Forward to February

My weekend started a little earlier than anticipated. There was a storm forecasted for Friday but it didn't start in time for work to be cancelled, instead 20 minutes after I arrived at work we got an e-mail saying we were closing at five. The roads were far from ideal so it was close to six by the time I got home. I had grand plans to spend the evening catching up with TV and doing some crafting. Unfortunately we lost our power at 9 p.m. Friday night and didn't get it back until Sunday afternoon. Thankfully we have a generator so we had some power, enough to run the heat, water and a few electrical outlets for most of the day. 

I spent most the weekend reading, colouring and eating storm chips. I briefly went outside Saturday to take some photos but the adventure was short lived. We had about 35 cm of snow fall on top of the snow we already had from earlier this month. It was impossible for me to take more than a few steps in the snow without sinking up to my waist. It was also very cold out and I was much happier indoors with a blanket and a book. Except that half way through the book it stopped being interesting. Now I'm halfway through though so I feel obligated to finish. Maybe it will take another turn and I'll be interested again before it ends. 

Sunday afternoon when the power did come back on I took a nice long shower and set to crossing a few things off of my to do list. None of those things were particularly strenuous...I had some things to put in my online shopping cart and leave there until I decide if I want to invest. (Is anyone reading Savor by Shauna Niequist? I'm looking for a daily devotional type book that I has daily readings and ideally I can use year after year. Suggestions welcome!) I also got all of my January Project Life photos organized and ready to print. Ideally I'll get them printed this coming weekend and then craft to my heart's content! 

The snow was the wet and heavy type, perfect for snowman making...not that I made any snowmen but I thought about it a few times. I think this weekend J. and I will try to have some sort of outdoor winter adventure, unless the temperature rises and come next week all the ice is melted and the world is covered in slush. 

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for February. I think Groundhog Day is the best 'holiday' in all the land, my mom's birthday happens in February and regardless of the commercialization aspect I happen to love Valentine's Day. Plus, it's Leap Year! And I really love Leap Years. If you haven't seen the 30 Rock episode with Leap Year William you need to make that a priority this month. And of course the Leap Year movie with Amy Adams. And it just so happens I published my first blog post in these parts in February of 2013. All things considered I think February is going to be a good month.

Sharing my weekend here. 

January Currently

Reading... I just finished The Princess Diaries : Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot. I love Princess Mia. Amelia is one of my favourite names because of that character. I loved 'catching up' with Mia through this book, it was a light read but I enjoyed it all the same. 

Playing... I downloaded a game called '1010' and it was a great find. It's similar to Tetris (which I love) but has a little twist to it. 

Watching... The Curse of Oak Island! It's the one show that I make sure I'm up to date with each week. I've also been following Top Chef. 

Trying... To eat more veggies and drink more water. 

Cooking... Chicken, rice, veggies, pasta. Nothing too fancy this month. I do have ingredients to make Thai Chicken soup over the weekend, so hopefully that goes well. 

Eating... I've perfected the baked potato so I've been eating those pretty frequently.  

Drinking... I've always been under the impression green tea is gross, it turns out while regular green tea isn't my jam, ginger green tea is delicious! So I've been drinking lots of that. Along with water and the occasional pop. 

Calling... Nobody! Which is great, I hate calling people. 

Texting... The usual crew. H., R., J. and N.. Sometimes the ladies I carpool with to work. 

Pinning... I didn't too much pinning this month. Now that I'm officially decided about camp (more on that later) I'm sure I will be pinning camp things soon. 

Tweeting... Nothing too exciting. 

Going... back to camp! 

Loving... R. gave me a Five Year Journal for Christmas and it's so great. I haven't missed a day yet which makes me very happy. And also carpooling to work because it eliminates the parking game (for the most part). 

Hating... Winter. 

Discovering... Turns out I'm actually a Disney World fan and it is true that you can throughly enjoy the experience even if you don't do rides. 

Thinking... I'm starting to feel more organized and on task, which is a great day in my books. 

Feeling... content, inspired and optimistic. 

Hoping (for)... time this weekend to work on blog posts, make valentine's for the Sparks and a quick and painless Guider meeting on Sunday. 

Listening (to)... I'm years behind the bandwagon, but I listened to the first season of Serial!

Celebrating... My birthday...sort of, I worked on my birthday so it mostly involved J. brining me chicken strips for supper and a weekend Skype date with H. & R.. I save the big celebrating for my half birthday in July. 

Smelling... A B&BW candle called 'Winter Sunshine' or something along those lines, it's yellow and I'm a fan. 

Ordering... Maybe some new books. I have a gift card from Christmas that I think I'll use to invest in a few things off my reading list. 

Thankful for... all the F's, food, family, friends, faith.

Considering... a trip to visit H. either in the spring or during a break this summer depending on how long my current work contract lasts. 

Starting... to think about camp and 

Finishing... Right now I need to finish getting ready for work. 

Refresh

2016 has started off with a whirlwind of activity. On January 4th I started back at what I refer to as my "off season office contract job" because my off season office job has evening hours it meant I had to give up weekly Sparks meetings, which was sad and created a lot of chaos but paying work needs to come before volunteering. I'll help out when I can and if the contract happens to end in early April then I'll go back to weekly meetings for the last couple of months. 

After working two days I set off for vacation (it was all pre-approved before I started back to work) and landed in Florida on January 6th. It ended up being cold in Florida most days we were there so there was very minimal reading by the pool and a lot more driving around exploring. I did manage to make a pretty sizeable dent in some of the things on my 52 in 52 list, I'm planning on blogging more on that later in the month. I also went to two Disney parks and had a pretty great vacation from daily routine. I didn't bring my laptop of put a plan on my phone so I had pretty limited access to social media while I was gone and didn't read a single blog post. 

It feels like I hit the refresh button and am now fully ready to start a new year and get back into a routine. 

That's all I've got for today. I need to reply to e-mails that I've missed over the past two weeks, get a load of laundry in the dryer, make lunch for now and supper for work. Thanks to a snowstorm we ended up getting home almost two days later than planned so today has been a little hectic. I'm not too worried about it though, everything will get done. Plus the weekend is only 5 days away.