Puzzles , New Recipes and Cold Weather

This past week has been cooooldd. the past couple of days has been a high of 30 adn a low of mid teens. And yes, I still think of weather in fahrenheit even though the rest of my family thinks in celius now. We even had a bit of snow, sleet and hail. Along with a crazy wind storm that had a bit of thunder and lightening. Other than the weather nothing has been all that exciting.

They keep saying that we are heading into stricter lockdowns and I'm not even sure what that could mean. We already do school from home and very few people are going in to offices to work. I have heard it could mean closer down public transportation entirely. I think the leaders from the 16 different states are meeting on Tuesday. I have come to a place of acceptance with the staying home, cold winter, not much light, uncertainty of the future and feel myself really living in the moment and not wanting for much. It is a good feeling. I am not a home body by nature, unlike the other 3 members of my family. I often want to go and do stuff on the weekend and Marty, Josie and Benjamin are happiest just hanging around the house. I get antsy being in the house so much and last Spring it was really hard for me and definitely before Corona it was even harder knowing there was so much to do and see and no one wanted to go. But I am enjoying my new-ish peace about living in the moment.

We hung light all the way around the winter garden and I brought out even more candles. Anything to bring light into the dark. But, I have noticed that it is staying lighter later. I have a friend who is keep track of how many more minutes of day light we get each day. It is hopeful. Apparently in the month of January we go from 7 hours 49 minutes of daylight to 9 hours and 4 minutes by the end of January. That is one hour and 15 minutes!! In ONE month.

Living room before

Josie and Benjamin are both doing remarkably well with home school. Things are so much better than the spring. The online school is better, yes, but I'm actually referring to their attitude and mine too if I'm being honest. Benjamin does 'school' from about 8 until 2pm with a 30 minutes 'recess' and a 30 minute or so lunch break. He often gets done with all of his assigned school work before noon but he then just reads until 2 which is when he can have "fun" screen time.

Living room after.  Still need a new couch, rug and chair

We are still slowly working on the Seattle puzzle. The sky is incredibly difficult and I keep asking each member of the family to sit with me and 'just help me find 3 pieces and then you can go' and so far it has been the most quality time with each of them. I mean we are all together all day but we don't get much one on one time. Tonight before bed I got them all to spend 20 minutes on the puzzle together.

 We We have been slowly getting our house set up. I know we have lived here now for 1.5 years but nearly all of our stuff has been hand me downs or cheap purchases when someone is moving away. Well, it is finally coming together but now I desperately want a new couch, rug and armchair but compared to the first photo it is much improved. I have been enjoying cooking with my new instant pot although my two favorite recipes from the week I didn't use it other than to cook rice. A veggie red curry and a spicy garbanzo bean, red pepper, egg dish. This past week has brought to (hopeful) fruition a job that I had interviewed for back in late October. The wheels move sloooowwlly here. More on that once I sign my contract.