Five on Friday: Christmas Edition

 It's the eve of Christmas eve and it's raining cats and dogs. Awfully glad this isn't snow! It's still dark outside even though it's almost 7am. When Steve took Rosie down to the bus this morning, I heard a giant thud in our side yard. Here's hoping another inconvenient tree hasn't fallen, like what happened to us a few months ago! Onward...

Five on Friday: Christmas Edition

1. Tonight we'll be watching our last Christmas movie of the season: "It's a Wonderful Life". While we don't mind taking a year or two off from other holiday movies, this is a must watch for us annually. The kids have been old enough to join us the last few years, and they like it too. I like to save it to the very end of the Christmas season because it just embodies everything that the holiday is about. Time to make sure I have enough tissues nearby to dry my eyes...

2. My Christmas playlist on Amazon currently has 72 songs and runs 3 hours and 21 minutes! I know I'm late to the party, but this was my year of discovering Pentatonix and they are delightful! My favorite of theirs is probably "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". 

3. Just as I had my rotation for fall, you can bet that my December Yankee Candles are in full swing! Just finished Red Berry & Cedar (no longer made, found it at a flea market!) and now onto the classic Balsam & Cedar.

4. Last Friday Steve and the kids had their first snow day of the year (a joint one- very unusual!), and we took the opportunity to make our favorite seasonal M&M, Hershey Kiss, Pretzel treats: Chocolate Pretzel Treats Recipe (allrecipes.com) Side note: We melt ours at 200 degrees for 4 minutes. Every oven is different! We're going to make more this weekend. Shout out to SIL Erin, who first introduced me to them over 12 years ago!

5. A simple pleasure I look forward to every evening is getting cozy on our recliner couch with the family next to the twinkling Christmas tree with a throw blanket tucked around me, and my feet up on the footrest. These blankets from Target, in twin size, have become our favorite. We have three of them for the living room, and one as a blanket on each of our beds: Full/queen Microplush Bed Blanket Gray - Threshold™ : Target They remain soft and luxurious after many washings.

This Five on Friday has been brought to you by the five senses. Hope you, too, are enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the holiday season! 

Five on Friday: It's Fall, Y'all

 Ok, there's no denying it now. It's the first morning in months that the temperature has been this low (38), and the woodstove is ticking behind me as I type this. It's Fall, Y'all!

1. With the acceptance of Fall creeping in, I've been enjoying some seasonal favorites: pumpkin spice coffee in my morning cup, and an occasional Shipyard Pumpkin Ale in the evening, in a glass with a cinnamon sugar rim. Yum! I think it was in 2020 that I tried other pumpkin beers but found this original to be the best tasting. Do you have a favorite pumpkin or fall flavored beer?

2. Since I last blogged, I have also planted our mums and put out other seasonal decorations, inside and out. I have at least some fall decor in all the main rooms downstairs. At the flea market last weekend, a lady was selling her handmade decorations, and I had to get one of her fall swags. It goes perfectly on one of the doors in our stove room. It is satisfying to purchase that one piece that looks like it was meant to be in your house, in that exact location that you placed it.

3. Steve and I have enjoyed burning Yankee Candles for as long as we've lived together. The fall and winter candles are our absolute favorites, and we have a rotation that we burn every year. We used to start off every fall with their Apple Cider candle, but wouldn't you know it, they discontinued it. So, this year we've started with Apple Pumpkin instead, and it has not disappointed! We place it in the center of our dining room table, and it fills our home with such a warm and cozy smell. Our other fall favorites include Autumn Leaves and Harvest.

4. Yet another great thing about fall? The return of favorite TV shows! Survivor is back on, and it's a weekly treat for Steve, Rosie & I. (House rule: you have to be 11 to watch... Buddy enjoys playing Minecraft during that time and will be joining us for the next season in 2023!)

5. You know that one author you like to read who never disappoints? One of those authors, for me, is Lianne Moriarty. I'm reading her latest, "Apples Never Fall", and I CANNOT PUT IT DOWN. So good! My excellent 2022 reading journey continues...

Have a great weekend!

Five on Friday: A Wedding, a Falling Tree and Other Things

Happy Friday!

1. I officiated my first wedding as a Justice of the Peace this past Saturday. It couldn't have been a more perfect first wedding... it was two minutes from my house, in a beautifully decorated backyard on a picturesque September afternoon. The Bride & Groom are wonderfully matched and I know they are going to enjoy many happy years together!

2. Tuesday morning started off like any other when, all of a sudden, around 7am, we heard the strangest sound from outside. It didn't sound like a crash; it sounded like a huge amount of snow sliding off a roof or something. Imagine our surprise when we looked out and saw that one of our huge Sugar Maple trees just keeled over, falling onto the Ash tree next to it! It really stunned us. This wasn't during a storm, or with any wind present. It just... happened... completely out of the blue. A closer inspection of the trunk found it completely hollow and rotted out. We had no idea! It hadn't looked "sick" from the outside, it had a full canopy of leaves. We called our friendly Tree Warden, who connected us with a local tree service company. They're coming today, which is amazing turnaround time. We are incredibly thankful.

3. I finished our first puzzle of the season this week! We always have a jigsaw puzzle out Labor Day through Memorial Day. Our first one this year was an "I Love Cape Cod" White Mountain puzzle that I bought (you guessed it) when we were on the Cape with family last month. It was so much fun putting it together! One of my favorite weekend traditions is to enjoy some morning puzzle time with Steve and a cup of coffee. The kids haven't shown much interest, but I always try to invite them! I can't blame them...I didn't enjoy puzzles at their age, either. Maybe it's something you have to grow into.

4. The book I'm currently reading is Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman. What a story! I love Backman's books and this one is no exception. It's causing me to go to bed later than I should because I can't put it down. Can't wait to see where it goes next.

5. We have been watching Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, and it's as funny and entertaining as everyone said it was! We're doing just one episode at a time, old school style. That's what happens when kids go to bed at 8pm, and parents go to bed at 9pm.

Have a great weekend!

Five on Friday

School is back in session, the first of my two elections is over, and I have an itch to start writing again. I thought it would be fun to use a favorite blog outline called “Five on Friday” to start with.

1. Did I mention the first of my two fall elections is over?! It went smoothly and the November election doesn’t feel as daunting. One of my favorite traditions is ensuring I have a Recovery Day the next day where I don’t leave home at all. I putter around the house, catch up on podcasts, maybe grab a quick nap, and generally decompress. I felt so refreshed by the time yesterday evening rolled around.

2. While setting up an election during this kind of weather wasn’t fun, the two rainy days we had earlier this week were a welcome surprise. We needed it badly! The crunchy brown grass of our lawn this summer was alarming. According to our rain gauge, we received just under 3.5 inches. Hoping for more soon! Is there anything cozier than a rainy fall day, curled up under a blanket on the couch, watching a favorite show or reading a great book? I can’t wait.

3. Speaking of reading, I am having a terrific reading year! I have discovered three new favorite authors since January: Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Elin Hilderbrand. I’ve caught up on TJR’s newest books and have read three KH books and two of EH. I’ve read 23 books total so far this year. I know people who have read double that, but for the season of life that I’m in, I’m pleased with my "number”.

4. Still enjoying summer vibes over here through summer decor and grilling. I used to change everything to fall decor once Labor Day hit but now I find myself holding onto summer as long as I can! It still feels like summer weather-wise. I know that once the chilliness sets in I'll be rooting around the attic for my box of autumn decor. But, until then, let summer reign! It is too short of a season.

5. This was the week that our school routine finally felt normal. Rosie is adjusting to Hampshire Regional with ease, and Buddy is enjoying the new dynamic of having two teachers. We're back to using the bus for the first time since March 2020. My favorite time of the day is when Rosie gets off her bus at 2:50pm, and we chat up a storm until Buddy's bus arrives at 3:35pm. Then the three of us talk about his day. It's super sweet. I hear things may change over the next few years, so I will enjoy this as long as I can. Also, Steve started his 18th year of teaching! Wowza. That makes me feel old...

Happy Weekend!

Day Off

Today is President's Day: a day off to spend with my family on the first weekday of school vacation. After a few days of much-needed socializing with friends and family (3 days in a row!), today was purposely set aside as a rest day, an unplanned day, one in which we would be at home and relax.

This kind of day is exactly what our family needs now and then, and what I intentionally plan for. There's that word... intention. Yes, the intention was for a relaxed day at home. But what does that usually look like for mom?

Meal planning. Vacuuming. Laundry. Emails. Catch up on All The Things that I wasn't able to get done on busy school and workdays.

Not very relaxing, right? But this is the story of most moms I know.

I realized this morning that I was heading in that direction today, too, if I wasn't careful. The kids are older (10 and 11) and don't "need" me as much in the ways they used to. Steve and his friend were outside preparing for maple sugaring. I could easily fill my day with tasks from that never-ending To Do list of mine. Or...

--- I could ask Buddy if he wanted to play a board game and see his eyes light up with surprise and happiness. We played 3 games: Scrambled States of America, Trouble and Checkers.

-- I could tell the kids: "We'll have Kraft & hot dogs for lunch" (a favorite of theirs) and have all of us watch two episodes of a show on Disney that we all enjoy: "The Secret of Sulphur Springs".

-- I could say: "WOW! It's gorgeous out. Let's take a walk out back together after lunch and check out the upper field and the stream by where you guys like to play", and walk up there, and using sticks, poke at the ice on the stream to break it and send it flying downstream. Satisfying in a way that I can't explain... and if we hadn't gone up, I never would have slipped and fell on my bottom in the mud, sending my son and I into hysterics.

---I could, when we got back from that walk, decide it was still too nice to go in, and bring a coffee and book outside to enjoy while I sit with the sun warming my face for the first time in months.

-- I could, after coming back in, bring my laptop to the couch and try to write a blog post for the second time this month, and feel the craft of writing coming back to me, rejuvenating me, remembering I never regret the act of trying to catch Now in the words I type so maybe I can read this years from now and remember this Day of Intention.

-- I will, after this, offer to paint Rosie's nails and do a few quizzes online with her, and see what else might interest her.

Intention. Connection. Not every day has the luxury of looking and feeling like this, but it can be something to aspire to. Less rushing, more slowness. A board game instead of an email response. Coffee & book outside instead of making a phone call and barely registering the coffee I'm sipping.

"Life is good today."

Haunted by last February

It’s February 1st and I feel a bit of dread. You'll see why:

Feb. 2019: my cousin Jon fell and broke his hip. It was a long recovery that I was involved in every day.

Feb. 2020: the last completely normal month before the pandemic changed everything about the way we lived.

Feb. 2021: After 11 months of being vigilant as can be, one 10 minute unmasked conversation resulted in a Covid infection for me. The “original” Covid.

The anniversary of my Covid infection is haunting me the most. I’ll never forget the phone call from the person I had that one unmasked conversation with, telling me she had Covid. I felt completely fine. It seemed impossible to go from life as normal to feeling I should isolate from the rest of the family as soon as possible. Steve bought some snacks and magazines for me on his way home, “just in case” I ended up with Covid and had to hole away in our bedroom. His school nurse advised that I isolate even though I didn’t have symptoms, because we wouldn’t regret it. 

She was right.

I went into isolation on Thursday, Feb. 11th and just an hour before leaving for my Covid test on Saturday, started coming down with chills. I remember crying as I told Steve I knew I had it. It was a feeling of dread like no other. Had I given it to Steve, the kids and Jon? How bad was this going to get? So many scary unanswered questions. I made it home from the test and Steve was standing outside with a N95 mask on, waiting for me. I climbed upstairs and collapsed into bed. I slept for hours in various stages of chills and fever. Steve still tells me how worried he was about me.

I got through the worst of it in 48 hours. But my isolation, already 5 days in, still had 7 days remaining.

I was fortunate. I never had breathing issues, or long haul Covid. I did, however, lose my smell and taste on Day 10 after being exposed! So in addition to being isolated from everyone, food and drink was tasteless. When you subtract taste and smell, all you have left is texture. It was unpleasant. It lasted over three weeks.

I lived alone in my bedroom for 12 days. While it was a common joke about how nice it must have been to have a personal retreat, it was anything but. We have one bathroom. Using it meant I was breathing my Covid germs into the same small room that the rest of the family had to use. I wore a mask and wiped down everything each time. I was so nervous of one of the four of them catching Covid from me. When just using the bathroom raises anxiety, you know this isn’t any kind of personal retreat. Quite the opposite.

Steve faithfully brought me breakfast, lunch and supper for 12 days. That’s 36 meals. He held down the entire house. The kids, the meals, the dog, the wood stoves, you name it. My mother in law grocery shopped for us and brought us everything we needed and then some. Friends dropped off pizza and cookies and all the goodies you can imagine. If you remember in those original Covid times, the entire house had to quarantine. This was an incredibly trying time for each of us, but I will never forget the kindness of family and friends who helped us get through it.

Now, as we approach February 8th, I am haunted by the way the sunlight falls on the snow in the late afternoon. You see, I kept a routine for myself on those days I felt well enough. Part of that routine was that every afternoon, I brought a chair over to the window in my room, opened the window, and took in fresh air. That was my only view of the outside world. It was lonely. Yes, I had phone calls and video chats. I binged two great TV shows. But when you can’t go beyond one room for almost two weeks? The days are very long. The hours drag. 

Our reward for being so careful? No one else in the house came down with it (and this was pre-vaccine).  The 12 hard days felt worth it, in the end. 

Now it's time to make supper… what a blessing to walk downstairs, maskless, and be a part of this family and home that mean so much to me. It's cliche, but you never realize the beautiful life you have until something like this happens.