see a lot of the results written about, but not actually know it was on my mental list of things I want to accomplish. 

I am, however, thinking of the things that I feel must be done this year, in terms of craftiness. Those will be listed. I have a few UFOs that I feel 2020 is the year to get them done, among the other things I want to do.  

Tomorrow it is back to work. I've really enjoyed all the time I've had off of work. It's been more of a working vacation, but any time I can stay home *because I want to* is fine with me. 

Why did I emphasis the "because I want to"?  Weather.  We have had such bizarre weather in my area.  The last storm, I mean "weather event," the weather guy couldn't talk about what was going to happen.  He only talked about what happened already. We didn't get the inches and inches of snow that was talked about. The roads were crap, however, and I had a few people tell me that staying home was the smart choice to make. 

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to "do something" once again. The big city near me is still cleaning out some areas from the November storms.