Walkabout The Snow Day

Snow DateDepending on your line of work (teachers) and your age (still in grade school) you will see a ton of snow days in Kentucky. I don’t get many snow days as I am not a teacher nor am I in school. Snow Days in the South are a big joke to people up North who get snow in feet not inches. Down here, it would be insane to send a standard yellow school bus down curvy country roads that haven’t seen salt trucks ever. We got several inches of snow and several inches of ice overnight and I got a snow day! Sometimes it is good to live on back roads. It took most of the day for the road crews in our area to get the main parkways and interstates clear. We’re still waiting for our main highway to be cleared today (day two).

On our snow day we made a big pot of chicken and dumplings and sipped on hot coffee through the morning.

Veggies in broth

This photo of the chicken stock and the onions, celery and carrots was too beautiful not to share. Isn’t food just BEAUTIFUL! You can tell why my weight loss is so slow going. Hah!

Chicken n' dumplings

I painted my nails blue while we watched tons of episodes of Bones, Leverage and Rules of Engagement. I also caught up on some reading–glorious, glorious reading.

messy blue

In the afternoon, I donned three shirts, two pants, a sweater, hat and insulated overalls. I hadn’t ventured out of the house much because I hate being cold, but given the proper preparation I love it! I romped in just about every snow drift on the farm to show how impressively deep the snow had gotten–Several feet.

I attempted to  throw a snowball at Kit but quickly realized it was much to powdery for any real fun. A snowman would have been out of the question.  However, I had a grand time romping in drifts, making a snow angel, spying tracks of and seeing some actual wildlife.
We brought the camera: 

driftone

One foot on top of snow and the other sunk to what I assume was the ground.

makesnowangel

I remember making dozens of snow angels as a kid until I got the perfect one. Then my brothers usually walked through it.

Drifttwo by fence

Sunken into a drift that built up by the neighbor’s fence row. My knee is below the snow line.

snow angel poseHad to pose by my not-so-perfect snow angel.

geeseonpond

We wanted to see the half frozen pond and had to stop in short to keep from scaring off the pair of moose enjoying the pond. Okay, moose is a weird inside joke and it is what we call Canadian geese. If I explained it you would just think I am more crazy and less funny.

sillysnowfaces

The obligatory Snow Day Selfie! I hope you guys got to stay home with your loved ones. And if you didn’t get to yesterday, then make a point to spend a day with the people who make you smile soon!

What Are You Reading?

Unlike school kids, most of my reading goes on during the fall and winter. These times of year are when things begin to slow down. Less work, on and off the farm, and less to do out of doors–if you’re cold natured like me.
As things have slowed down, I have gotten to hang out with some of my siblings and our conversation circled around to, What books are you reading?
Sadly, my answer was, nothing.

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So, I have made a point to change that!
I am rereading this L’Engle book. A Wind in the Door. I read it as a kid and just began re-reading it this year. I still had a bookmark in it from months ago and found it wasn’t very hard to jump right back into the story.

It is a tiny book, somewhere around two-hundred pages. So a great way to get back into a regular reading schedule.
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My sister loaned me a copy of a new manga she has been reading and really loves. Bride Story by Kaoru Mori.
Even my mom likes this manga, so I am pumped to find out what she is so enthralled with.

What are you reading right now?
Need some inspiration?

Your Next Read
Or try What Should I Read Next?
I found these websites accidentally on Pinterest and love the idea. Type in a book you have read and liked, it will find a list of books similar to it. My results from the second website showed some similar books I love and some new books I have never stumbled on.

Make some tea and take some time to read today.

Winter Goal Results

As you may recall, I posted about my winter goals last fall/winter.
Then I posted an update to show how well I was doing and also to make myself get that butt in gear.
I did fairly well in most of the categories.

Read 10 books—Results

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (meh)

A Gift for a Rogue by Parks (ok)

Gypsy Rizka by Lloyd Alexander (TGR=Thumping Good Read)

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich (Jolly for the season)

Partial read: Drinking Water: A History by Salzman (Strong start of lore. Non-fiction fails to keep me after the first bits)

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (Awesome! History WELL written)
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Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Death by Newberry)

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (If I read this as a child I would squeal)

Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle (Reread. Awww, fiction :-)

The End of the Party: Three short stories and a poem by Lily White (E-book on Amazon. Pseudonym for author Winston Emerson—dark short stories, REALLY pulls reader in emotionally)

Bean Trees by Margaret Kingsolver (Most shocked by this that a popular novel is not only good, but damn good)

A Wind in the Door by Madeline L’Engle (Reread in progress. Such a lovely writer)

Five Embroidery Project—Results

Headband embroidered with flower/starbursts (Christmas gift).
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Headband embellished with puffy sheep (Christmas gift).

Bookmark with a music quote (SiL studying Music)

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Borderland Farms logo (for the business of the same name)

Kitsch Witch pattern

Five New Recipes—Results

Tapioca pudding (utter failure, I had the wrong type of pearls)

-Sausage and potato breakfast bake (amazing yet greasy–Keeps ya regular)

Golden brownies from scratch/blondies (good if you like that type of thing)

Nutella cookies

-Greek Lemon Chicken

Hasselback potatoes

Ginger Lemon shrimp

Nutella hot chocolate

Slow cooker baked apples

Spinach lasagna roll ups

-Strawberry jam icing (original recipe)

Orange Chicken (blah)

Garlic & balsamic vinegar crusted pork

Pineapple angel food cake

Crock Pot Ribs (twice now)

Boba Tea

Onigiri (twice now)

Belly dancing and Writing—Results
I didn’t make any progress with the belly dancing, but I will get to it. Maybe over the summer.
Although I didn’t finish my short story, I did do some writing over the early spring time. I wrote some listening guides to accompany some old radio show homeschool business.

Day 302: Misty of Chincoteague

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I just finished the book Misty of Chincoteague. I know it’s an ancient little kids’ book but there are so many people defined by stories like these.

The writing style was dated but sweet. I imagine if I read this when I was eight or ten years old I would have begun saving every penny to buy a pony.

Can I borrow someone’s little girl and read this story aloud to her?
Okay…that might have sounded weird.

This whoops on the back of the book had me confused for a while. It says Phantom has a male baby, when all through the book, Misty is a female.

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Day 242: Reading Christmas

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We started reading our Christmas book before we went on our road trip but it is difficult to take pictures of people reading and make it look exciting.

Kit and I read Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich as part of our December Adventivities.

The book was decent and amusing. Our favorite characters were the black best friend because of her shopping on Christmas Eve insanity and the horn-dog grandma who looks for potential boyfriends at funerals.

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